The country lies in two climatic zones- subequatorial in the north and equatorial in the south. Average monthly temperatures everywhere are 25-30 °C, but the amount of precipitation and its regime are different. In the equatorial climate zone, oceanic air dominates all year and there is not a single month without precipitation, the amount of which per year reaches 2400 mm (mainly in March-June and December-January). In the north - in a subequatorial climate - there is less precipitation (1100-1800 mm) and a dry winter period is pronounced.
Geography
The surface of the country is predominantly flat, low in the south in the oceanic zone and turning into a low-mountain plateau 500-800 m high in the north. In the west, in the Dan Mountains - the most high point countries (1340 m). Almost throughout the entire territory there are outcrops of ancient rocks of the African Platform: granites predominate in the west and north, and clayey shales in the east. Deposits of gold, diamonds, manganese, and iron ores have been discovered here. The coast of the Gulf of Guinea is slightly indented and separated from the sea by a strip of sandy sediments. The main rivers - Comoe, Bandama, Sassandra, Cavalli - are not navigable.
Flora and fauna
The vegetation cover in the south is dominated by humid equatorial forests, where more than 600 species of trees grow, including valuable species (about 35 species are used for timber, of which 5 are mahogany species). To the north, humid forests give way to savannah, into which islands of gallery forests are wedged along river valleys. Further north, the islands of trees disappear and most of The territory is covered with tall grass savanna. Both vegetation and animal world Shores Ivory, are better preserved than in other countries of West Africa: in the forests there are numerous monkeys (monkeys, chimpanzees, gverets, etc.), elephants, hippopotamuses, forest antelopes, brush-eared pigs, and water deer are found; found in savannas different kinds antelope, as well as leopard, cheetah, serval. A network of nature reserves and national parks has been created, including on the slopes of Mount Nimba (on the border with Guinea and Liberia), national park Banco near Abidjan.
Population
The population of Côte d'Ivoire includes representatives of more than 55 linguistic communities, many of which are distinguished by their peculiar exotic culture. There are three subgroups of nationalities: Guinean (Kru, Baule, Anyi, etc.), Voltaic (Senufo, Lobi, Bobo, Kulango, Mosi) and Mande (Malinke and others). The majority of the population is employed in agriculture(cocoa, coffee cultures, etc.) and preserves both the traditional way of life and traditional animistic beliefs.
Big cities
The largest city in the country is Abidjan (about 4.4 million inhabitants), whose rapid growth began after 1950. Now it is an industrial center, a major port, there is a university and a research center here. Abidjan is a modern city with numerous hotels, restaurants, and other elements of tourism infrastructure. The capital of Côte d'Ivoire is Yamoussoukro, home to 281 thousand people. Other big cities countries - Bwake, San Pedro, Korhogo, Ferkesedugu.
Story
The territory of modern Cote'd Ivoire was inhabited by pygmies back in the 1st millennium BC. Soon other peoples began to move there, the first of them being the Senufo.
Europeans first began landing on the shores of modern Ivory Coast in the 15th century. The Portuguese, Dutch, and Danes visited here then. The Portuguese visited here in the 1460s. Colonization began with the arrival of the French, who began economic development of the land in the mid-19th century. Local tribes were destroyed until 1917. The French exported diamonds and gold, coffee and cocoa from here, and had banana plantations here. On March 10, 1893, Ivory Coast was declared a colony of France, and in 1895 it was included in French West Africa. Ivory Coast became a major producer of coffee and cocoa for French markets. In 1934, Abidjan was declared the center of the colony. In 1945, the first political party arose - the Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast, which at first leaned towards Marxism, but from the early 50s switched to positions close to the French right. In 1957, France granted local self-government to the colony.
On August 7, 1960, the country's independence was proclaimed. the leader of the Democratic Party Houphouët-Boigny became its president, the DP became the ruling and only party. The principle of inviolability of private property was proclaimed. The country continued to remain an agricultural and raw material appendage of France, but by African standards its economy was in good condition, with economic growth rates reaching 11% per year. Ivory Coast became the world leader in the production of cocoa beans in 1979, but success in this area was based on favorable conditions and a combination of excellent managers, foreign investment and large quantity cheap labor, mainly migrant workers from neighboring countries. However, in the 1980s, prices for coffee and cocoa on world markets fell, in 1982-1983 the country suffered a severe drought, and an economic recession began; by the end of the 80s the indicator external debt per capita exceeded that of all African countries except Nigeria. Under public pressure, Houphouët-Boigny made political concessions, legalized alternative political parties to the ruling, initiated the electoral process, and in 1990 was elected president.
In 1993, he died, and the country was led by Henri Konan Bedier, who had long been considered his heir. In 1995, a forum was held on investment in the country’s economy, in which Russian companies also participated. In the late 90s, political instability intensified, Bedier had a serious competitor: Allassane Ouattara, but he is Burkinabe by origin, while the country's constitution allowed only Ivorians to participate in elections. This circumstance greatly deepened the already emerging split in society along ethnic lines. By that time, from a third to a half of the country’s population were people of foreign origin, mostly who had previously worked in agriculture, which had fallen into decline due to the bad economic situation.
