The German invasion of France in May of 1940 was part of Adolph Hitler's grand scheme to decimate Western powers en route to total dominion of Europe. This brought a second World War to French soil while Surcouf lay at Brest undergoing refit when the German invasion was made official. She was in a precarious state as one of her engines was inoperable, severely depleting the tactical value of the mighty French submarine. To avoid her capture at the hands of the Germans, the French sailed her to neighboring Britain where she entered Plymouth harbor.
At this point in the war, French defeat seemed certain and the British position was stressed to the point that it need to take action on the remaining French fleet which could be use by the conquering Germans and sympathetic French officers and sailors. The Royal Navy enacted "Operation Catapult" in a plan to subdue the French fleet where it lay and this included a takeover of Surcouf while at Plymouth. The forceful action resulted in the deaths of both Frenchmen and British service personnel for many French did not care to surrender to their historical enemy. Such was the case aboard the Surcouf on July 3rd, 1940 when three British and one French sailor were killed in the fighting.
Regardless, the French fleet was neutralized from further action in the war. The Surcouf remained under British watch for the time being and her refit completed in August of 1940. Command of the vessel was then passed on to the new Free French Navy which stood as the acting navy power of France while Paris lay under German occupation (the German-aligned Vichy French represented the new French government). One of the vessel's first sorties stemmed from Halifax where she was used to escort Allied shipping across the precarious Atlantic under siege from German aircraft and U-boat attacks. Suffering damage from a German aircraft herself, Surcouf was forced to the United States Naval Shipyard at Portsmouth in July of 1941 for repair and refit. She then sailed to New London, Connecticut and made her way back to Halifax in November of 1941.
In December of 1941, Surcouf joined other Free French naval forces in retaking the French archipelago of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon off the coast of Newfoundland. The acting Free French government then sent orders for the Surcouf to set sail for the Pacific Ocean. On December 7th, 1941, naval forces of the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and officially committed the United States to war. The US and Britain would then head a years-long bloody campaign to retake Japanese Pacific possessions.
Making her way to the Pacific, the Surcouf was required to traverse the famous Panama Canal. She resupplied at Bermuda and then headed to her target of Tahiti (French Polynesia) via the Canal. However, it is believed that at some point in her journey across the Gulf of Mexico, the surfaced vessel was struck - essentially run over - by the passing American freighter "Thompson Lykes" on the night of February 18th, 1942. The damage was apparently enough to sink Surcouf which claimed all hands to the sea below. The freighter unknowingly continued on while Surcouf sank where she sat. Other sources claim "friendly fire" took her to the depths. In either case, the mighty French submarine was lost forever, her wreck still awaiting discovery even today (October 2013).
In memory of her crew, a memorial was erected at the port city of Cherbourg, France where the Surcouf made her home. The Surcouf was never a wholly a successful design though one of the more successful of the cruiser types put to sea by any nation leading up to World War 2.
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