Le Glorieux (Glorious) 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 November 1942. She then returned to the Allied side, operating as part of the Free French Naval Forces. Along with , , , and , she was one of only five out of the 31 Redoutable-class submarines to survive the war. She remained in French Navy service after World War II, and was decommissioned in 1952.
Characteristics
Le Glorieux 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 .
Le Glorieux, , and were the only Redoutable-class submarines equipped with a radio direction finder.Huan, p. 44.u-boote.fr Le Glorieux (in French) Accessed 23 August 2022
Construction and commissioning
Laid down at Arsenal de Cherbourg in Cherbourg, France, on 10 February 1930Allied Warships: FR Le Glorieux, uboat.net Accessed 18 August 2022 with the hull number Q168, Le Glorieux was launched on 29 November 1932. She was commissioned on 1 June 1934.
Service history 1934–1939
As on all French submarines, Le Glorieux′s folding radio masts was removed in 1937 and replaced with a hoisting periscopic antenna. World War II French Navy At the start of World War II on 1 September 1939, Le Glorieux was assigned to the 1st Submarine Division in the 2nd Submarine Squadron of the 1st Flotilla of the 3rd Squadron, based at Toulon, France. Her sister ships , , and made up the rest of the division.Huan, p. 49. Between 12 October and 3 November 1939, she patrolled with her sister ship along the coast of Madeira, where part of the German merchant fleet — which the Allies suspected of serving as supply ships for German U-boats – had taken refuge when the war broke out.Picard, p. 35. She conducted two patrols, and the only significant incident occurred when the British cargo ship Egba refused to stop for inspection even after Le Glorieux fired warning shots.
On 7 February 1940, the 1st Submarine Division was assigned to the base at Dakar in Senegal. On 17 February 1940 (or in March 1940, according to one source) Le Glorieux and Le Tonnant received orders to escort the British cargo ship , which had suffered machinery damage, to Freetown in Sierra Leone, but the two submarines did not find the ship due to bad information, and they returned to Dakar.Huan, p. 64. On 29 February 1940, Le Glorieux got underway from Freetown with Le Tonnant and the British Royal Navy destroyers and for antisubmarine warfare exercises, which took place northwest of Freetown on 1 March 1940.
On 11 April 1940, Le Glorieux, Le Conquérant, and Le Tonnant took part in exercises off Dakar with the Royal Navy destroyer . In April 1940, the 1st Submarine Division was transferred to Bizerte in Tunisia, but Le Glorieux and Le Héros remained at Dakar.
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. 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. Le Glorieux and Le Héros were at Dakar that day.
Vichy France After France's surrender, Le Glorieux served in the naval forces of Vichy France. After 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 in Oran on the coast of Algeria on 3 July 1940 — Le Glorieux and Le Héros got underway from Dakar at 04:30 on 4 July 1940 in company with a Latécoère 302 flying boat to retaliate by attacking the British heavy cruiser , which was patrolling south of Dakar. The flying boat found Dorsetshire and guided the submarines to her,Sous-Marins Français Disparus & Accidents: Sous-Marin Le Héros (in French) Accessed 1 September 2022 but the submarines could get no closer to her than . They received orders at 16:00 to return to Dakar. During their return voyage, a seaplane from Dorsetshre attacked them, narrowly missing Le Glorieux with two bombs.
On 7 July 1940, a British naval force arrived off Dakar and, as a part of Operation Catapult, transmitted an ultimatum at 18:00. The French did not reply, and ordered Le Glorieux and Le Héros to put to sea. Many members of their crews initially refused to fight the British, but the commanding officer of Le Héros convinced them to participate in the sortie. The two submarines got underway to conduct the attack, but sources differ on the details of what followed. According to one account, they left Dakar together and anchored southeast of the island of Gorée at 21:30 on 7 July, then set off to attack the British squadron on 8 July 1940, a French sloop-of-war mistakenly opening fire on them as they departed, and submerged off Dakar at 11:20.u-boote.fr LE HÉROS (in French) Accessed 1 September 2022 In another version of the events, Le Héros was still moored in Dakar on 8 July and got underway at dawn that day, while Le Glorieux departed a few hours later; mistaken for a British submarine attempting to infiltrate the harbor, Le Glorieux suffered some light damage when she came under heavy gunfire from three French ships and was bombed by a French seaplane. In any event, both submarines remained submerged off Dakar all day and attempted to attack the British ships off Dakar but could not get close enough, and the British departed the area and headed for Freetown after Fleet Air Arm Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier attacked and seriously damaged the French battleship at Dakar on 8 July.Huan, p. 89. Both submarines returned to Dakar during the night of 8–9 July 1940, and Le Glorieux entered drydock at Dakar on 9 July for repairs.
