Gigantism Under Water ....!


On May 3, 1934, the French Navy put the world's largest submarine into service ...:



The boat (actually one has to speak of an underwater "ship"), named after the famous French corsair Robert Surcouf (1773 - 1827)...



... is 110 meters long, has a crew of 118 and is heavily armed ...:

It has four 55 cm torpedo tubes in the bow, four more amidships (which fire to the side) and another four in the stern, although these are only 40 cm in diameter.

In addition, the - armored - boat is equipped with sea target artillery and can easily take on surface warships:

Two 20.3 cm cannons are installed in a - albeit limited - pivoting turret!





Everything has been thought of! There are even cells below deck for up to 40 prisoners of war!

Aft of the tower, the "Surcouf" has a steam catapult on board - an on-board aircraft can take off from her deck ...



... which - disassembled - is carried in a watertight hangar aft of the tower ...:



If you take a closer look, the "Surcouf" is a "fast-paced woolly swine" among warships: A submersible heavy destroyer - or a light cruiser!

All of this is paid for with high weight, the U-cruiser is cumbersome, slow and extremely difficult to maneuver!

The maximum speed under water is just 8.5 knots (16 km / h) ...



When surfaced, however, the "Surcouf" can run at least 18 knots (33 km / h)!

Until the commissioning of the - even larger - five Japanese U-cruisers of the "Sen Toku" type at the end of 1944 / beginning of 1945 ...



... the "Surcouf" is the largest submarine in the world!

The Japanese even go one step further with the "Sen Toku's": They are armed as heavily as the "Surcouf" - but they also have three "Aichi M6A1 Seiran" aircraft on board in a watertight hangar!



And they have the same problems as the French submarine in terms of agility, maneuverability and speed!

The "Sen Tokus" came too late for Japan's war efforts, only two (I-400 and I-401) were still used and were supposed to open the large US base in late summer 1945 as part of Operation "Arashi" (mountain storm) attack the Ulithi Atoll.

On the way there, the commanders learned of the Japanese surrender - both boats were handed over to the Americans...:



The "Surcouf" also ended lackluster!

In the summer of 1940 the U-cruiser escaped German access by fleeing to Plymouth in England ...:



After the armistice between Germany and France on June 22, 1940, the British boarded the U-cruiser on July 3, 1940 as part of "Operation Grasp".



During the British takeover, there was a firefight between the British and the French occupation, the french lieutenant Yves Daniel was shot...:



The British later made the submarine available to the Free French Navy under General Charles de Gaulle.

Then the "Surcouf" went to Canada. After a stay in a shipyard in the British Bermuda, the U-cruiser was lost on February 18, 1942 on the march to the French colony Martinique as a result of a collision with the American freighter "Thomson Lykes" near the Panama Canal ...:






Over 150 seafarers on board (the entire crew!) Were killed in the sinking.

This is - until today! - the highest number of victims in the event of a total loss of a submarine ......

Today one thinks - also when it comes to submarines - in different size categories!

The largest submarines in the world are those of the Russian "Акула" class ("Akula" = "Shark", NATO code "Typhoon")!



They are the size of a submerged aircraft carrier, displace 24,500 tons, can theoretically dive indefinitely with their two nuclear reactors on board, are extremely fast (almost 30 knots under water, about 55 km / h) and have a crew of 160 on board.

The "Surcouf" and all five Japanese "Sen Tokus" would easily fit into such a giant submarine!

And every single "Akula" has more (atomic) destructive power on board than the fleets of France, Great Britain and Japan put together in World War II!

The Russian Navy currently has at least seven "Akulas" on duty, which are so secret that NATO only knows the names of four of these submarines ...: "Dmitrij Donskoj" (TK-208), "Simbirsk" ( TK-12), "Arkhangelsk" (TK-17) and "Severshtal" (TK-20).

The submarine "Курск" ("Kursk", K-141), which became famous in 2000 after the explosion of a new torpedo from the Tyk "Shkwal" ...



... in which the entire crew of 118 men was killed, by the way, was not an "Akula", even if it is spelled incorrectly over and over again!

"Kursk" belonged to the "Antey" class ("Antej" = "Antaeus", NATO code "Oscar") and, with a displacement of 16,400 tons, was only a little more than half the size of one of the "Akula" monsters.

A Part of the tower of the upscaled (and now scrapped) "Kursk" has been a memorial in the city of Murmansk since 2012 ...:



The second largest submarine ships that exist today also belong to the Russian Navy!

There are eight units of the "Борей" class ("Borej", after the Greek wind god Boreas), which were put into service from 2008 to 2012 ...:



"Juri Dolgoruki", "Aleksandr Newski", "Wladimir Monomach", "Knjas Wladimir", "Knjas Oleg", "Generalissiums Ssuworow", "Imperator Aleksandr III" und "Knjas Poscharski" verdrängen jeweils 24.000 tons...:

Interesting thread again Martin. My late uncle saw what must have been the Surcouf in Plymouth, as he often mentioned this enormous submarine with massive guns which was subject to a strict security cordon. He was a gun-layer in the Royal Navy, later seconded to the Merchant service as a DEMS (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships) gun layer on the BP tanker fleet.
Subs are devastating weapons but they fail all to often, as we have seen only recently in Indonesia and Brazil.

Phil