Sidi Ferruch was part of a fairly homogeneous series of 31 deep-sea patrol submarines also called "1,500-tonners" because of their displacement.

Propelled on the surface by two diesel engines producing a combined 6,000 horsepower (4,474 kW), they had a maximum speed of 18.6 knots (34.4 km/h; 21.4 mph).

[2] At the start of World War II on 1 September 1939, Sidi Ferruch was assigned to the 8th Submarine Division based at Brest, France.

[5] At the beginning of October 1939, Sidi Ferruch and the rest of the 8th Submarine Division received orders to leave European waters and proceed to Fort-de-France on Martinique in the French West Indies to conduct patrols in the vicinity of Trinidad the British had requested.

[3][6] In February 1940, Sidi Ferruch and Bévéziers were assigned to escort duty for British convoys steaming from North America to the United Kingdom.

After the attack on Mers-el-Kébir — in which a British Royal Navy squadron attacked a French Navy squadron moored at the naval base at Mers El Kébir in Oran on the coast of Algeria — took place on 3 July 1940, Sidi Ferruch and Bévéziers were detached to operate in the waters of French West Africa.

[3] They departed Casablanca on the evening of 4 July 1940 bound for Dakar in Senegal, which they reached on 9 July 1940, the day after an air raid on the port there by Fleet Air Arm aircraft from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, conducted as part of Operation Catapult.

[3] On both 23[3] and 28[8] October 1940,Sidi Ferruch was recorded as belonging to the 2nd Submarine Division based as Casablanca, along with Béveziers, Casabianca, and Sfax.

[3] Sidi Ferruch subsequently made a stop at Agadir, French Morocco, from 9 to 16 July 1941 before proceeding to Toulon, France.

[3] At 23:00 on 17 July 1942, Sidi Ferruch got underway from Dakar in company with the auxiliary cruiser Quercy for what was planned as a one-month cruise to rendezvous with and escort the tanker Nivôse, which had departed Saigon in French Indochina with a cargo of 12,000 tonnes (11,810 long tons; 13,228 short tons) of fuel oil for the 4th Squadron and was proceeding to Dakar by a route which took her around the south coast of Australia and Cape Horn on the southern tip of South America.

[3] Sidi Ferruch and Quercy rendezvoused with Nivôse in the Atlantic Ocean at 12°52′S 24°00′W / 12.867°S 24.000°W / -12.867; -24.000 on 29 July 1942 and escorted her the rest of the way to Dakar, where they arrived without incident on 5 August 1942.

[3] Sidi Ferruch got underway at 07:30 intending to wait for orders outside the harbor and came under attack by TBF Avenger torpedo bombers armed with bombs.

[3] Noting the strength of U.S. forces off the harbor, he decided to hug the coast and head for Safi in accordance with Sidi Ferruch′s previous orders.

[3] Sidi Ferruch had numerous holes in her superstructure inflicted by machine-gun bullets as she left the harbor at Casablanca, so on the morning of 9 November 1942 she stopped halfway to Madeira to make repairs at sea.

[3] At 21:30, when she was about 100 nautical miles (190 km; 120 mi) off the coast of French Morocco, she sighted the Spanish cargo ship Monte Orduna, which was on a voyage to the Canary Islands, and tried to contact her, but a plane arrived on the scene and forced her to dive.