 RN submarine HMS J6 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS J6 |
| Builder | HM Dockyard, Devonport |
| Laid down | 26 April 1915 |
| Launched | 9 September 1915 |
| Commissioned | 25 January 1916 |
| Fate | Sunk 15 October 1918 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | J-class submarine |
HMS J6 was a First World War J-class submarine built for the Royal Navy by HM Dockyard at Devonport in Plymouth. [1] Commissioned in 1916, she was sunk in a friendly fire incident by the Q-ship Cymric in October 1918.
Under her first commanding officer, Max Horton, J6 was launched on 9 September 1915 and commissioned on 25 January 1916. She and the other Js were members of the 11th Submarine Flotilla. She served in the North Sea chiefly in operations against German destroyers and U-boats. The closest she got to sinking the enemy was firing a torpedo at U-61, but it missed its target.
On 1 December 1917 Horton was replaced as commanding officer of J6 by Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Warburton. In April 1918, Warburton spotted the German High Seas Fleet, which had put to sea in an attempt to hunt down an Allied convoy. Warburton did not identify the fleet as German and did not report his sighting to the Admiralty; had he done so, it is possible that another full scale naval battle may have occurred. [2]
On 15 October 1918 J6 was on patrol off the Northumberland coast when she was spotted by the Q-ship Cymric. The captain of the Cymric, Lieutenant F Peterson RNR, mistook the identity lettering on the conning tower of J6 for U6. Assuming U6 to indicate a German U-boat, Peterson raised the White ensign and opened fire on J6. [3] J6 tried to signal, but the signalman was killed. J6 fled into a fog bank, but Cymric located J6 again and sank her. [4] After a number of direct hits, J6 sank. It was only after the survivors were seen in the water that Peterson and the crew of Cymric realised their mistake and recovered the survivors. Of the crew of J6, 15 were lost; [5] a subsequent court of enquiry found that no action would be taken against Peterson. [6] An order under the Official Secrets Act prohibited mention of this incident until 1969. [7]
Late in 2011 it was announced that divers had discovered her wreck off Seahouses. [8] In the summer of 2013, the Polish Navy salvage ship ORP Lech, searching for the wreck of the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł, surveyed and officially confirmed the identity of J6. [9]
ORP Orzeł was an Orzeł class submarine of the Polish Navy that served during WWII.
HMS A7 was an A-class submarine built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She sank in a training accident in 1914 with the loss of her entire crew. Efforts to salvage her failed and her wreck is a protected site. Diving on her is prohibited without a licence from the Ministry of Defence.
Commander John Wallace Linton, was a Royal Navy submariner and a Welsh recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Nicknamed "Tubby", he was a fine Rugby football forward, playing for the Royal Navy, United Services, and Hampshire County teams.
The J-class submarines were seven submarines developed by the Royal Navy prior to the First World War in response to claims that Germany was developing submarines that were fast enough to operate alongside surface fleets. Six were completed during mid-1916, while a seventh entered service at the end of 1917.
The Royal Naval College, Osborne, was a training college for Royal Navy officer cadets on the Osborne House estate, Isle of Wight, established in 1903 and closed in 1921.
HMS L10 was a L-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War I. The boat was sunk in 1918 by German torpedo boats.
HMS Salmon was a second-batch S-class submarine built during the 1930s for the Royal Navy. Completed in 1935, the boat fought in the Second World War. Salmon is one of twelve boats named in the song "Twelve Little S-Boats".
HMS D1 was one of eight D-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during the first decade of the 20th century.
HMS Seawolf was a second-batch S-class submarine built during the 1930s for the Royal Navy. Completed in 1936, the boat fought in the Second World War.
HMS Thistle (N24) was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow and launched in October 1938. She was sunk by the German submarine U-4 on 10 April 1940 near Skudenes, Norway.
HMS Turbulent (N98) was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. It was laid down by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow and launched in May 1941.
HMS L9 was an L-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War I. The boat survived the war and was sold for scrap in 1927.
HMS Urge was a British U-class submarine, of the second group of that class, built by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness. She was laid down on 30 October 1939, and was commissioned on 12 December 1940. From 1941 to 1942 she formed part of the 10th Submarine Flotilla based in Malta and spent most of her career operating in the Mediterranean, where she damaged and sank enemy warships and merchant vessels and undertook both SBS and SIS special operations. She was commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Edward Philip Tomkinson, DSO, RN. She was lost with all hands and a number of naval passengers on 27 April 1942 after striking a German mine off Malta.
Captain George Edward Hunt, was a highly decorated Royal Navy submarine commander during the Second World War. While commanding HMS Ultor, he became the British submarine commander with the greatest number of sinkings of enemy vessels to his name, though David Wanklyn achieved sinkings of greater tonnage. Of the 68 torpedoes Hunt fired, 47% hit their targets.
Cymric was a British and Irish schooner, built in 1893. She joined the South American trade in the fleet of Arklow, Ireland, in 1906. She served as a British Q-ship during the First World War; she failed to sink any German U-boats, but did sink a British submarine in error.
The first HMS Vehement was a V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War I. She spent her short career in minelaying operations in the North Sea before striking a mine and sinking in 1918.
Captain Michael Lindsay Coulton "Tubby" Crawford DSC & Bar was an officer in the Royal Navy and submariner.
The 8th Submarine Flotilla was a flotilla of the British Royal Navy consisting of submarines and their supporting depot ships and destroyers. It was established as part of the Home Fleet in 1912. The flotilla brought together the newer, longer range 'overseas' submarines for the purpose of carrying out offensive operations. Composition of the flotilla varied over time. It was disestablished in 1919.
Captain Cedric Naylor was a Royal Navy officer of the First and Second World Wars. Naylor was a merchant seaman before joining the Royal Naval Reserve on the outbreak of the First World War. In November 1915 he was posted as first lieutenant to HMS Penshurst, a Q-ship, a warship disguised as a merchant vessel intended to fool German U-boats into surfacing so they could be sunk. Naylor received the Distinguished Service Cross for his part in the sinking of SM UB-19 on 30 November 1916 and a bar for further operations in February and March 1917. Naylor was granted temporary command of Penshurst after its captain was incapacitated in June and the next month damaged a submarine, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Further distinguished service in the following months saw him receive a bar to the medal and a transfer to the Royal Navy. Naylor was hunting for SM U-110 on Christmas Eve 1917 and Penshurst was struck by a torpedo fired by the submarine. Despite suffering heavy damage Naylor remained onboard with two gun crews, hoping the U-boat would surface to finish off the ship. When U-110 surfaced it was hit twice and damaged before Penshurst sank. Naylor survived and was awarded a second bar to his DSO. He commanded the sloop Polyanthus for the remainder of the war.
George Devereux Belben was a decorated officer in the British Royal Navy.
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in October 1918 | |
|---|---|
| Shipwrecks |
|
| Other incidents |
|
