Poster history of the aconit

A British Flower-class corvette, the Aconit was one of nine ships armed by the Free French Naval Forces (FNFL) during World War II. Under the command of Lieutenant Jean Levasseur, she distinguished herself with a rare feat: sinking two German submarines in a single day, on March 11, 1943, while escorting convoy HX 228 in the North Atlantic.

First engaged in escort missions (116 convoys, 728 days at sea), she participated in the rallying of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon to Free France in December 1941 alongside the Surcouf. But it was in March 1943 that she made history: after ramming U-444 in the middle of the night, she finished off U-432 with a cannon before ramming it in turn. These two victories, unique among the convoy's escorts, earned her the Croix de Guerre, the Resistance Medal, and, most importantly, the prestigious title of Companion of the Liberation—a distinction shared with only one other ship, the submarine Rubis.

After the war, the Aconit served briefly as a training ship before being returned to the Royal Navy in 1947 and then sold for whaling. She was finally scrapped in 1967 in Bruges, ending a career as intense as it was short-lived.