Surcouf (underwater)

The Surcouf is a Croiseur Sous-marin French having been useful during the Second world war. It is run by accident in the night from February 18th to 19th 1942.

Design

The Traité of Washington of 1922 created strict ceilings for world naval military constructions. But no agreement was found on the Sous-marin S. to ensure its safety, France undertook the construction of a vast underwater fleet. The Surcouf was to be the first of a series of three underwater cruisers but it was only the single specimen.

Its role is to ensure the contact with the colonies, to seek and destroy the enemy fleets in collaboration with the squadrons of surface and to be able to carry out a war of race against the enemy convoys. For its recognitions, the Surcouf transported a Hydravion arranged in a hangar located at the back of the kiosk. It was equipped with 12 tubes launches Torpille S and of 2 twin guns of 203 mm, most French canon ever installed on a submarine. These guns could fire 600 shells with more than 27500 m from distance.

It also transported a motorboat of 5 meters to hail the ships and had a compartment which can place 40 prisoners.

The Surcouf encountered many problems of developments. Problems of stability have constrained it with a recasting with Brest in 1937.

The Second world war

When the German troops invaded the France in May 1940, the Surcouf was in Brest after a cruising in the the Antilles and the Golfe of Guinea. To avoid the capture, the submarine installs and gains Plymouth. July 3rd, 1940, the French buildings located in Great Britain are seized by the British, at the time of the Opération Catapult. The catch of the Surcouf was led to the died prices of four, a French, the mechanical engineer Yves Daniel, and three British, the commander of the submarine Thames , the officer of carrying information about seizure and a sergeant.

The Surcouf was then largest Sous-marin of the world. Its guns of 203 mm could draw each one three shells of 120 kg at the minute, at a distance of 27 km.

It finally served in the free French Naval forces during the Second world war. December 24th, 1941, a free French fleet made up of the corvette S Mimosa , Alysse , Aconite and submarine Surcouf and ordered by the admiral Muselier rejoined Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon with the free France.

The Surcouf accidentally was éperonné and run by an American cargo liner, US Thomson Lykes, in Caribbean Sea in the night from February 18th to 19th 1942. This accident made 126 victims. A monument commemorates its memory on the thrown of Cherbourg.

In the literature

In the novel of Harutoshi Fukui Shusen No Lorelei , the Surcouf is recovered by the German , improved to be used as support with the secret weapon “Lorelei” then given to the Japan board.

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