[Mush Martin]

Surcouf was an innovative design in many ways but her full two minute
dive time along
with the fact that it took her crew a full two and a half minutes to
ready her guns after surfacing leave her lacking in many important
respects. her seaplane assembled in thirty minutes and in this at least
she rivalled other similar subs of foreign powers. her original specs called
for surcouf to carry a motor boat as well but this I believe was never
put on board.

Now her eight 21.7" torpedo tubes as well as her four 15.7 tubes
represent a viable armament but it leans heavily towards military
targets in that balance, where as her mission within the doctrine
she was designed for was as a commerce raider vs. attack sub.
so her torpedo emphasis is actually reversed in relation to her
mission, finally the eight inch guns although powerful, were fairly
slow firing as well a combination of cramped space and awkward mount
as well as a difficult and unreliable ammo lift system.

Inspite of her size and bulk Surcouf handled well enough underwater
and her range 10,000 nm @ 10kts was commendable and competetive
she may have been suited well enough to work against japanese commercial traffic, however her free french crew collided with merchant ship while
she was enroute to the Panama Canal and Surcouf was lost

this is just another aspect of the way things went for the french navy
in one of the saddest chapters of the war the competetive and innovative
designs did little to help them, the French Navy in WWII fought engagements against Germany, Japan, Italy, Thailand, Britain and the US.
as well as against themselves Vichy vs Free French in this last at least
the did half well, but otherwise they came off rather badly by and large Surcouf just seems like another nail in the coffin, she
was in many ways innovative but it seems likely that in sustained conflict
if the role of her type in other navies is any measure she would have
ended up most likely as a transport and in that roll would likely have
lost her main armamaent and the aircraft although its most likely
that she would have kept the hanger and hoists etc.

dont take this the wrong way the French Navy has and had a lot to
commend it but this was a very tragic time for them, and almost
consistently so throughout the war, the free french enjoyed some
successes but they are overshadowed by heavy losses to Friend and
Foe alike, and the lasting image one carries into the future of the french
in WWII is the image of the bulk of the surviving french ships scuttled
and lying on the bottom with their masts sticking up like crosses
marking the graves at toulon.

MM