France built thirty-one Redoutable-class submarines in peacetime, giving it a large force of similar ocean-going boats. The class is suggested as possibly the largest single interwar submarine class. Its eleven torpedo tubes comprised nine 22-inch tubes and two smaller tubes. The boats could reach ten knots submerged and twenty knots on the surface. Their stated surface range was 14,000 nautical miles at seven knots.
Notable Point · 44:30-46:41
The Redoutable class turns submarine quantity into ocean reach
Thirty-one Redoutable-class boats combined a large peacetime building program with speed, long range, and heavy torpedo armament.