On December 25, 1999, a military coup took place in the country, the organizer of which, Robert Guay, held presidential elections the following year, marked by fraud and riots. Opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo was officially declared the winner of the elections. On September 19, 2002, a military rebellion was organized in Abdijan, which was suppressed, but became the beginning of a civil war between political factions representing the north and south of the country. In 2003, an agreement was reached to end the clashes, but the situation continued to remain unstable. A lasting peace agreement was only signed in the spring of 2007.
Policy
Cote d'Ivoire is a presidential republic. The President of the country is directly elected for a term of 5 years with the possibility of re-election only once. He has all the completeness executive power, appoints and removes the Prime Minister. The President has legislative initiative along with the parliament (unicameral).
7.00 "The Secret Fairway" is a wonderful Soviet feature film in 4 episodes about the mysterious German submarine "The Flying Dutchman". For everyone who hasn't watched it, watch it.The action takes place during the years of the Great Patriotic War in the Baltic Fleet and in the post-war period. During a combat mission torpedo boat commander Boris Shubin discovers a secret channel for a German submarine to pass through itat night on the surface. Shubin decides to continue observing the fairway, his expectations are confirmed - the next day an unmarked submarine surfaces between the islands. She's German, you can hear the conversation German officers. The submarine is called the "Flying Dutchman", and its crew carries out top-secret missions for high command of the Third Reich.
Upon his return, Boris Shubin decides to find out as much as possible about this secret submarine, in this he is helped by the English sailor Neila, released from a concentration camp, he saw this German submarine off the coast of Brazil. Bye Boris Shubin does not even imagine that he will soon find himself on the Flying Dutchman.
Secret fairway. Episode 1
Secret fairway. Episode 2
Secret fairway. Episode 3
Secret fairway. Episode 4
Year: 1986
A country: USSR
Director: Vadim Kostromenko
Film Genres: adventure, military
Starring: Anatoly Kotenev Larisa Guzeeva Sergey Bystritsky Leonid Trutnev Vladimir Naumtsev Valery Yurchenko Uldis Dumpis Stanislav Rii Vidas Pyatkevičius Arunas Storpirstis
Fun facts about the film:
- The adult Shurka Lastikov, a pupil of the main character, is played by Sergei Bystritsky, who is only five years younger than the performer leading role Anatoly Kotenev.
- The numbers stamped on the dishes used on board the Flying Dutchman indicate that the authors of the picture meant the U-127 submarine by the mysterious submarine, but in fact this submarine died back in 1941 and could not have been a participant in the events described.
- The Shmel river artillery patrol armored boats acted as torpedo boats. The system was dismantled from them volley fire, and in its place were installed dummies of tubular torpedo tubes.
- The name of the commander of the “Flying Dutchman” contains an allusion to Jules Verne’s famous novel about Captain Nemo “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”. Gerhard von Zwischen is German for "Gerhard of Between", which is a parallel to the name Captain "Nobody".
- During times Soviet Union The film was always shown during the summer holidays.
- This was the fourth film by actor Anatoly Kotenev at that time, in all of which he played military roles.
- Some episodes of the biography of the book hero Shurka Lastikov (closing a hole in the radiator with his body and the Ushakov medal among the awards) are drawn from the real life of a graduate of the Solovetsky school as a young man A.F. Kovalev (Rabinovich).
- In the film, the role of the U-127 “Flying Dutchman” is played by the Soviet diesel-electric submarine Project 613.
- In episode 2, the Sovinformburo reports on the radio: “The troops of the Karelian Front, continuing the offensive from the Petsamo (Pechenga) region, reached state border USSR and Norway." The USSR border with Norway was established in 1947 as a result of Finland transferring the territory separating these countries to the Soviet Union.
- At the end of the 4th episode, Shubin quickly escorts the intruder along the shore to the rowing boat, while a cassette of magnetic wire falls out of the latter’s pocket - one of those that he took from the safe of the underground base. Thus, not all audio recordings reach the Soviet authorities.
- The saboteur who arrived on the island uses a Margolin sports pistol, made in the USSR, as a weapon.
The naval battles of the First World War clearly showed the highest ranks of naval headquarters around the world what a formidable weapon submarines are. Before the salvos of the August cannons in 1914, the doctrine of the navy of almost every state on the planet was based on the active use of dreadnoughts - heavily armed armored ships, the pinnacle of development of the battleship as a class. According to the admirals, the mere appearance of these huge monsters in the sea, built on the principle of “all-big-gun” - “only big guns”, should have determined the outcome of any battle. However, the Battle of Jutland on May 31-June 1, 1916, when the dreadnoughts of the fleets of two warring countries - the British Grand Fleet and the German High Sea Fleet - met for the first time in battle - revealed a paradox: the dreadnoughts did not sink each other, moreover, the lion's share of the battle and losses occurred more light cruisers and destroyers of both squadrons. And dragging these voracious mastodons out of the bases into the sea turned out to be a monstrously expensive undertaking. At the same time, small, nimble submarines with small crews (for example, the German U-29 had only 35 people, while the British seven-tower (!!!) dreadnought "Agincourt" was named in honor of the British victory over the French at Agincourt in 1415) the crew included 1267 people) inflicted such significant losses on the enemy that even the most recent skeptic had to admit through clenched teeth that submarines were a formidable and dangerous force.
