HMS Aurochs (P426)

Last updated

P426 aurochs.jpg
HMS Aurochs
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Aurochs
Namesake Aurochs
OrderedVery late in World War II
Builder Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down21 June 1944
Launched28 July 1945
Commissioned7 February 1947
Decommissioned1966
Identification Pennant number P246
FateSold for scrap on 7 February 1967. Scrapped at Troon, Scotland in February 1967.
General characteristics
Class and type Amphion-class submarine
Displacement
  • 1,360 long tons (1,382  t) surfaced
  • 1,590 long tons (1,616 t) submerged
Length293 ft 6 in (89.46 m)
Beam22 ft 4 in (6.81 m)
Draught18 ft 1 in (5.51 m)
Propulsion
  • 2 × 2,150 hp (1,600 kW) Admiralty ML 8-cylinder diesel engines
  • 2 × 625 hp (466 kW) electric motors
  • 2 shafts
Speed
  • 18.5 knots (34.3  km/h; 21.3  mph) surfaced
  • 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) submerged
Range
  • 10,500 nautical miles (19,400 km) at 11 knots (20 km/h) surfaced
  • 16 nautical miles (30 km) at 8 knots (15 km/h) or 90 nautical miles (170 km) at 3 knots (5.6 km/h) submerged
Test depth350 ft (110 m)
Complement60
Armament

HMS Aurochs (P426/S26), was an Amphion-class submarine of the Royal Navy, built by Vickers Armstrong and launched 28 July 1945. [1] Her namesake was the aurochs (Bos primigenius), an extinct Eurasian wild ox ancestral to domestic cattle and often portrayed in cave art and heraldry.

Contents

Operational history

In 1953 she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. [2] During 1953 she was commanded by Lieutenant-Commander A. G. Tait.

On 17 May 1958 Aurochs was patrolling the Molucca Sea off Indonesia when an unidentified aircraft machine-gunned her. [3] The aircraft remained at high altitude and Aurochs sustained no casualties or damage. [3] President Sukarno's Indonesian government told the UK's Conservative Government that its armed forces had not made the attack. [3] The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office stated that it accepted the assurance and assumed that North Celebes rebels had carried out the attack. [3]

It is true that Permesta rebels in North Sulawesi were supported by a "Revolutionary Air Force", AUREV (Angkatan Udara Revolusioner). [4] However, all AUREV aircraft, munitions and pilots were supplied by the Nationalist Chinese air force [5] or the CIA. [6] Two CIA pilots, William H. Beale [7] and Allen Pope, [8] had been using Douglas B-26 Invader aircraft to attack Indonesian and foreign targets in the area since April 1958. By 17 May Beale had quit the operation, [9] but Pope continued to fly sorties until the day after Aurochs was attacked, 18 May, when he tried to attack an Indonesian Navy convoy [10] but was shot down [11] and captured. [12]

Apart from the Affray which had been lost in an accident in 1951, Aurochs was the only one of her class not to be modernised. [13] In March 1961, the submarine was among the vessels that took part in a combined naval exercise with the United States Navy off Nova Scotia. [14]

Aurochs was decommissioned in 1966 and arrived at Troon in February 1967 for breaking up. [13]

Related Research Articles

HMCS <i>Bonaventure</i> Aircraft carrier

HMCS Bonaventure was a Majestic-class aircraft carrier, the third and last aircraft carrier in service with Canada's navy. The aircraft carrier was initially ordered for construction by Britain's Royal Navy as HMS Powerful during the Second World War. Following the end of the war, construction on the ship was halted and it was not until 1952 that work began once again, this time to an altered design for the Royal Canadian Navy. The ship entered service in 1957 renamed Bonaventure and, until the vessel's decommissioning in 1970, was involved in major NATO fleet-at-sea patrols and naval exercises and participated in the Cuban Missile Crisis. During her career Bonaventure carried three hull identification numbers, RML 22, RRSM 22 and CVL 22. Following her decommissioning Bonaventure was sold for scrap and broken up in Taiwan.

<i>Amphion</i>-class submarine Class of diesel-electric submarines of the Royal Navy

The Amphion class of British diesel-electric submarines were designed for use in the Pacific War. Only two were completed before the end of hostilities, but following modernisation in the 1950s, they continued to serve in the Royal Navy into the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambon Island</span> One of the Maluku Islands in Indonesia

Ambon Island is part of the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. The island has an area of 743.37 km2 (287.02 sq mi) and is mountainous, well watered, and fertile. Ambon Island consists of two territories: the city of Ambon to the south and various districts (kecamatan) of the Central Maluku Regency to the north. The main city and seaport is Ambon, which is also the capital of Maluku province, while those districts of Maluku Tengah Regency situated on Ambon Island had a 2020 Census population of 128,069. Ambon has an airport and is home to the Pattimura University and Open University, state universities, and a few private universities, which include Darussalam University and Universitas Kristen Indonesia Maluku (UKIM).

HMS <i>Aeneas</i> (P427) Royal Navy submarine

HMS Aeneas (P427) was a British Amphion-class submarine of the Royal Navy, built by Cammell Laird and launched on 9 October 1945. It was named after the hero Aeneas from Greek mythology.

