L'Espoir was a French Navy of the M6 series commissioned in 1934. She participated in World War II, first on the side of the Allies from 1939 to June 1940, then in the navy of Vichy France until she was scuttled at Toulon in November 1942.
Characteristics
L'Espoir was part of a fairly homogeneous series of 31 deep-sea patrol submarines also called "1,500-tonners" because of their displacement. All entered service between 1931 and 1939.
The Redoutable-class submarines were long and in beam and had a draft of . They could dive to a depth of . They displaced on the surface and underwater. Propelled on the surface by two diesel engines producing a combined , they had a maximum speed of . When submerged, their two electric motors produced a combined and allowed them to reach . Also called “deep-cruising submarines”, their range on the surface was at . Underwater, they could travel at .
Construction and commissioning
Laid down at Arsenal de Cherbourg in Cherbourg, France, on 1 August 1929 with the hull number Q167,Allied Warships: FR L'Espoire (sic), uboat.net Accessed 23 July 2022 L'Espoir was launched on 18 July 1931. She was commissioned on 1 February 1934.
Service history
Pre-World War II
1934–1938 L'Espoir was underway bound for Toulon, France, on 13 July 1935 when two accidental explosions occurred on board.Sous-Marins Français Disparus & Accidents: Sous-Marin L'Espoir (in French) Accessed 5 August 2022 The explosions injured seven crewmen, three of whom later died of their injuries.
On 5 June 1937, the French Navy decided on a reorganization of forces and called for a cruise to test the endurance of French sailors and their equipment. Accordingly, L'Espoir and her sister ships , , and were designated as the submarines to conduct such a cruise, which would take them to the waters of Southeast Asia.
On 27 July 1938, L'Espoir was moored to a quay at Toulon when a fire broke out in one of her batteries. The fire killed one crewman.
Voyage to Southeast Asia On 4 November 1938, L'Espoir got underway from Toulon in company with Phénix bound for French Indochina to reinforce French forces in Southeast Asia in the face of increasing tensions with Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War.u-boote.fr PHÉNIX (in French) Accessed 3 August 2022Anonymous, "Sabotage Suspected in Loss of Phenix," Associated Press, 17 June 1939. The destroyer escorted them as far as the island of La Galite in the Galite Islands off the northern coast of Tunisia, where the took over escort duty for them until they reached Malta. From there, the destroyer escorted them to Port Said, Egypt, where they anchored on 10 November 1938.
From Port Said, the submarines proceeded through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea, then called at Djibouti from 20 to 23 November 1938. After a stop at Aden, they headed across the Indian Ocean, interrupting their voyage with a visit to Colombo, Ceylon, from 2 to 8 December 1938. On 15 December 1938, the two submarines anchored for the night off Cap Saint-Jacques on the coast of Cochinchina, the southern portion of French Indochina. They got back underway on 16 December 1938 and made their way up the Saigon River to Saigon, which they reached at 10:00 (although the handwritten personal diary of a sailor from the aviso mentions the presence of the submarines at Saigon on 28 November 1938).
Operations in Southeast Asia
On 13 February 1939, L'Espoir and Phénix began a tour of Annam on the central coast of French Indochina. They stopped at Cam Ranh from 14 to 17 February, at Nha Trang from 17 to 20 February, at either Port Dayot or Cam Ranh from 21 to 23 February, and at Tourane from 24 to 27 February 1939. They returned to Saigon on 1 March 1939.
L'Espoir and Phénix departed Saigon on 14 March 1939 and took up their alert posts at Cam Ranh from 15 to 17 March. They returned to Saigon on 18 March 1939.
The two submarines got underway from Saigon again on 1 April 1939 and headed for the Gulf of Tonkin. They arrived at Haiphong on 5 April. During their stay there, Italy invaded Albania on 7 April 1939, and they received orders to prepare for possible combat operations against Italian forces. Departing Haiphong on 12 April, they made a cruise to Hạ Long Bay with a stop at Hòn Gai. They then conducted a reconnaissance of the anchorages at Île de la Surprise, Île des Merveilles, and the islet of Appowan. After calling at Haiphong from 17 to 19 April 1939, they headed back to Saigon, which they reached on 22 April 1939. Their crews then were granted shore leave at Da Lat.
On 13 June 1939, L'Espoir and Phénix departed Saigon to make a cruise to Hong Kong, where they were due to arrive on 20 June 1939, and then Manila in the Philippines, to pay a courtesy visit to British submariners at the former and American submariners at the latter.Anonymous, "Toll of French Submarine Raised to 71 Dead; Saigon in Mourning," Associated Press, 17 June 1939, p. 1.Anonymous, "Toll of French Submarine Raised to 71 Dead; Saigon in Mourning," Associated Press, 17 June 1939, p. 5. On the day of their departure, they took part in an exercise with the aviso . At 12:00 on 14 June 1939, the submarines anchored at Cam Ranh, where they spent the night of 14–15 June 1939.