Of course, this opinion was completely justified. For example, the submarine U-29 of Otto Weddigen, already mentioned above, on September 22, 1914, sent three patrol British armored cruisers - Abukir, Hog and Cressy - to the bottom within one hour. On May 7, 1915, Walter Schwieger's U-20 sank the luxury ocean liner Lusitania. On June 27, 1915, the Russian submarine "Crab" - the world's first underwater minelayer - laid a mine bank near the Bosphorus, which was subsequently blown up by a Turkish gunboat"Isa-Reis". Such examples of the effective performance of submarines during the First World War significantly increased their importance in the eyes of admirals and politicians. During the Interbellum period (the time period between the First and Second World Wars), the world's leading naval powers carried out active work on the construction of strong submarine fleets, experimenting with boat hull lines, materials, power plants and weapons. Perhaps the most unusual are the British M-type underwater monitors, laid down during the First World War. The main weapons of these boats were not torpedoes, but one 305 mm gun installed directly in the wheelhouse. It was assumed that these strange boats would fire from a semi-submerged position - only the cannon barrel would stick out from under the water. However, high cost, problems with sealing and questionable efficiency did not allow the full potential of these submarines to be assessed. In the 20s, the guns were removed from them.
However, such a strange English project could not fail to find a response among shipbuilders. Inspired by the underwater monitor, in 1927 the French laid down at the Arsenal de Cherbourg shipyard three huge “sous-marin de bombardement” - “artillery bombardment submarines” of the Q5 type. Of the three, only one was completed. The artillery titan entered service under the name "Surcouf".
Surcouf, named after the legendary French privateer Robert Surcouf, was the pinnacle of post-World War I efforts to combine the stealth of a submarine with the firepower of a surface ship in a single ship. The displacement of the Surcouf was 2880 tons on the surface and 4330 tons submerged. The length of the submarine is 110 meters, the cruising range is 12 thousand miles. 
"Surcouf" at sea
"Surcouf" was intended for cruising operations on ocean communications and, in addition to the torpedo armament usual for submarines, was armed with two 203-mm guns. These guns corresponded to the armament of heavy cruisers and were located in a twin turret in front of the submarine's wheelhouse. Fire control was carried out using a mechanical computing device and an optical rangefinder with a five-meter base, which provided measurements at a range of up to 11 km. For reconnaissance and fire adjustment at long distances, the boat carried a Besson MB.411 seaplane in a sealed hangar behind the wheelhouse. The aircraft was designed specifically for Surcouf and built in two copies. Two 37 mm anti-aircraft guns and four 13.2 mm machine guns were installed on the roof of the hangar. Also, "Surcouf" carried 22 torpedoes in its belly. 
Guns of the submarine "Surcouf"
Seaplane Besson MB.411 - assembled and on board the Surcouf, as well as a view of the aircraft hangar
Just six months after the Surcouf was launched, in April 1930, the London Naval Treaty was signed, Article No. 7 of which contained restrictions on the construction of submarines - in particular, the maximum displacement on the surface was set at 2845 tons, and the caliber of artillery should not exceed 155 mm. France was allowed to keep the Surcouf in service by a separate clarification in the contract, but the construction of two other boats of this type had to be forgotten. 
Computer image of the hangar of the submarine "Surcouf"
After its construction, Surcouf was widely advertised in the French press and repeatedly visited foreign ports to demonstrate the naval power of the country. It is not surprising - the largest submarine in the world, armed with guns worthy of a heavy cruiser, an entire battery of anti-aircraft guns and carrying a hangar with an aircraft, looked very impressive, like a real masterpiece of shipbuilding of those years.
However, there were also skeptics. “...Perhaps no one could say with certainty,” wrote one of the English experts, “for what purpose it was built. True, it was considered capable of winning an artillery duel with a destroyer of that time. But if even one shell, she could no longer dive, and a high-speed destroyer would certainly get the better of her..."
Although the Surcouf looked great on the drawings, in reality the boat turned out to be much less suitable for real service than for propaganda photo shoots. It was noted that the boat has significant problems with stability: when rough, it sways very strongly on the surface, and when submerged, it has difficulty maintaining the roll and trim within acceptable limits. The time it took to prepare the boat for diving turned out to be prohibitively long - even in ideal conditions, it took more than two minutes to go under water, which in a critical situation could easily lead to the destruction of the boat by the enemy. Aiming guns at a target from an underwater position, which looks so good on paper, turned out to be impossible in practice - the engineers were unable to ensure the tightness of the moving joints.