HMAS <i>Ipswich</i> (J186) Bathurst-class corvette

HMAS Ipswich (J186/B244/A118), named for the city of Ipswich, Queensland, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes built during World War II and one of 20 built on Admiralty order but manned by personnel of and later commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambon, Maluku</span> City and capital of Maluku, Indonesia

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balikpapan</span> City in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Balikpapan is a seaport city in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Located on the east coast of the island of Borneo, the city is the financial center of Kalimantan. Balikpapan is the city with the largest economy in Kalimantan with an estimated 2016 GDP at Rp 73.18 trillion. The city has the third busiest airport in Kalimantan after that in Banjarmasin and Pontianak, namely Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan Airport. Port of Semayang was the second busiest seaport in East Kalimantan, after that in Samarinda.

Civil Air Transport (CAT) was a Nationalist Chinese airline, later owned by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), that supported United States covert operations throughout East and Southeast Asia. During the Cold War, missions consisted in assistance to "Free World" allies according to the Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Permesta</span> Rebel movement in Indonesia active from 1957 to 1961

Permesta was a rebel movement in Indonesia that was declared on 2 March 1957 by civil and military leaders in East Indonesia. Initially the center of the movement was in Makassar, which at that time was the capital of the province of Sulawesi. However, support for the movement in South Sulawesi gradually dissipated, forcing the headquarters to move to Manado in North Sulawesi.

HMS <i>Auriga</i> (P419) Submarine of the Royal Navy

HMS Auriga (P419/S69), was an Amphion-class submarine of the Royal Navy, built by Vickers Armstrong and launched 29 March 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allen Lawrence Pope</span>

Allen Lawrence Pope was an American military and paramilitary aviator. He rose to international attention as the subject of a diplomatic dispute between the United States and Indonesia after the B-26 Invader aircraft he was piloting in a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) covert operation was shot down over Ambon on May 18, 1958, during the "Indonesian Crisis".

HMS Heartsease was a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Navy. She served with both the Royal Navy and the United States Navy during the Second World War, with the latter navy as USS Courage. She then spent several years under a succession of names in civilian service. In 1957 she was chartered on behalf of Indonesian rebels to smuggle rubber, copra and matériel. The Indonesian Air Force intercepted and sank her off the coast of Minahasa in North Sulawesi in December 1958.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morotai</span> Island in North Maluku Province, Indonesia

Morotai Island is an island in the Halmahera group of eastern Indonesia's Maluku Islands (Moluccas). It is one of Indonesia's northernmost islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eagle Oil and Shipping Company</span> U,K. shipping company

Eagle Oil and Shipping Company was a United Kingdom merchant shipping company that operated oil tankers between the Gulf of Mexico and the UK. Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray founded it as the Eagle Oil Transport Company in 1912 and sold it to Royal Dutch Shell in 1919. It was renamed Eagle Oil and Shipping Company in about 1930, and remained a separate company within the Royal Dutch Shell group until it was absorbed in 1959.

William Henry Beale Jr. was a US military and paramilitary aviator. In the Second World War, he was in the USAAF and flew bombing missions in the northern Pacific theater. In the Permesta rebellion in Indonesia in 1958 he flew bombing missions for the CIA. His career ended on a CIA covert mission in Laos in 1962 when he was killed in a plane crash.

SS San Flaviano was a British oil tanker owned by Eagle Oil and Shipping Company, a British subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. She was built by Cammell Laird in England in 1956 and attacked and sunk by the CIA in Borneo in 1958.

MV Daronia was a 1930s British oil tanker owned by Anglo-Saxon Petroleum, a British subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. She was launched in 1938 by Hawthorn, Leslie in North East England and completed in 1939. She was one of a class of 20 similar tankers built for Anglo-Saxon.

SS Aquila was a cargo ship built in Britain in 1940 for Stavros Livanos' Trent Maritime Co Ltd. by William Gray & Company. An identical sister, Duke of Athens, was built for Trent at the same time.

SS Flying Lark was a ship built in Fredrikstad, Norway in 1915 as the banana boat SS Honduras. Over a 43 year career that spanned oceans and seas the world over she had 10 owners, eight names and a succession of different managers.

SS Armonia was a 2,740 GRT cargo ship built in Britain in 1924 for the Moor Line as SS Tullochmoor. Scrapped in 1960, she had eight sets of owners, managers and names over her 26-year career.

References

  1. Helgason, Guðmundur (1995–2011). "HMS Aurochs (P426)". uboat.net. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  2. Souvenir Programme, Coronation Review of the Fleet, Spithead, 15 June 1953, HMSO, Gale and Polden
  3. 1 2 3 4 David Ormsby-Gore, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (11 June 1958). "Indonesia (British Vessels)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . United Kingdom: House of Commons. col. 202–203. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  4. Conboy & Morrison 1999, p. 85.
  5. Conboy & Morrison 1999, pp. 101, 105.
  6. Conboy & Morrison 1999, pp. 86–87.
  7. Conboy & Morrison 1999, p. 99.
  8. Conboy & Morrison 1999, p. 100.
  9. Conboy & Morrison 1999, p. 125.
  10. Conboy & Morrison 1999, pp. 136–137.
  11. Conboy & Morrison 1999, pp. 138–139.
  12. Conboy & Morrison 1999, pp. 140–141.
  13. 1 2 Warlow, Ben. Channel Sweep. Liskeard: Maritime Books. p. 13. ISBN   0-907771-40-8.
  14. "A/S Exercise Off Nova Scotia". The Crowsnest. Vol. 13, no. 6. Queen's Printer. April 1961. p. 2.

Sources