HMS Jervis, was a J-class destroyer of the Royal Navy named after Admiral John Jervis (1735–1823). She was laid down by R. and W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, at Hebburn-on-Tyne on 26 August 1937. The ship was launched on 9 September 1938 and commissioned on 8 May 1939, four months before the start of the Second World War.
Ashigara (足柄) was the final vessel of the four-member Myōkō class of heavy cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, which were active in World War II. The other ships of the class were Nachi, Myōkō, and Haguro. Ashigara was named after Mount Ashigara on the border of Kanagawa and Shizuoka Prefectures.
HMS Affleck was a Captain-class frigate which served during World War II. The ship was named after Sir Edmund Affleck, commander of HMS Bedford at the Moonlight Battle in 1780 during the American Revolutionary War.
HMS Stratagem was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Completed in 1943, she made her first war patrol off Norway before she was sent to the Far East, where she conducted three war patrols. On her second, she shelled installations on a Japanese-held island. Her only success came on her last patrol, when she torpedoed and sank a Japanese oil tanker. Soon after, she was spotted by aircraft and depth charged by a destroyer. She was forced to surface, and was scuttled to prevent her capture. Ten crew members escaped the sinking submarine and were taken prisoner, of whom only three survived the war.
HMS Storm was an S-class submarine of the Royal Navy, and part of the third group built of that class. She was built by Cammell Laird and launched on 18 May 1943. So far, she is the only RN ship to bear the name Storm.
HMS Shalimar was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Completed in April 1944, she conducted one war patrol off the Orkney Islands, then was assigned to the Pacific theater, arriving there in September. The submarine conducted one war patrol off the Nicobar Islands, destroying several small ships with gunfire. During her next three patrols in the Strait of Malacca, Shalimar sank twelve sailing vessels, eleven landing craft, four coasters, three lighters, three tugboats, and one minesweeper. After the war ended, the boat was sent back to England, placed in reserve, then sold for scrap in July 1950.
HMS Sibyl was an S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War, and part of the Third Group built of that class. She was built by Cammell Laird and launched on 29 April 1942.
HMS Solent was a S-class submarine built by Cammell Laird and launched on 8 June 1944 of the third batch built for the Royal Navy during World War II. She spent most of her career in the Pacific Far East, often in company with her sister ship, HMS Sleuth. Together they sank fifteen Japanese sailing vessels and the Japanese auxiliary minesweeper Wa 3. She survived the war and was sold for scrap in 1961.
HMS Statesman was an S-class submarine of the Royal Navy, and part of the Third Group built of that class. She was built by Cammell Laird and launched on 14 September 1943. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Statesman.
HMS Porpoise (N14) was one of the six-ship class of Grampus-class mine-laying submarines of the Royal Navy. She was built at Vickers Armstrong, Barrow and launched 30 August 1932. She served in World War II in most of the naval theatres of the war, in home waters, the Mediterranean and the Far East. She was sunk with all hands by Japanese aircraft on 19 January 1945, and was the last Royal Navy submarine to be lost to enemy action.
HMS Rorqual (N74) was a British mine-laying submarine, one of the six ships of the Grampus class of the Royal Navy. She was built by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow and launched 27 July 1936. She served in the Second World War in the Mediterranean and in the far east. She was the only Grampus-class submarine to survive the war, and she is considered the most successful minelaying submarine of World War II, sinking 57,704 GRT of enemy shipping, 35,951 of which through her mines.
HMS Tigris was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was laid down at Chatham Dockyard and launched in October 1939.
HMS Turbulent (N98) was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow and launched in May 1941.
HMS Terrapin was a British submarine of the third group of the T class. She was built as P323 by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow and launched on 31 August 1943. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Terrapin, after the animal of that name. Apart from a brief period in home waters off the Scandinavian coast, Terrapin served in the Far East for much of her wartime career.
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 1941–1942 she formed part of the 10th Submarine Flotilla based in Malta and is the only Royal Navy ship to have borne the name. Urge spent most of her career operating in the Mediterranean, where she damaged or sank a number of Italian warships and merchant vessels and took part in special operations. She was commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Edward Philip Tomkinson, DSO, RN. She was lost with all hands and a number of passengers on 27 April 1942 after striking a German mine off Malta.
HMS Unison (P43) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, and part of the third group of that class. She is the only craft of the Royal Navy to have borne the name Unison. Prior to receiving the name, she carried the pennant number P43 and was unofficially known as Ulysses.
Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur Richard Hezlet, nicknamed Baldy Hezlet, was a decorated Royal Navy submariner. He became the Royal Navy's youngest captain at the time – aged 36 – and its youngest admiral, aged 45. In retirement he became a military historian.
The action of 8 June 1945, sometimes called the Sinking of Ashigara was a naval action that resulted in the sinking of the heavy cruiser Ashigara of the Imperial Japanese Navy by the British Royal Navy submarine HMS Trenchant. Ashigara was transporting Japanese troops from Dutch East Indies for the defence of Singapore, and the sinking resulted in a heavy loss of life.
The Chariot was a British manned torpedo used in World War II. The Chariot was inspired by the operations of Italian naval commandos, in particular the raid on 19 December 1941 by members of the Decima Flottiglia MAS who rode "Maiali" human torpedoes into the port of Alexandria and there placed limpet mines on or near the battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth as well as an 8,000-ton tanker, causing serious damage which put both battleships out of operational use until 1943.
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.
United Kingdom