The turret of the Surcouf submarine was movable, but due to its disgusting tightness, it was almost never rotated. Screenshot from computer game"Silent Hunter"
The former captain, the Englishman Francis Boyer, who served on the Surcouf as an allied liaison officer from April to November 1941, recalled: “The submarine had a turret with two eight-inch guns. In theory, when approaching the target, we were supposed to stick out the muzzles of the guns and shoot while remaining under water. But it didn’t work that way: we had serious difficulties in ensuring water resistance, with any attempt to rotate the artillery turret, water entered it.. What’s even worse, everything on the Surcouf was non-standard: every nut, every bolt was required specially ground. As a warship it was no good, a gigantic underwater monster." 
Submarine interior
Second world war"Surcouf" met in Jamaica, and almost immediately began preparations for returning to his homeland. He was included in the escort forces of the British convoy KJ-2, and on September 28, 1939, departed for the Old World. The ship celebrated the New Year 1940 in Cherbourg, and in May, with the beginning of the German invasion, it was sent to Brest, where it went into dry dock for repairs. The blitzkrieg developed rapidly, and by the time the German tanks approached Brest, the boat was still out of order, but thanks to the decisive actions of the captain and crew, the Surcouf managed to slip away from the enemy literally from under the nose. Despite the fact that the boat had only one engine and a faulty rudder, it was able to cross the English Channel and reach Portsmouth. The crew did not know that the collaborator Admiral Francois Darlan sent an order to return back after the Surcouf, but the dispatch was not accepted. The submarine arrived at the British port of Devonport on July 18. 
Submarine "Surcouf" in dock
After the capture of the country by Germany, the French Navy found itself in a strange situation: approximately half of the ships remained with Admiral Darlan, and the rest went over to the side of the Free French armed forces - the French army "in exile" under the command of General Charles de Gaulle, who emigrated to England.
Most of the Free French ships submitted to the control of the Allied forces, but relations between the Allies were riddled with suspicion. Although English Prime Minister Winston Churchill sought to consolidate de Gaulle's leadership of the Free French armed forces, he also found the general stubborn and arrogant. The US government suspected de Gaulle of sympathizing with the left and tried to nominate General Giraud, who was on the right, as an alternative leader.
There was also a split among the French officers and sailors: many of them, if not openly pro-Vish, could not without hesitation decide which side to take in a war in which they might be ordered to open fire on their compatriots.
For two weeks relations between the English and French sailors at Devonport were quite friendly. However, on July 3, 1940, at two o'clock in the morning, having apparently received a message that the Surcouf's engines were in order and he was going to secretly leave the harbor, officer Dennis Sprague boarded the submarine with a boarding party to capture it. Then Sprague, accompanied by First Lieutenant Pat Griffiths from the British submarine Times and two armed sentries, went down to the officers' wardroom, where he announced the secondment of the Surcouf to His Majesty the King's fleet.
Having formalized the secondment of "Surcouf" to the Royal to the navy, Sprague allowed the French officer to go to the latrine, not suspecting that the French kept personal weapons there. Sprague received seven bullet wounds. Griffiths was shot in the back as he climbed the ladder for help. One of the sentries - Heath - was wounded by a bullet in the face, and the other - Webb - was killed on the spot. One French officer was also killed.
On the same day, in the Mediterranean, the English fleet opened fire on the French squadron off the coast of Algiers and Mersel-Kebir, after the Vichy command of this French naval base rejected the English ultimatum, which proposed either to begin military operations against Germany and Italy , or disarm the ships. The result of Operation Catapult - the British firing at ships anchored in the base - killed 1,297 French sailors. The massacre enraged French sailors and soldiers who had escaped German captivity. As a result, only 14 out of 150 people from the Surcouf team agreed to stay in England and participate in hostilities. The rest disabled equipment and destroyed maps and other military documentation before being taken to a prison camp in Liverpool. The officers were sent to the Isle of Man, and only Louis Blaison, who became the commander, two sailors and a British liaison officer assigned to the submarine remained on the submarine as a senior mate.
For the Surcouf, a crew of French sailors who joined de Gaulle's Free France movement and French merchant marine sailors was assembled from a pine forest. A significant part of them had previously served only on civilian ships, and even military sailors for the first time dealt with such an unusual and difficult-to-handle design as the Surcouf. The lack of training was aggravated by the difficult morale of the sailors
On the shoulders of Commander Blazon fell the task of training qualified submarine specialists from inexperienced volunteers, while every evening they listened to the French radio (under the control of the Vichys), broadcasting German propaganda calling for them to return home in order to “prevent themselves from being used by the British as cannon fodder.” " (which clearly illustrates the desire of the French to fight).
Events in Devonport and Mers el-Kebir left a characteristic imprint on the further participation of Surcouf in the war. Political considerations dictated that it be manned by Free French troops and fully participate in Allied combat operations, but a feeling told the RAF Admiralty that the submarine would become a liability.