Loss of Phénix
At 08:57 on 15 June 1939, L'Espoir and Phénix got back underway to take part that morning in training maneuvers with the light cruiser and aircraftPicard, p. 26. in the South China Sea off Cam Ranh northeast of Saigon, including a mock attack on Lamotte-Picquet by the two submarines. At 09:30, they exited Cam Rahn Bay, and at 09:37 they were headed due west at . They altered course to 40 degrees at 09:50, then to 60 degrees at 10:00. Still on a course of 60 degrees, Phénix submerged for the mock attack at 10:26 when bearing 76 degrees from Cam Ranh Point, and L'Espoir submerged at 10:27 on a course of 120 degrees. L'Espoir fired her exercise torpedoes at Lamotte-Picquet and surfaced an hour after submerging.
Phénix failed to surface after the exercise, and L'Espoir began to search for her. With concern for Phénix′s safety growing as the day wore on, L'Espoir transmitted a message at 12:18 to report Phénix missing. When the news reached the French Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Forces in the Far East, Squadron Vice-Admiral Jean Decoux, at 15:00, he ordered Lamotte-Picquet to get back underway and return to the area to join the search. Lamotte-Picquet reached the scene at 16:35, and she and L'Espoir searched until 17:06, finding only a slick of diesel oil which had appeared on the surface in the area in which Phénix had disappeared. L'Espoir returned to Cam Ranh at 18:30. The French had no submarine rescue capability in East Asia, and the only British ship in the area equipped to render rescue and salvage assistance to Phénix, the Royal Navy submarine depot ship , had departed Hong Kong and was at Weihaiwei, China, at the time, loading supplies for the relief of the blockaded British concession of Tientsin, too far away to reach the scene in time to attempt to rescue Phénix′s crew. Would-be rescuers estimated that the oxygen supply aboard Phénix hed been exhausted by the night of 15–16 June and that any of the five officers and 66 enlisted men aboard the submarine who initially had survived her sinking had suffocated.
The search resumed on 16 June 1939 under Decoux′s personal command. With Decoux aboard, L'Espoir put back to sea that morning and joined Lamotte-Picquet, the aviso , and the survey ship in the search. Strong currents interfered with the search, but during the morning, a Loire 130 flying boat of Escadrille 5 took advantage of favorable lighting conditions to spot Phénix′s wreck, which lay on the seabed in of water. Salvage efforts ultimately failed, and came to an end on 5 July 1939. All five officers and 66 enlisted men aboard Phénix were lost.
World War II French Navy At the start of World War II in September 1939, L'Espoir was assigned to the 5th Submarine Division in the 1st Flotilla of the 2nd Squadron, based at Toulon. Her sister ships and made up the rest of the division.Huan, p. 49.
German ground forces advanced into France on 10 May 1940, beginning the Battle of France, and Italy declared war on France on 10 June 1940 and joined the invasion. During June 1940, L'Espoir joined the submarines of the 1st, 3rd, and 17th Submarine Divisions in patrolling in the Mediterranean Sea off Les Salins d'Hyères in defense of Toulon.Huan, p. 76. The Battle of France ended in France's defeat and armistices with Germany on 22 June 1940 and with Italy on 24 June, both of which went into effect on 25 June 1940.
Vichy France
After France's surrender, L'Espoir served in the naval forces of Vichy France. When the attack on Mers-el-Kébir — in which a British Royal Navy squadron attacked a French Navy squadron moored at the naval base at Mers El Kébir near Oran on the coast of Algeria on 3 July 1940 — took place, she was a part of Group A at Toulon along with her sister ships and Le Conquérant. The three submarines received orders that day to form a patrol line during the night of 6–7 July 1940 to protect Oran and attack British ships, the line to extend from north to south in the Mediterranean Sea for a distance of east of Alboran Island and south of Cape Palos.u-boote.fr ARCHIMEDE II (in French) Accessed 8 August 2022 The submarines got underway from Toulon at 02:45 on 4 July 1940 bound for their patrol area at , but were recalled to Toulon on 5 July 1940.
Voyage to Madagascar In September 1940, the Vichy French Admiralty, with the concurrence of the Armistice Commission, decided to reinforce French naval forces in Southeast Asia by deploying four submarines to French Indochina.u-boote.fr PÉGASE (in French) Accessed 26 August 2022 Two submarine divisions were formed for the deployment, the 8th at Toulon, consisting of L'Espoir and her sister ship , and the 22nd at Bizerte in Tunisia, consisting of the Redoutable-class submarines and .Sous-Marins Français Disparus & Accidents: Sous-Marin Monge II (in French) Accessed 29 August 2022 On 11 October 1940, L'Espoir and Vengeur departed Toulon bound for Oran in company with the tanker , which was to accompany the four submarines on their journey to French Indochina. At Oran they rendezvoused with Monge and Pégase, and Lot and the four submarines were designated the "Lot Group" for purposes of the voyage. Monge′s commanding officer, who also served as commander of the 22nd Submarine Division, took on the additional responsibility of commanding the Lot Group as a whole. After a stay at Oran that lasted from 13 to 16 October, Lot and the four submarines passed through the Strait of Gibraltar under the escort of the destroyers and in a time of high tension with the United Kingdom and arrived at Casablanca in French Morocco on 18 October 1940 for a brief stopover. They then proceeded to Dakar in Senegal.
On 23 October 1940, the submarines got underway from Dakar to patrol off the Canary Islands. They encountered very heavy weather, and Pégase suffered damage to one of her diving planes. The submarines returned to Dakar on 28 October 1940. Subsequently, the submarines took turns conducting defensive patrols off Dakar.