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fighting ships of the world

FRENCH NAVY (FRANCE)

SUBMARINES

SAPHIR submarines (1930-1937)

Rubis 1940

Name No Yard No Builder Laid down Launched Comp Fate
Saphir Q145   Arsenal de Toulon 11.1925 20.12.1928 9.1930 captured by Germany 8.12.1942, to Italy (FR112)
Turquoise Q146   Arsenal de Toulon 1926 16.5.1929 9.1930 captured by Germany 8.12.1942, to Italy (FR116)
Nautilus Q152   Arsenal de Toulon 9.1926 21.3.1930 7.1937 captured by Germany 8.12.1942, to Italy
Rubis Q158, 1950- S07   Arsenal de Toulon 1.1928 30.9.1931 4.1933 FNFL 7.1940, stricken 4.1949
Diamant Q173   Arsenal de Toulon 12.1929 18.5.1933 6.1934 scuttled 27.11.1942
Perle Q184   Arsenal de Toulon 1.1931 30.7.1935 3.1937 FNFL 7.1940, sunk 8.7.1944

 

Displacement standard, t

 

Displacement normal, t

761 / 925

Length, m

64.9 pp 65.9 oa

Breadth, m

7.20

Draught, m

4.30

No of shafts

2

Machinery

2 Normand-Vickers diesels / 2 electric motors

Power, h. p.

1300 / 1000

Max speed, kts

12 / 9

Fuel, t

diesel oil 75

Endurance, nm(kts) 7000(7.5) / 80(4)

Armament

1 x 1 - 75/35 M1928, 1 x 2 - 13.2/76, 3 - 550 TT (2 bow, 1 x 1 (in triple two-caliber mounting), 5), 2 - 400 TT (1 x 2 in triple two-caliber mounting, 2), 32 mines

Complement 42
Diving depth operational, m 80

Project history: Project "Q6". 1925 (2 submarines) and 1926-1929 (4 subs) programmes. Perhaps, the most successful submarines of French Navy. Double-hulled, mines were stored in vertical tubes out of a pressure hull.

Modernizations: m. b. 1943 - 1944, Rubis, Perle: - 1 x 2 - 13.2/76; + 1 x 1 - 20/70 Oerlikon Mk II/IV

Naval service: Rubis in July, 1940 has come over to the side of de Gaulle. Diamant was scuttled at Toulon 27.11.1942. She was raised by Germans and sunk again in 1944 by American air bombs. Perle was erroneously sunk by American aircraft in Atlantic 8.7.1944. Remaining submarines have been disarmed at Bizerte, where 8.12.1942 they were captured by Germans. Later they were transferred to Italians, and then again captured by Germans. Saphir was renamed FR112 and disarmed at Genoa, 15.9.1943 she was blown up by Germans at Naples. Two more submarines did not departure Bizerte. Turquoise, renamed FR116, was scuttled there 6.5.1943, and Nautilus was sunk by Allied aircraft 31.1.1943.

Turquoise

Many thanks to Wolfgang Stöhr for additional information on this page.

© Ivan Gogin, 2008-14