The British Admiralty also found itself in a difficult position. On the one hand, the submarine cruiser had significant combat value and, moreover, thanks to pre-war propaganda, the French associated it with the power of their country, so it was worth using it - this would allow them to inflict damage on the Germans and their allies, while simultaneously increasing the morale of the Free Soldiers. France". On the other hand, the design flaws of the boat, the poor training of its new crew and its unreliability led to the fact that many members of the Admiralty considered releasing the Surcouf into the sea as a useless and potentially dangerous undertaking. As a result, from April 1941 to January 1942, the boat was deployed on combat missions only twice, both times without any success. The condition of the crew was deplorable; sailors often found themselves under arrest or sent ashore for inappropriate behavior and various violations. Relations between officers and lower ranks were strained and reached the point of outright hostility, with many members of the team openly expressing doubts about the usefulness of the Free French armed forces as such. 
"Surcouf" at sea
On April 1, 1941, Surcouf left Halifax, her new home port, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, to join convoy HX 118. But on April 10, the order was suddenly changed without any explanation - "proceed at full speed to Devonport." This hasty and complete change of plan gave rise to increased rumors in the fleet that the Surcouf had destroyed the ships it was supposed to guard with its cannons.
On May 14, the submarine was ordered to go out into the Atlantic and conduct a free search until autonomy allowed, and then head to Bermuda. The purpose of the search is to intercept enemy floating supply bases.
Surcouf near Halifax
On November 21, Commander Louis Blaison reported from New London, Connecticut, that Surcouf had collided with an American submarine during maneuvers. The impact caused leaks in the third and fourth bow ballast tanks, which cannot be repaired without dry docking. Surcouf left New London without repairing these damages, with a new Englishman on board: signal officer Roger Burney, senior telegraphist Bernard Gough and senior signalman Harold Warner. What Bernie saw on the Surcouf horrified him. In his first report to Admiral Max Horton, commander of the submarine force, Burney expressed doubts about the commander's competence and concerns about the morale of the crew. He noted "great animosity between junior officers and ordinary sailors" who, although not hostile to the Allies, often questioned the relevance and usefulness of the Free French armed forces in their military operations, especially against the French. This first report from Bernie was hidden from the top of the Free French. 
Livery of the Surcouf as part of the Free French fleet
On December 20, Surcouf, together with three French corvettes, took part in the operation to liberate the Saint-Pierre and Miquelon archipelago. On the way from Halifax to Saint-Pierre, the Surcouf was caught in a storm, the conning tower was damaged by waves, and the gun turret was jammed. The boat lost seaworthiness in strong waves; its hatches, deck superstructures and torpedo tubes were damaged. She returned to Halifax, where she unexpectedly received a new assignment - to proceed to Tahiti with a call at Bermuda. There, the commander-in-chief of the British naval forces in the area of America and the West Indies, Admiral Charles Kennedy-Purvis, at the request of the commander of the submarine forces, Admiral Max Horton, was to receive young Burney for an oral report. Before leaving Halifax, Burney was returning to the submarine with a Canadian naval officer. When they parted, Bernie told him: “You just shook the hand of a dead man.”
Surcouf left Halifax on February 1, 1942 and was supposed to arrive in Bermuda on February 4, but arrived there late, having also received new damage. This time, defects were discovered in the main propulsion system, which would take several months to eliminate. On the way, she was battered several times by bad weather, which caused damage to the wheelhouse, gun turret and several torpedo tubes, and some of the hatches on the deck lost their airtightness. The plane had to be left on the shore due to malfunctions even earlier. The condition of the crew never improved, and it was also incomplete. Based on the results of the transition, the British observer concluded that the cruiser was completely uncombatable. The Admiralty, however, was more inclined to believe that the extent of the damage by the boat commander was exaggerated, and this was simply sabotage stemming from a reluctance to fight. 
Submarine "Surcouf" at the base
In a top secret telegram sent to Horton and then to the Admiralty, Admiral Kennedy-Purvis wrote: “The English liaison officer on the Surcouf has given me copies of his reports. After speaking with this officer and visiting the Surcouf, I am convinced that he is in no way exaggerates the extremely unfavorable state of affairs. The two main reasons, he noted, were the inertia and incompetence of the crew: “Discipline is unsatisfactory, the officers have almost lost control. Currently, the submarine has lost its combat value. For political reasons it may be considered desirable to keep her in service, but in my opinion she should be sent to Great Britain and scrapped."
However, Surcouf personified the spirit and power of the Free French naval forces. Admiral Horton sent his report to the Admiralty and, consequently, to Winston Churchill: “The commander of the Surcouf is a sailor who knows the ship and his duties well. The condition of the crew was negatively affected by long idleness and anti-British propaganda in Canada. In Tahiti, while defending my land, I I think "Surcouf" can bring significant benefits... To "Surcouf" special treatment in the French navy, and Free France will be strongly opposed to its decommissioning." 
