HMS Una

HMS Una
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Una
Builder	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down	7 May 1940
Launched	10 June 1941
Commissioned	27 September 1941
Decommissioned	November 1945
Fate	Sold to be broken up for scrap, 11 April 1949
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	U-class submarine
Displacement	Surfaced - 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load Submerged - 730 tons
Length	58.22 m (191 ft)
Beam	4.90 m (16 ft 1 in)
Draught	4.62 m (15 ft 2 in)
Propulsion	2 shaft diesel-electric 2 Paxman Ricardo diesel generators + electric motors 615 / 825 hp
Speed	11.25 knots (20.8 km/h) max surfaced 10 knots (19 km/h) max submerged
Complement	27-31
Armament	4 bow internal 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes - 8 - 10 torpedoes 1 - 3 in (76 mm) gun

HMS Una was a British U-class submarine, of the second group of that class, built at Chatham Dockyard. She was laid down on 7 May 1940 and was commissioned on 27 September 1941.

Career

She spent most of her career operating in the Mediterranean from early 1942, where she sank the Italian tanker Luciana, the Italian fishing vessel Maria Immacolata, and the Italian merchants Ninetto G. and Petrarca. Controversially, the Lucania was a tanker which had been granted immunity by the Admiralty, as she was to serve as a replenishment ship for an Italian ship repatriating civilians from East Africa; the submarine's commander, Lieutenant D.S.R. Martin, was ill and had not read the Admiralty signal before departure. ^[1] She also damaged two sailing vessels and the Italian merchant Cosala (the former Yugoslavian Serafin Topic). The damaged Italian ship was grounded, but declared a total loss and eventually sank during a storm.

The 3-inch (76 mm) gun platform of HMS Una

She was unlucky on numerous occasions, unsuccessfully attacking the Italian merchant Brioni, the Italian tanker Panuco and the German merchant Menes. Una also fired torpedoes against a merchant in Lampedusa harbour. The torpedoes however hit the rocks. ^[2]

In the night of 11/12 August 1942 disembarked a commando group on the shores of Catania, Sicily. The idea was to attack an airfield in support of Operation Pedestal, but after blowing up the electrical power lines between Syracuse and Catania, the dispirited group was taken prisoner. The unsuccessful raid was described by one of its members, Eric Newby, as the first chapter of his memoir Love and War in the Apennines . ^[3]

From April to August 1943, she was used for Anti-Submarine training after undergoing a refit in the UK. After the end of the war, she was decommissioned and placed in reserve in November 1945. She was sold to be broken up for scrap on 11 April 1949 and scrapped at Llanelly. ^[4]

Citations

1. Wingate, John (2003). The Fighting Tenth : the tenth submarine flotilla dn the siege of Malta. Periscope Pub. pp. 144–5. ISBN   9781904381167.
2. HMS Una, Uboat.net
3. Newby, Eric (2010). Love and war in the Apennines. London: Harper Press. pp. 1–20. ISBN   978-0-00-736789-4.
4. Hastings p.167

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN   978-1-86176-281-8.
• Hutchinson, Robert (2001). Jane's Submarines: War Beneath the Waves from 1776 to the Present Day . London: HarperCollins. ISBN   978-0-00-710558-8. OCLC   53783010.
• Hastings, Max (2021). Operatie Pedestal (in Dutch). Hollands Diep. ISBN   978-90-488-5275-8.