French submarine Protée (Q155)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Protée.

History
Ajax identical to the Protée

Name:	Protée
Fate:	sunk on 18 December 1943
General characteristics
Class and type:	Redoutable class submarine
Displacement:	1500 tonnes (surfaced) 2000 tonnes (submerged)
Length:	92.30 m (302.8 ft)
Propulsion:	2 diesels, of 4,300 hp 2 electric engines of 1,200 hp
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) (surfaced) 10 knots (submerged)
Range:	14,000 nautical miles (26,000 km) at 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph), 10,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) 4,000 nautical miles (7,000 km) at 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) 90 nautical miles (170 km) at 7 knots (submerged)
Test depth:	80 metres
Complement:	5 officers (6 in operations) 79 men
Armament:	11 torpedo tubes 1 × 100 mm gun 1 × 13.2 mm machine gun

The Protée (Q.155) was a submarine of the French Navy.

Career

Protée served off Morocco in February 1940 before being sent off Turkey in May. She then sailed to Alexandria, where she was immobilised after Operation Catapult until 1943.

In July 1943, she joined the Free French Naval Forces and served under Captain Georges Millé, in patrolling off Provence and landing spies in Spain. On 23 November 1943, she torpedoed and sank a 2000-tonne German freighter.

She disappeared off Provence on 18 December 1943 with all hands, including three British liaison personnel.^[1] Her chief engineer, Louis Laubie, was honoured by having the submarine Laubie named after him.

Discovery of the wreck

The wreck was discovered on 6 April 1995 at 43°04′16″N 5°32′14″E / 43.071°N 5.5372°E / 43.071; 5.5372 (Protée)Coordinates: 43°04′16″N 5°32′14″E / 43.071°N 5.5372°E / 43.071; 5.5372 (Protée) by the COMEX Rémora 2000.^[2] Analyses of the damage indicates that she was probably lost after hitting a mine. The wreck was declared a war memorial by the Navy.

Sources and references

↑ Dimanche 18 décembre 2005, cérémonie en hommage au Sous-Marin PROTEE
↑ Pierre (2008-02-03). "Le Protée" (in French). Retrieved 2009-08-14.

T. L. Mercier. "Q 155 / Le Protée 2" (in French). Sous-marins Français. Retrieved 2009-08-05.

Redoutable-class submarine

Series 1	Achéron Achille Actéon Ajax Archimède Argo Fresnel Henri Poincaré Monge Pascal Pasteur Pégase Persée Phénix Poncelet Prométhée Protée Redoutable Vengeur

Series 2	Le Centaure Le Conquérant L'Espoir Le Glorieux Le Héros Le Tonnant

Series 3	Agosta Bévéziers Casabianca Ouessant Sfax Sidi Ferruch

Preceded by: Circé class Followed by: Saphir class

Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in December 1943

Shipwrecks	2 Dec: Fort Athabaska, John Harvey, Norlom 4 Dec: Chūyō, Kembu Maru 12 Dec: HMS Holcombe, HMS Tynedale 13 Dec: Friedrich Bischoff, U-172, U-391, U-593 15 Dec: Nevada 16 Dec: U-73 17 Dec: USS APc-21 18 Dec: HMS Felixstowe, Numakaze 20 Dec: U-850 21 Dec: Norhauk 22 Dec: Niobe 24 Dec: Dumana, USS Leary, U-645 25 Dec: HMS Hurricane 26 Dec: USS Brownson, Scharnhorst 28 Dec: Axum, T-25, T-26, Z27 29 Dec: Protée 31 Dec: HMS Clacton Unknown date: U-972

Other incidents	13 Dec: U-345 23 Dec: HMS Worcester

1942 1943 1944 November 1943 January 1944

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