Submarine forces (France)

At the beginning of World War I in August 1914, the French Navy fielded 72 submarines essentially to defend her coastlines, of which 50 units were at sea.

Among the boats lost were Curie which was scuttled during a tentative attack on the base of Pula in December 1914, and would be refitted by the Austro-Hungarian Navy and Foucault, sunk in a bombardment by flying boats of the Austro-Hungarian Navy at the naval base of Kotor on 15 September 1915, was the first submarine to be sunk in an aerial attack.

At the end of the war, France received 46 U-boats from the Imperial German Navy in reparations but most were scrapped between 1922 and 1923 following the signature of the Washington Naval Treaty.

On 1 January 1930, France had the most powerful submarine fleet in the world with 110 units totaling 97,875 tons in service, construction or in authorized commission.

However, the French naval construction witnessed set-backs in perfecting the submarines production (certain setbacks were witnessed as the level of maintenance for instance) and were classified as various initiatives, categorizing the submarines on a general scale while sharing the same characteristics (same dimensions, displacement, armament and other features).

During the Battle of Dakar in September 1940 two submarines of the Vichy regime were sunk but Bévéziers damaged a battleship.

The attack summary of French submarine torpedoes during the Second World War was: The submarines undertook numerous unconventional operations including dropping agents, forces of the resistance and materials in occupied Europe and the Casabianca played an important role in the liberation of Corsica by transporting special forces personnel.

Only four out of them were placed on permanent active duty, with the French Navy including Roland Morillot which was in service until 1967.

The reconstruction phase started with research at the end of the conflict including assimilating the advanced techniques and tactics of World War II.

The latter was in turn decommissioned on 1 July 1999 and the two ultimate Agosta-class vessels, La Praya and L'Ouessant, integrated the FOSt until their retirement.

Occupied mainly, but not exclusively by operations of anti-submarine warfare at the profit of deterrence, since the creation of the Strategic Oceanic Force, the employment scope range of the attack submarines was enlarged since the middle of the years of 1990 with the leveling placement of nuclear attack submarines which can act at the profit of Carrier battle groups and maritime action.