View of the "Surcouf" wheelhouse
The report about the damage to the submarine did not convince Horton: “Even if the intermediate repairs in Bermuda turn out to be unsatisfactory, on the way to Tahiti the Surcouf will still be able to go under water using one engine...”
On February 9, Surcouf received orders to proceed to Tahiti through the Panama Canal. On February 12, he left Bermuda and hit the road. The route was extremely dangerous, since the boat could not follow underwater due to damage, and therefore could easily become prey to its German colleagues, who were literally swarming in this region. Burney's last report was dated February 10: "Since my previous report of January 16, 1942, the conversations and events on board that I heard and observed further strengthened my opinion that the failures on the Surcouf were caused more by the incompetence and indifference of the crew than by open disloyalty..."
On February 12, Surcouf left Bermuda and headed through the Caribbean Sea, infested with German submarines. He was only able to go on the surface - Commander Blason would not go under water with a faulty engine. Apart from the calculated coordinates of the supposed location of "Surcouf", there is no more information about it. 
Sectional model of the submarine "Surcouf"
February 19, Counselor of the British Consulate at Colon Port (at the entrance to the Panama Canal from Caribbean Sea) sent a telegram via Bermuda to the Admiralty marked “Top Secret”: “The French submarine cruiser Surcouf has not arrived, I repeat, has not arrived.” The cable continued: "The US troop transport USS Thomson Lykes, leaving yesterday with a convoy heading north, returned today after colliding with an unidentified vessel, which apparently sank immediately, at 10.30 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) February 18 at 10 degrees 40 minutes north latitude, 79 degrees 30 minutes west longitude. Transport searched at this point until 08.30 on February 19, but found no people or debris. The only trace was an oil slick. The Thomson Lykes' lower part of the stem was seriously damaged."
"American authorities, - it was further reported, - they have studied the report of the captain of the transport ship, and a wide search is being carried out by aircraft. According to unofficial information, preliminary investigation indicates that the unidentified vessel was a patrol boat. There is still no reliable information about all the US submarines that could be in the area, but their involvement is considered unlikely."
Thus, the message about the disappearance of the boat immediately contained a version of its death, which later became official - in the darkness of the night, the boat, the location and course of which the Americans were not warned about, collided with the Thomson Likes transport and sank with the entire crew.
The official version is quite plausible, but has many questions and ambiguities. For example, none of the Thomson Likes crew saw what exactly their ship collided with, and representatives of the Free French were not allowed into the meetings of the commission investigating the collision and were not allowed to familiarize themselves with its materials. In addition, the next huge submarine 110 meters long on the surface was clearly difficult not to notice.
In the note that fell on Churchill’s desk, the following words of the telegram were crossed out: “... in the 15th Naval Region, the United States is clearly not informed about the route and speed of the French submarine cruiser Surcouf and cannot determine its location. The only message , which I transmitted to the Americans on February 17, was the mentioned encryption."
On March 15, 1942, a closed meeting of the official commission to investigate the Thomson Lykes incident began in New Orleans. From the English side, Captain 1st Rank Harwood, a representative of the submarine forces of the British Navy in Philadelphia, was sent as an observer, whose report to the British naval command in Washington said: “None of the witnesses saw the ship with which the collision occurred. Approximately a minute after the collision, a large explosion was heard under the keel of the Thomson Likes. Extensive damage to the transport's stem well below the waterline suggests that the ship it hit was of large tonnage and sat low in the water. Like ships traveling on opposite routes, they ("Surcouf" and "Thomson Lykes") inevitably had to pass close to each other." According to Garwood's calculations, the Surcouf was within 55 miles of the point where Thomson Likes reported the collision occurred.
The commission did not make a clear conclusion that Thomas Lykes collided with Surcouf. She only stated that the transport collided with “an unidentified vessel of unknown nationality, as a result of which this vessel and its crew were completely lost.” However, subsequent studies did not cast doubt on the fact that it was “Surcouf” that died. While the commission was meeting, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover sent a secret memorandum to the Office of Naval Intelligence, in which he indicated that the Surcouf actually sank several hundred miles further - off St. Pierre - on March 2, 1942. Hoover may have been referring to the port of Saint-Pierre in Martinique. Did the crew mutiny, as might be assumed from Gough's last message, and did they, exhausted by the Allied command, head to Martinique, deciding to sit out until the end of the war in this quiet harbor?
Some believe that the sinking of the “unreliable” Surcouf was planned by the Allies in advance, but was not made public so as not to spoil relations with the Free French. In 1983, former Marine, who served on the cruiser Savannah in 1942, stated that his ship received an order in mid-February to team up with a certain English cruiser, and then find and sink the Surcouf, since it was firing at allied ships. True, according to this story, when the cruisers arrived at the appointed place, the Surcouf had already sank for other reasons.
