By 1916 Suffren was an aging pre-dreadnought sailing from the Mediterranean toward a French dockyard without escort. A planned refit at Bizerte had been redirected to Lorient, sending her through the Strait of Gibraltar and north along the Portuguese coast. U-52 found the capital ship moving steadily, fired one torpedo, and triggered a magazine explosion with no survivors found. Her loss links design obsolescence to the operational danger of sending a valuable ship alone through submarine waters.
Chapter · 48:36-50:21
Suffren meets U-52 without an escort
The old French battleship Suffren sails alone into U-52's path and is destroyed when one torpedo detonates her magazine.