Ratings on shore watch HMS Unbroken as she enters Portsmouth harbour after eighteen months duty in the Mediterranean | |
History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Unbroken |
Builder | Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness |
Laid down | 30 December 1940 |
Launched | 4 November 1941 |
Christened | 1 February 1943 |
Commissioned | 29 January 1942 |
Out of service | transferred to Soviet Navy 26 June 1944 |
Identification | P42 |
Fate | Scrapped May 1950 |
Badge | |
Soviet Union | |
Name | V-2 (В-2) |
Acquired | 26 June 1944 |
Fate | Returned to Royal Navy in 1949 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | U-class submarine |
Displacement |
|
Length | 58.22 m (191 ft 0 in) |
Beam | 4.90 m (16 ft 1 in) |
Draught | 4.62 m (15 ft 2 in) |
Propulsion |
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Speed |
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Complement | 27-31 |
Armament |
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HMS Unbroken (P42) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness; it was part of the third group of that class and has been the only vessel of the Royal Navy to bear the name. She entered service as P42 and was renamed Unbroken on 1 February 1943. [1]
Unbroken was commissioned on 29 January 1942 as P42. After work up trials in Holy Loch, Unbroken went out to join the 10th Flotilla at Malta, with a work-up patrol from Gibraltar. She spent most of her wartime career in the Mediterranean. She landed saboteurs under the command of Captain Peter Churchill at Antibes in the south of France. She then proceeded to Malta to reform the 10th Flotilla in June 1942. She was the only submarine operating from Malta until United, Unruffled and Unrivalled joined. She took part in Operations Harpoon and Vigorous, in June 1942. In July 1942, Unbroken attacked the main west coast railway line on the Italian mainland, and succeeded in blocking the line for 24 hours. However, she received return fire from coastal artillery and sustained a hit on the battery, forcing her to return to Malta. She was badly damaged in October 1942, by a counter-attack by Italian escorts after hitting a tanker, and was again repaired at Malta.
During her time in the Mediterranean, she sank the Italian merchants Edda and Bologna (the former French Monaco), the Italian pilot vessel F 20 / Enrica, and the Italian auxiliary minesweeper No. 17/Milano. She also damaged the Italian sailing vessel Vale Formoso II, the German (former Norwegian) tanker Regina, and most significantly, the Italian heavy cruiser Bolzano and the Italian light cruiser Muzio Attendolo during Operation Pedestal. Bolzano was hit in her oil tanks and set ablaze; she had to be beached at Panarea island; the Attendolo lost sixty feet of bow. Bolzano was out of action for the rest of the war.
Unbroken also attacked the Italian merchant Algerino, but missed her with her torpedoes. She later damaged the Italian merchant Titania, north-west of Tripoli, Libya. Titania was taken in tow by the Italian destroyer Ascari. Titania was sunk early the next day by HMS Safari. Unbroken returned to the UK in December 1943.
Unbroken was transferred on loan to the Soviet Union on 26 June 1944, where she was renamed V-2 (Cyrillic: В-2). Sailing under Soviet flag she sank the German submarine chaser UJ-1220 on 12 October 1944. She spent four years in Soviet service before being returned to the Royal Navy in 1949. She was scrapped at Gateshead from 9 May 1950.
Operation Pedestal, known in Malta as Il-Konvoj ta' Santa Marija, was a British operation to carry supplies to the island of Malta in August 1942, during the Second World War.
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HMS Legion was an L-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She entered service during the Second World War, and had a short but eventful career, serving in Home waters and the Mediterranean. She was sunk in an air attack on Malta in 1942. The ship had been adopted by the British civil community of the Municipal Borough of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in November 1941.
HMS Safari was a third batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Commissioned in 1942, she was assigned to operate in the Mediterranean Sea. During the course of the war, Safari sank twenty-five ships, most of which were Italian.
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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.
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