For some time, rumors circulated around the ports of the Caribbean that the Surcouf was seen at different points in the sea after the date of the official death. The veracity of this gossip has been questioned. The submarine has disappeared...
Shortly after the disappearance of the Surcouf, representatives of the Free French first demanded an independent investigation, then permission to attend a commission meeting in New Orleans, and finally the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the Thomson Lykes ship's log. Whitehall rejected all these demands. And many months and even years later, the families of 127 French sailors and 3 English signalmen still knew nothing about the circumstances of the death of their loved ones.
If the Surcouf had to be sacrificed because its crew changed flags and defected to the pro-Nazi Vichy government, which resulted in attacks on allied ships, then, of course, all measures had to be taken to save the reputation of the Free French naval forces. . Any rumors of a riot or deliberate destruction of Surcouf by the Allies would provide invaluable propaganda material for the Nazis and Vichys. The Free French's political reputation would also suffer if one of its ships voluntarily defected to the enemy. So the official version of the death of Surcouf suited all parties. It was necessary to adhere to this version in the future, because the national pride of the French would not allow them to agree that the warship, included in the honorary list of the Free French, betrayed de Gaulle.
Unlike the previous ones, the version put forward by British researcher James Rusbridger looks very significant. In the documents of the American 6th Bomber Group, he found a record that on the morning of February 19, near Panama, a large submarine was “discovered and destroyed.” Since in German archives There were no recorded losses of boats in that area at the indicated time, it is logical to assume that it was the Surcouf. Most likely, the boat's radio was damaged by the previous day's collision with the Thomson Lykes, and it simply could not let the pilots know that they were bombing their own, and the boat ended up in the Panama area because it was the closest allied port where it was possible to land repair.
There is another unproven one, but interesting version:
the captain of the Thomas Lykes, who suddenly saw an unknown submarine in front of him, had no notification of the presence of his ships in the area and knew about a huge number in this submarine area, Admiral Doenitz may well have considered it necessary to sink an unfamiliar ship with a ramming attack.
During the work of the commission to investigate the circumstances of the Thomas Lykes accident, the head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, sent a secret memorandum to the US Navy Intelligence Directorate, in which he reported that the Surcouf sank off the island of Martinique on March 3, 1942, i.e. almost 2 weeks after the Thomson Lykes collided with an unknown object.
The death of "Surcouf" as imagined by the artist Roberto Lunardo. If the boat had caught fire or exploded, it would definitely have been seen from the Thomson Likes transport.
Charles de Gaulle wrote in his memoirs: “At the end of December, a threat loomed over New Caledonia. The situation was further aggravated by the fact that New Caledonia was covering Australia, the main target of the enemy’s offensive. Meanwhile, on December 22, anticipating the Japanese occupation of our islands in Oceania, Vichy appointed Admiral Deco High Commissioner of the French possessions in Pacific Ocean, wanting, undoubtedly, with the support of the aggressor, to return our possessions under his rule. The admiral never ceased to call on the Saigon radio for the population of New Caledonia to revolt against the Free French. At the same time, d'Argenlieu, who had to overcome all kinds of difficulties and endure troubles, sent me reports full of energy, but not very encouraging. As for me personally, without ceasing to express to him my confidence that he will succeed in at least To save the honor of France, I gave the order to send to Noumea some of the reserves that we had: command staff, naval guns, the auxiliary cruiser Cap de Palme and, finally, Surcouf, from which we could expect effective action in the Pacific Ocean due to its qualities as a long-range submarine. But, alas, on the night of February 20, at the entrance to the Panama Canal, this largest submarine in the world collided with a merchant steamer and sank with its commander, Captain 2nd Rank Blason, and a crew of 130 people."
The Surcouf itself would definitely shed light on what happened, but its wreckage has not yet been found. In 1965, amateur scuba diver Lee Prettyman claimed to have found the Surcouf at the bottom of Long Island Sound, but the story quickly fizzled out within a couple of newspaper articles. To this day, alternative theories of the death of Surcouf are put forward. One of the most popular says that the Surcouf crew nevertheless committed betrayal, and that a pair of American submarines, Mackerel and Marlin, discovered it in the Long Island Sound transferring supplies and fuel to a German submarine, as a result of which the “German ", and "French" were sunk. Variations on this version include a coastal defense airship or a British destroyer instead of American submarines.
If we accept the official version of the death of the Surcouf as a result of a collision with the Thomson Likes, then its wreckage should lie at a depth of about 3000 meters (9800 feet) at a point with coordinates 10 ° 40 "N 79 ° 32" W. However, this point of the seabed has not yet been explored using underwater vehicles and the exact location of the death of the Surcouf cannot be considered established. A huge submarine with powerful artillery weapons. pride of the French Navy
P.S.: memory of "Surcouf"
More than thirty years ago, the serial film “The Secret Fairway” was released on television screens in the Soviet Union. The actors and the roles they played do not lose their popularity even today. It was filmed by director Vadim Kostromenko based on the novel by Leonid Platov.
