Requin class
Requin class  
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| General data | |
| Ship type : | Submarine |
| Navy : | |
| Builders : | |
| Units: | 9 |
| Boats of the class | |
| Caïman , Dauphin , Espadon , Marsouin , Morse , Narval , Phoque , Requin , Souffleur | |
| Technical specifications | |
| Crew: | 54 men |
| Displacement : |
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| Length : | 78.2 m |
| Width: | 6.8 m |
| Draft : | 5.1 m |
| Drive : | |
| Speed : | |
| Fuel supply: | 115 t |
| Driving range: |
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| Diving depth : | 80 m |
| Armament | |
| Artillery : | 1 × 100 mm L / 35 deck gun |
| Air defense : | 2 × 8 mm MG (2 × 1) |
| Torpedoes : |
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The Requin class (requin = French for shark) was a class of ocean-going submarines of the French Navy . In the French type classification of the time, it was Class 1 boats . As a result of a modernization program by the French Navy after the First World War , nine Requin-class boats were built between 1923 and 1928 in three shipyards .
During the Second World War , the boats were used by both the Vichy-French and the Free French Navy. Five submarines of the class fell into Italian hands during the war .
Constructive features
The hull was designed as a two-hull boat and designed for diving depths of up to 80 m. The drive was a common conventional submarines combination of two diesel engines for surface running and two accumulator -betriebenen electric motors for the diving trip. The diesel engines came from Sulzer or Schneider . The boats were considered clumsy and slow.
The armament consisted of a 100 mm deck gun , two 8 mm machine guns for air defense and ten torpedo tubes in caliber 550 mm. The boats had four torpedo tubes in the bow and two in the stern. There were also four pivotable pipes arranged outside the pressure hull. The concept of externally arranged, pivotable but not reloadable tubes at sea, was common in French submarines of that time. This construction was considered to be complicated and prone to failure. In addition, the unfolded tubes impaired control and trim and led to slowing down and noise due to the increased flow resistance. Due to the unreliability of the control technology of French torpedoes at that time, however, swiveling tubes could not be dispensed with.
The boats were modernized between 1935 and 1937. Mainly parts of the fuselage and the propulsion system were rebuilt.
Mission history
In the period between the start of the Second World War on September 1, 1939 and the Franco-German armistice on June 22, 1940, the submarines were mainly used in the Mediterranean and patrolled the French and North African coasts. During this time the Morse was lost when the boat drove into a French mine lock off Sfax and ran into a sea mine .
After the French defeat against Germany, the Narval went to Malta and joined the Free French Navy, but was lost that same year. The other seven boats remained in the service of the Vichy regime.
In June 1941, the British, together with French forces, occupied Syria and Lebanon , which until then had been under the control of Vichy France. During the fighting, the prompter was sunk by a British submarine.
After the Allied landing in North Africa in November 1942 and the subsequent German invasion of southern France, the Massouin was able to move to North Africa and joined the Allied forces. The boat was decommissioned in 1944 and was probably the only boat in the class that was not sunk in the war.
The Caïman was sunk together with the remnants of the French fleet in Toulon in order to remove the boat from the axis of access. The wreck was lifted by the Italians in 1943 but not reactivated.
The remaining four boats were captured by the Italians in Bizerta . The Italian Navy only used the Phoque under the name FR. 111 a. It was sunk by Allied aircraft in February 1943. The other captured submarines were no longer used.
When Italy surrendered in July 1943 as a result of the Allied landing in southern Italy and switched sides, two boats were captured by the Germans. One, the Dauphin , was destroyed by the Germans. The fate of the second boat, the Requin , is unclear. It was probably sunk too. The two remaining Italian booty submarines were sunk by the Italians themselves.
Boats of the class
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Caïman
- Builder : Arsenal de Cherbourg
- Keel laying : August 11, 1924
- Launched : March 3, 1927
- Commissioning: February 7, 1928
- Where to go: Caïman was scuttled in Toulon on November 27, 1942 and lifted by the Italians in February 1943. The boat was sunk on March 11, 1944 by an Allied aircraft.
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dauphin
- Builder: Arsenal de Toulon
- Keel laying: December 11, 1922
- Launched: April 2nd, 1925
- Commissioning: November 22, 1927
- Where: Dauphin was deactivated in Bizerta on February 28, 1941 , conquered by the Italians on December 8, 1942 and in FR. 115 renamed. The boat was captured by the Germans on September 9, 1943 and sunk on September 15, 1943.
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Espadon
- Builder: Arsenal de Toulon
- Keel laying: October 1, 1923
- Launched: May 28, 1926
- Commissioning: December 16, 1927
- Where to go: Espadon was deactivated in Bizerta in April 1941, conquered by the Italians on December 8, 1942 and in FR. 114 renamed. The boat was sunk by the Italians on September 13, 1943. The Germans later lifted the wreck but did not repair it.
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Marsouin
- Builder: Arsenal de Brest
- Keel laying: November 4, 1922
- Launched: December 27, 1924
- Commissioning: September 7, 1927
- Where to go: Marsouin escaped from Toulon after the German invasion of southern France on November 27, 1942 and joined the Allies. The boat was deactivated in Oran in April 1944 and finally canceled on February 28, 1946.
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Morse
- Builder: Arsenal de Cherbourg
- Keel laid: February 12, 1923
- Launched: May 9, 1925
- Commissioning: February 10, 1928
- Where to ?: On June 16, 1940, Morse ran into a French sea mine near the Kerkenna Islands and sank.
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Narval
- Builder: Arsenal de Cherbourg
- Keel laid: March 19, 1923
- Launched: May 9, 1925
- Commissioning: July 23, 1926
- Where to go: Narval joined the Free French Navy after the Franco-German armistice and operated from Malta. The boat ran into a sea mine on December 15, 1940 off the Tunisian coast.
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Phoque
- Builder: Arsenal de Brest
- Keel laying: May 21, 1924
- Launched: March 16, 1926
- Commissioning: May 7, 1928
- Where to go : Phoque was deactivated in Bizerta in April 1941, conquered by the Italians on December 8, 1942 and in FR. 111 renamed. Phoque was the only Italian Requin-class loot submarine actively used by the Italian Navy. The boat was sunk by Allied aircraft near Sicily on February 28, 1943 .
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Requin
- Builder: Arsenal de Cherbourg
- Keel laying: June 14, 1922
- Launched: July 19, 1924
- Commissioning: May 28, 1926
- Where to go: Requin was captured by the Italians on December 8, 1942 in Bizerta and in FR. 113 renamed. The boat was taken over by the Germans on September 9, 1943. The further whereabouts are unclear.
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prompter
- Builder: Arsenal de Cherbourg
- Keel laying: October 2, 1922
- Launched: October 1st, 1924
- Commissioning: August 10, 1926
- Where to go: The prompter was sunk on June 25, 1941 at position 33 ° 49 ′ N , 35 ° 26 ′ E off Beirut by the British submarine HMS Parthian (N 75) .
See also
literature
- Erminio Bagnasco: Submarines in World War II . 5th edition. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-613-01252-9
Web links
- Requin class in uboat.net ( engl. )
Remarks
- ↑ The French Navy distinguished 3 classes of submarines: 1st class boats were ocean-going boats. 2nd class boats were smaller coastal boats. 3rd class boats were mine layers .
- ↑ The whereabouts of the Requin , which was also not sunk before it was captured by the Germans, is unknown. Like the Dauphin, which was also captured by the Germans, it may have been destroyed in September 1943.