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Surcouf was the largest Submarine in the world. She had a revolving turret with 8 inch guns. She carried an airplane.
http://groups.msn.com/Surcouf/_whatsnew.msnw
Propelled by two Sulzer diesel engines and two electric motors, capable of a range of 10,000 nautical miles and a speed of 10 knots submerged, this was a powerful weapon of war. It carried its own observation plane with its hangar aft of the conning tower and a 16-foot motorboat. Surcouf was armed not only with torpedoes but with a powerful turret gun plus anti-aircraft guns and machine guns. Fuel tanks were huge and there was a cargo compartment capable of holding 40 prisoners if the need arose.
When the Germans invaded France Surcouf was refitting in Brest, but managed to escape across the English Channel, traveling with only one functioning motor. Following the capitulation of France most French naval vessels surrendered willingly to the British, but Surcouf did not. In capturing the submarine two British officers and one French sailor were killed and bad feeling arose.
The vessel eventually crossed the Atlantic Ocean in December 1941 and in company with Free French corvettes captured the French islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon off Newfoundland for the Allied cause. This triggered more controversy since United States had made an agreement with the Vichy government for the neutrality of French possessions in North America.
At Cherbourg, France, a Surcouf memorial stands on the ferry dock, a stone periscope pointing toward the English Channel, dedicated to 130 crewmen lost when Surcouf supposedly was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico November 18, 1942.
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A couple of supposed mechamisms of loss of the sub
Leaving Bermuda on February 12, 1942, en route to the Panama Canal, Surcouf was never seen again. Despite suggestions that she was deliberately sunk by the British or Americans, it is more likely that she was sunk after colliding with the American army transport Thompson Lykes in 10°40N, 79°31W on the night of February 18, or that she was mistakenly sunk by units of the U.S. Army Air Corps flying out of Rio Hato, Panama, on the morning of the 19th.
http://college.hmco.com/history/read...00_surcouf.htm