How was the Surcouf to be used?

[sitalkes]

I read that the Surcouf was supposed to engage in surface combat, but it didn't have any armour, so was any sort of tactical plan developed for its use? I suppose it would have made an interesting flotilla leader - using its aircraft to find an enemy convoy, then attacking at long range (presumably beyond the range of the convoy escorts) to cause the convoy to scatter and be attacked by other submarines? I suppose that assumes it wasn't able to get away from France and was captured by the Germans in such a way that they were able to keep it after the armistice - or it functions as part of a Vichy navy that is hostile to the allies. Obviously it would have been sunk eventually but it is interesting to speculate how it might have been used.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi sitakes,

If memory serves me correctly, when Surcouf was lost, she was on her way to the south Pacific.

One wonders what role the Allies had for her there?

Cheers,

Sid.

[Ironmachine]

Some ideas quoted from X.1: The Royal Navy's Mystery Submarine by Roger Branfill-Cook

Surcouf was planned as the first of sister-ships, to form two divisions of three submarines each. Each división would attack surface ships -presumably convoyed merchant vessels with naval escorts- in a triangle formation, surfacing simultaneously.
[...]
However, the design of the submarine which was ultimately to emerge as Surcouf owed much to the parallel concept of a "bombardment submarine' - to be used against enemy communications and shore installations as much as against opposing vessels.

I don't think that surface combat against "big" enemy ships was really in the minds of her designers/operators.

[sitalkes]

Hi sitakes,

If memory serves me correctly, when Surcouf was lost, she was on her way to the south Pacific.

One wonders what role the Allies had for her there?

Cheers,

Sid.

It's thought she was to be used to convert French islands to the Free French cause, like it did with two small islands off Newfoundland. The ship had a large hold with space designed for captives in it - that presumably could be used also for troops wishing to land on an island. Of course it could also have been used to bombard islands that were being assaulted by the Allies.

[Ironmachine]

One wonders what role the Allies had for her there?

The Pacific would have been a far better place for commerce raiding (which after all seems to have been its main designed task) than the Atlantic:

Le Surcouf quitte Halifax le 2 février 1942, en route vers Tahiti et la Nouvelle Calédonie, via les Bermudes. La brutale entrée en guerre des États Unis et du Japon le 7 décembre 1941 a ouvert au croiseur sous-marin des espaces maritimes vierges de toute aviation. La guerre de course pour laquelle il a été conçu aller pouvoir commencer...

Quoted from http://netmarine.net/g/bat/surcouf/histoire.htm