Nine boats of the REQUIN class were launched from 1925 to 1926. "Souffleur" was built in 1924 in Cherbourg dockyard . It was 257 feet long 22 feet large and had a draught of 15 feet. (reference: Notice Historique sur les btiments ayant port le nom de SOUFFLEUR. p.4, Archives de la Marine Nationale. See characteristics.) In 1939 she stopped in Aden, Port Said, Beirut and Bizerte. On March 20th, 1940 the Lieutenant de Vaisseau Lejay remplaced the Lieutenant de Vaisseau Bazoche as commanding officer of "Souffleur". In Juin LV Lejay wrote a report mentionning in paragraph 2:
"From a military point of view, this surveillance operation brought foreward the difficulty of charging accumulators on this Class of submarine. During this time of the year, when nights are short, maximum charge does not allow to recuperate more than 6.000 Amps. This charge corresponds to a maximum of a 16 hours dive."
On April 1st, the units "Caman", "Marsouin" and "Souffleur" were assigned to the Division Navale du Levant, under the orders of the commanding officer of the 9th Division of Submarines. That same month, on the 8th, all three units rejoined Beirut. On June the 8th 1941, began the offensive of the Allied on Syria and Lebanon. At 06.15 GMT nine Allied ships were seen in Sour, they were all heading north. Starting the 8 until the 25 of June "Souffleur" was assigned to a mission of surveillance and attack against a force superior in number. During this mission she was hunted and under heavy attack with depth charges many times. The 10th she tempted an attack on a British ship, probably PHOEBE.
"Gloriously missing in action on June 25th, 1941"
That day, at 06.55 G.M.T., "Souffleur" was two or three miles off the coast between Ras Damour and Ras Beirut; she was compelled to surface to charge her batteries. Six men were on bridge deck. Suddenly four torpedo wakes, launched from HM Submarine "Parthian", could be seen cruising toward "Souffleur". Officer Morange gave order to maneuver, unfortunately one torpedo hit her and broke her in two parts, and she sank immediately. Fifty-two men went down with their ship. Five men out of the six on deck tried to swim to shore, one of them drowned. "HMS Parthian" was lost in August 1943, possibly in the southern Adriatic Sea, while on patrol. Nothing is known for certain about what happened to her, she failed to arrive at Beirut on 14th August. The wreck, which has not been located, is a War Grave and must be respected as such.
From
September 1970 till November 1972 I dived on the wreck five times. Mahmoud
Khalifeh, a young professional sponge diver, accompanied us on four occasions;
he had “marks” to find the wreck. He accompanied us four times.
On June 9th 1971, all but a few days since she went down thirty years ago,
Zareh Amadouny and myself organized a dive on the wreck for Reginald Vallintine,
British Sub Aqua Club Director at that time.
Vallintine, wrote an article,"Death
in the sun-the story of a sub", In TRITON, journal of the BSAC (Volume
18 N4-July/Augus 1973). It was Reg's n2220
dive as described in his logbook.
A compact
curtain of cables hanging from the ceiling bare the access to the wreck.
We did not even think about penetrating the sub, probably cave diving experience
was more than enough for Zareh and I. At the foot of the conning tower there
was a hatch 3/4 open. As we swam up along the superstructure, at –105
feet we were on the bridge deck.
In front section was two small towers; on their right side, a green porcelain
insulator attached to a cable was pending from a mast.
Later I could read on it the inscription: GRANOUX Marseille 1930. Facing
backward was twin antiaircraft gun.
It was amazing to be able to move it up and down after such a long immersion.
It proved impossible to move it left or right. In the back just beneath
the deck was the rear navigation light shown in the picture below. It seems
that, nowadays, this light is not there any more.
What I am describing
here is what prevailed in the seventies. The actual description thirty years
later is quite different. Back then the wreck was practically intact. Since,
natural cause or visitors dismantled the sub. It is possible to see actual
pictures on this site. To my fellow divers, especially the Lebanese ones
I need to say: the Souffleur is a war grave and should be respected. Swimming
around it without trying to get inside is highly recommended.
From an old timer,
Beirut, May 2001.