The Cherbourg arsenal in the face of Rommel
June 1940. The Cherbourg arsenal is building three submarines of the Roland Morillot class. The lead boat, the Roland Morillot, is 76% complete and its launch is scheduled for 21 June. But General Rommel's is racing across the Cotentin and reaches the outskirts of the town on 18 June.
The hulls are too incomplete to sail or dive: none can put to sea under its own power. Towing them out of the harbor under the threat of German aircraft and artillery seems risky, and time is short.
The maritime prefect must decide within a few hours: try to save these hulls, abandon them intact, or destroy them on the spot so they can never serve the enemy.
With German armor closing in, what should be done with the unfinished submarines still on their slipways at the arsenal?
Vice-Admiral Le Bigot ordered the destruction of the three submarines on their slipways before surrendering the town. On 18-19 June, on the orders of Lieutenant-Commander Petitot, a 35 kg anti-submarine depth charge capsized the Roland Morillot onto its starboard side; the roof of the slipway collapsed onto the neighboring hulls. The Praya and the Martinique were also sabotaged, along with the arsenal's machinery, before the surrender of Cherbourg to Rommel.
Learn more about this event
Related polls
10
The Unfinished Battleship of Saint-Nazaire
The Sinking of the Lancastria
Boulogne — Fox-Pitt and the Guards facing the port
Dunkirk — Tennant and the devastated port
The black hole of the Atlantic, October 1941
Tennant — the last ship from the east mole
The Dutch hulls on the Rotterdam slipways
The Kanalkampf — withdraw the destroyers?
Narvik — the Allied withdrawal
Ramsay at Dover Castle — Dynamo
The Unfinished Battleship of Saint-Nazaire
The Sinking of the Lancastria
Boulogne — Fox-Pitt and the Guards facing the port
Dunkirk — Tennant and the devastated port
The black hole of the Atlantic, October 1941
Tennant — the last ship from the east mole
The Dutch hulls on the Rotterdam slipways
The Kanalkampf — withdraw the destroyers?
Narvik — the Allied withdrawal