French submarine Perle (1935)
 Sister ship Diamant, date unknown
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| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Perle |
| Namesake | Pearl |
| Builder | |
| Laid down | 1931 |
| Launched | 30 July 1935 |
| Commissioned | 1 March 1937 |
| Fate | Sunk 8 July 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Saphir-class submarine |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 66 m (216 ft 6 in) |
| Beam | 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in) |
| Draught | 4.3 m (14 ft 1 in) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed |
|
| Range |
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| Test depth | 80 m (262 ft) |
| Complement | 42 |
| Armament |
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Perle was a
Empire MacCallum
and sunk.
Design
Perle had a
shafts giving a maximum speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) while surfaced and 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) while submerged. Her bunkers of 95 long tons (97 t; 15,200 st) of diesel fuel gave her a surfaced range of 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 7.5 knots (13.9 km/h; 8.6 mph) and 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), and her batteries gave her a submerged range of 80 nautical miles (148 km; 92 mi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph). She carried a complement of 42 men[1]
and could dive to a depth of up to 80 m (262 ft).
The Saphir-class submarines were armed with torpedoes and could lay mines without surfacing. The moored contact mines they used contained 220 kg (485 lb) of TNT and could be laid in waters up to 200 metres (656 ft) deep. They were attached to the submarine's exterior under a protective hydrodynamic housing.
Service history
Newfoundland, Perle set sail for the port of Dundee in Scotland to participate in operations off Norway. On 8 July, Perle was mistaken for a U-boat by an Allied Fairey Swordfish and sunk in position 55°27′N 30°50′W / 55.450°N 30.833°W.[2] Approximately 17 of the crew of 42 survived the sinking but only one was rescued. The crew killed aboard Perle were the last casualties among French submariners in World War II.[3][4][5]
See also
Citations
- ISBN 0851771467.
- ^ "FR Perle of the French Navy – French submarine of the Saphir class – Allied Warships of WWII". uboat.net. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
- ^ "Q 184". 10 August 2014. Archived from the original on 10 August 2014.
- ISBN 9781574886634.
- ^ Rohwer, Jürgen; Gerhard Hümmelchen. "Seekrieg 1944, Juli". Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart (in German). Retrieved 5 September 2015.
Books
- Fontenoy, Paul E. (2007). Submarines: An Illustrated History of Their Impact (Weapons and Warfare). Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85109-563-6.
- Moulin, Jean (October–November 2022). "Les sous-marins mouilleurs de mine type Saphir" [The Saphir-Class Minelaying-Submarines]. Navires & Histoire (in French) (133): 88–95. ISSN 1280-4290.
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