Casabianca
| Country | France |
| Ship Class | Redoubtable-class Submarine |
| Launched | 2 Feb 1935 |
| Decommissioned | 12 Feb 1952 |
| Displacement | 1,500 tons standard; 2,000 tons submerged |
| Length | 303 feet |
| Machinery | Two 4,300hp diesel engines, two 1,200hp electric engines |
| Speed | 20 knots |
| Range | 14,000nm at 7 knots, 10,000nm at 10 knots, 4,000nm at 17 knots |
| Crew | 85 |
| Armament | 1x100mm gun, 1x13.2mm machine gun, 11 torpedo tubes |
| Submerged Speed | 10 knots |
| Submerged Range | 90nm at 7 knots |
Contributor: C. Peter Chen
ww2dbaseSubmarine Casabianca cruised the North Sea off Norway between 1939 and 1940. She was disarmed in 1941, after the fall of France, but Captain Jean L'Herminier secretly restored her weapons and maintained some fuel aboard. On 27 Nov 1942, German troops violated the armistice signed with the Vichy government and attacked the port city of Toulon. The French fleet stationed there was scuttled en masse, but several commanding officers refused to obey the order. Casabianca, being one of the vessels that disobeyed, sneaked out of the harbor while under German small arms fire. She escaped the harbor and fled to Algiers, surrendering herself before British patrol boats. From Dec 1942 to 1944, she served with the Free French, landing intelligence agents, radios, and weapons to Corsica and Provence in southern France. Her elusiveness earned her the nickname of "Phantom Submarine" from German troops. In 1944, she was hit by friendly fire by a British aircraft, and was repaired in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States until Mar 1945. She participated in no further actions in WW2. She was scrapped in 1956.
ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia.
Last Major Revision: Sep 2007
Casabianca Operational Timeline
| 12 Feb 1952 | Casabianca was decommissioned from service. |
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Visitor Submitted Comments
17 Jul 2023 05:18:58 AM
Hello, did your father speak french? Thank you DT
All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB.
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Winston Churchill
3 Dec 2012 02:53:25 PM
My father a British Yeoman of signals served on board Casabianca from late 1942 to early 1944 and although serving as decrypts controller on the boat he often helped land spies and equipment ashore to relieve the boredom and has many stories of his time on board this famous vessel