Git clone command works fine but when I do a submodule init I get a failure message in my build log :

> git submodule update --init --recursive
FATAL: Command "git submodule update --init --recursive" returned status code 1:
stdout: 
stderr: Cloning into 'xxxx'...
error: RPC failed; result=18, HTTP code = 200
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
fatal: protocol error: bad pack header
Clone of 'https://git.xxx' into submodule path 'xxx' failed

But when I do the same from the shell I do not have any issue (it's just taking ages since the repo is big and the PC is slow)

This is why I suspect a similar issue than that one in : JENKINS-9168

In the git plugin, in the submodule section I just ticked : "Recursively update submodules"

So far the workaround is to go manually in the workspace, init the submodule the first time then you can play as usual.