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| 1913 Photo of Turquoise |
The British-French Dardanelles submarine campaign lasted from April through December 1915. Nine British and four French submarines took part. Several Allied submarines were lost attempting to go up the strait into the Sea of Marmara and one was lost coming out. One French submarine, Turquoise, successfully penetrated the straits in early October but ran into serious trouble on 30 October when it ran aground near Nagara Point within range of Turkish shore batteries. Captured, her captain failed both to scuttle her and to destroy classified information aboard.
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| Turquoise Crew in Captivity, Bastille Day 1918 |
Included in the sensitive material onboard was material on a planned rendezvous of Turquoise with British submarine E-20 in the Sea of Marmara on 6 November. The Turks promptly passed that information to their German allies, and UB-14 waited submerged at the rendezvous point. When E-20 showed up on the surface, she was torpedoed and sunk by UB-14. Only nine of the crew survived. The entire crew of Turquoise survived and was held captive for the remainder of the war.
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| Müstecip Onbaşı |
The boat, however, was moved to dry dock and quickly made available to the Ottoman Navy. Renamed Müstecip Onbaşı, the submarine served until Turkey's withdrawal from the war. It was officially returned to France in January 1919 and was eventually scrapped in Istanbul.
Source: Submarine Operational Effectiveness in the 20th Century: Part One. Australian War Memorial; Wikipedia
Was the Captain punished in any way for his failure to destroy sensitive material?
ReplyDeleteHi Bob,
DeleteIn response to your query, I found this citation online:
Leon Ravenel commanding officer of the French Submarine Turquoise faced a court martial in Paris after the War and was cleared of all responsibility .
see Mediterranean Submarines by Wilson and Kemp , page 91 . ISBN 0 947554 57 2
I can't imagine, however, that the Royal Navy was not thoroughly angry about this incident when they learned of the facts.
Mike