By 8 August 1940, Le Glorieux and Le Héros were at Casablanca in French Morocco, and they later proceeded to Toulon, where they were placed under guard and maintained in a disarmed and unfueled status under the terms of the 1940 armistice. On 1 June 1941 they began training for a deployment to Dakar and from there to Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.Huan, p. 117. During training, Le Glorieux collided with the accommodation hulk on 10 September 1941, suffering damage to her stern which required ten days of repair work and delayed her departure.Huan, p. 117. Le Glorieux and Le Héros departed Toulon on 28 September 1941 and, after stops at Oran from 1 to 3 October and Casablanca from 5 to 7 October, arrived on 12 October 1941 at Dakar, where they both entered drydock from 15 to 19 October 1941 for hull cleaning.
In October 1941, the British boarded and captured a convoy of four Vichy French cargo ships en route to Dakar. To retaliate, the French ordered Le Glorieux and Le Héros to attack British trade routes along the coast of South Africa. The two submarines got underway from Dakar in company with a convoy on 27 October 1941 to continue their journey to Madagascar. They were off Cape Town, South Africa, on 14 November 1941. On either 15 or 16 November 1941, according to different sources, one of the submarines attacked the 4,000-gross register ton cargo ship Capo Olmo, some sources claiming that Le Glorieux fired two torpedoes at her south of the Cape of Good Hope off Port Elizabeth, South Africa, at and that both missed,Huan, p. 119. others that Le Héros made the attack during a storm on 16 November 1940 and claimed to have sunk Cap Olmo. On 17 November, Le Glorieux was off Durban, South Africa. Le Glorieux and Le Héros rendezvoused off Fort-Dauphin on the southern coast of Madagascar on 23 November 1941 and proceeded to Diego-Suarez, Madagascar, which they reached in poor condition on 27 November 1941 after a journey of .
At the end of December 1941, Le Glorieux escorted an aviso on a supply mission from Madagascar to Djibouti in French Somaliland, which the Allies were blockading. She and her sister ship sortied from Djibouti on 31 December 1941 and on 6, 13, and 16 January 1942 to protect barge convoys making the passage between Djibouti and Obock, French Somaliland.Huan, p. 128. From 16 to 20 January 1942, Vengeur, Le Glorieux, and the aviso conducted a patrol in the Gulf of Aden, after which Vengeur and D'Iberville parted company with Le Glorieux and Le Glorieux remained on patrol alone until 23 December 1941, when she returned to Djibouti for a stay that lasted until 19 February 1942.
Le Glorieux departed Djibouti on 19 February 1942 in company with the auxiliary cruiser bound for Diego-Suarez, which they reached without incident. Le Glorieux remained at Diego-Suarez until 14 April 1942, when she got underway to proceed to Hell-Ville on the island of Nosy Be off the northwest coast of Madagascar, which she reached on 15 April. She remained anchored at Hell-Ville on alert duty until 26 April 1942, except for a short training excursion at sea on 23 April 1942.Huan, p. 129. On 26 April 1942 she proceeded to Majunga, a port on the west coast of Madagascar southwest of Diego-Suarez, where she arrived on 27 April to use her diesel engines to generate electricity for a cement plant so it could resume operations after suffering mechanical damage.
Fearing a Japanese attack on Madagascar, which would compromise India's security and supplies, the British invaded Madagascar, beginning with amphibious landings near Diego-Suarez at dawn on 5 May 1942.Huan, pp. 130–131. Le Glorieux immediately embarked crew members who were ashore and got underway from Majunga at 10:35 for a patrol area off Courrier Bay on the northwest coast of Madagascar near Cap d'Ambre, Madagascar's northern tip. At 10:00 on 6 May 1942, she closed to within of the British aircraft carrier , but was unable to reach an attack position. A British destroyer passed Le Glorieux at 15:38 but did not attempt a depth-charge attack. On 7 May 1942, with the British having seized Diego-Suarez, Le Glorieux received orders to withdraw and rendezvous with D'Iberville at Androka on the southwestern coast of Madagascar.
Le Glorieux began refueling at Androka on 17 May 1942. She completing loading of diesel fuel on 21 May 1942, and departed Androka that day in company with D'Iberville to head for Dakar, which they reached on 16 June 1942. Le Glorieux then continued on to Toulon, where she arrived on either 12 July or 1 August 1942,Huan, p. 131. according to different sources. In accordance with the terms of the 1940 armistice, she was placed under guard at ToulonHuan, p. 123. and maintained in a disarmed and unfueled status. On 1 November 1942, she was part of the 1st Submarine Group along with her sister ships , , and Vengeur.