Aurore-class submarine

Aurore-class submarine
Model of the Africaine
Class overview
Name:	Aurore
Builders:	Le Havre, Nantes, Toulon, Chalon-sur-Saône, Rouen
Operators:	French Navy Kriegsmarine
In service:	1946 - 1962
Planned:	8
Completed:	15
General characteristics
Displacement:	900 tonnes surfaced 1170 tonnes submerged
Length:	73.5 metres
Beam:	6.5 metres
Draught:	4.2 metres
Propulsion:	Diesel: 3000 shp (2237 KW) 1400 shp (1044 KW) electrical
Speed:	15 knots (28 km/h) surfaced 9 knots (17 km/h) submerged
Range:	5600 nm a 10 knots 2250 nmi at 15 knots 80 nm submerged at 5 knots (9.3 km/h)
Test depth:	100 metres
Armament:	1 x 100 mm deck gun 2 x 13.2 mm machine guns 9 x 550mm torpedo tubes (4 bow internal, 3 external amidships, and 2 stern external)

The Aurore class was a class of coastal submarines designed for the French Navy. Some of the ships were captured by Nazi Germany after the Fall of France, most of them in an unfinished state. Five of the ships, Andromède, Astrée, Africaine, Artémis and Créole, were completed after the war, were commissioned in the French Navy and served into the 1960s. Andromède, Artémis and Créole were fitted with GUPPY sails and Submarine snorkels.

Ships

• Aurore (Q192)

Builder: Toulon

Ordered:

Launched: 1939

Fate: Scuttled during the Scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon in 1942

• Créole (Q193)

Builder: Le Havre

Ordered:

Launched: 8 June 1940

Fate: Broken up in 1961

• Bayadère (Q194)

Builder: Le Havre

Ordered:

Launched:

Fate: Broken up in 1940 still on keel, never finished

• Favorite (Q195)

Builder: Rouen

Ordered:

Launched: September 1938

Fate: taken by the Germans, scuttled in July 1944

• Africaine (Q196)

Builder: Rouen

Ordered:

Launched:

Fate: Broken up in 1963

• Astrée (Q200)

Builder: Nantes

Ordered:

Launched:

Fate: Broken up in 1965

• Andromède (Q201)

Builder: Nantes

Ordered:

Launched:

Fate: Broken up in 1965

• Antigone (Q202)

Builder: Chalon-sur-Saône

Ordered:

Launched:

Fate: Broken up in 1940 still on keel, never finished

• Andromaque (Q203)

Builder: Rouen

Ordered:

Launched:

Fate: Broken up in 1940 still on keel, never finished

• Artémis (Q206)

Builder: Le Havre

Ordered:

Launched:

Fate: Broken up in 1967

• Armide (Q207)

Builder: Rouen

Ordered:

Launched:

Fate: Broken up in 1940 still on keel, never finished

• Hermione (Q211)

Builder: Le Havre

Ordered:

Launched:

Fate: Broken up on keel

• Gorgone (Q212)

Builder: Le Havre

Ordered:

Launched:

Fate: Broken up on keel

• Clorinde (Q213)

Builder: Nantes

Ordered:

Launched:

Fate: Broken up in 1940 still on keel, never finished

• Cornélie (Q214)

Builder:

Ordered:

Launched:

Fate: Keel never laid

See also

• French submarines of World War II

References

• Conway : Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships 1922-1946 (1980) ISBN 0-85177-146-7

External links

• (French) Les sous marins de type "AURORE"