[peabody]

Keltos,

Very pretty sub, just in time for Christmas. I also don't remember what caused that color problem but I have seen it on other ships/boats so someone may remember.

Info I found:

Fleeing to Britain in June 1940, she was taken over by the Royal Navy in July (after a fight that left four men dead and two wounded). She remained under British command but operated with a Free French crew. After patrolling the Caribbean for several weeks without incident, the Surcouf was ordered to the Pacific. An American freighter reported colliding with an unidentified submarine on February 18,1942 in the Gulf of Mexico; as the Surcouf was never seen again, it is assumed it was the sub struck. However, one conspiracy theory claims that the French crew had allegiance to the Vichy government and was secretly resupplying U-boats; when the Allies discovered the treachery, they sank the Surcouf. While the collision is likely the truth (and bitterly ironic, as a submarine designed to prey on merchant ships was herself sunk by a freighter), the conspiracy theory has more
adventuring potential. In a truly illuminated campaign, the sinking may have been faked to allow the Surcouf to perform some special mission . . .

The most unusual feature of the Surcouf was the two turreted 8” guns just forward of the conning tower. While they were quite powerful (only the British M1 of 1918, with a single 12” gun, has carried a heavier deck armament for a submarine), the range-finder was set rather low, allowing the guns to reach only 12,000 yards; presumably the plane would be used to spot for the guns at longer ranges. There is some debate as to how much the turret rotated; one opinion is that the 8-inch guns only fired straight ahead in combat; the turret rotated to only one side for maintenance dockside.

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