The plot of "The Secret Fairway"
The film's duration consists of two segments: 1944 and 1952. The torpedo boat commander Boris Shubin, while performing a combat mission in the Baltic Sea, notices an unknown submarine without identification marks. Later, this same boat - the Flying Dutchman - saves Shubin when the plane he was flying on was shot down. Excellent command German language, the captain poses as a pilot from Finland and gains the trust of the crew members.
Carefully listening to the conversations that took place on the submarine, Boris understands that the Flying Dutchman is carrying out secret tasks of the main leaders fascist Germany. Shubin learns about their terrible plans for the start of the third world war. At the first opportunity, the captain escapes to report to management and prevent the enemy’s plans from coming true.
How the film “The Secret Fairway” was filmed
For filming about an underwater submarine, the film crew decided to use a mock-up of a submarine. All scenes were to be filmed in a swimming pool specially built at the Odessa Film Studio. However, after the director of the film saw with his own eyes the dive of a real submarine, there was no talk of any mock-ups.
The Ministry of Defense provided free of charge all the ships, planes, guns, submarines - all the props that were necessary to create the picture. Underwater scenes were filmed in the Black Sea. Filming of the submarine took place in Odessa. In addition, they were held in Leningrad and on the Baltic Sea. Despite the extensive geography of filming, the actors and crew of The Secret Fairway created the film in seven months.
Young Shurka Erasers
One of the main characters - a boy adopted by sailors, Shurka Lastikov - was played by Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Bogatyrev. He was born on May 27, 1972. At the age of fourteen, he starred in his first and only film, The Secret Fairway. After filming was completed, Vyacheslav’s mother dies. He stays with his father and two brothers.
The life of Slava Bogatyrev was dedicated to the sea. It is known that while serving, the director of the Sevastopol film studio approached him with an offer to act in a movie as the son of a groom. To which a categorical refusal was received: “I made my choice - the sea!”
It is difficult to imagine what the fate of Vyacheslav Mikhailovich would have been like if he had been offered to star in a film on a maritime theme. After finishing his military service, Vyacheslav remained with the sea, hiring himself as a sailor on civilian ships. On March 16, 2001, the life of the actor of “The Secret Fairway” - cabin boy Shurka Lastikov - was tragically cut short.
Submarine captain Boris Shubin
On September 25, 1958, in the beautiful Georgian city of Sukhumi, Anatoly Kotenev was born into the family of teacher Valentina Petrovna and driver Vladimir Vasilyevich. The future actor spent his childhood in the city of Nevynnomyssk, Stavropol Territory. Dreaming of the sea and sky as a child, young Tolya unexpectedly discovered the theater. His first tests as an artist took place in the city House of Culture.
While still a student at the Moscow Art Theater School, Kotenev began receiving offers to act in films. The debut of the future submarine captain took place in the film “The Unknown Soldier”. In 1986, filming of the multi-part television film “The Secret Fairway” began. In this film, Anatoly Vladimirovich played his favorite role. Military service and work in the theater helped the actor vividly embody the role of a torpedo boat commander.
After filming, the artist starred in several more films, got married, and moved to Belarus. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Anatoly returned to Moscow, where he successfully filmed today. He has more than one hundred and ten roles to his credit.
The captain's wife - Victoria Mezentseva
Larisa Andreevna Guzeeva played the role of the woman whom Captain Boris Shubin loves. The actress was born on May 23, 1959. My own father Larisa Andreevna didn’t know. The future meteorologist Victoria Mezentsova was raised by her mother and stepfather, who kept the girl with a tight rein. Despite such a strict upbringing, Larisa dreams of becoming an actress. After school she enters Leningradsky Theatre Institute. The artist became famous and popular after the main role in “Cruel Romance.”
After auditioning for the role of a meteorologist, the director did not want other actors to audition for this place in the film “The Secret Fairway.” And the roles in it were different, but he saw only Larisa as the beloved woman of Captain Shubin. Guzeeva in the image of Victoria Mezentseva in the film very believably and sincerely played a woman during the war years. During such a difficult test, she had the opportunity to experience love. The tragic death of Victoria greatly amazed all the spectators and touched them to the depths of their souls.
Interesting facts about the film “The Secret Fairway”
For filming in the film, the Soviet diesel-electric submarine S-376, which was built in the fifties of the twentieth century, was used. In the film, the mysterious German submarine is U-127, as evidenced by the numbers on the cutlery. The film takes place in 1944, and the real boat U-127 was lost in 1941.
The name of the commander of the German submarine is Gerhard von Zwischen. The literal translation means "Gerhard from Nowhere".
In the original work, there is no close relationship between commander Boris Shubin and meteorologist Victoria Mezentseva. But to reflect real feelings, the scriptwriters added this storyline to the film.
The actors of “The Secret Fairway” very reliably and believably conveyed the content of Leonid Platov’s book. Thanks to the director's and cameraman's talent, the film captivated a wide audience of all ages and generations.
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