Career
P46 slipped her moorings for the first time on 6 April 1942, and sailed for Holy Loch for sea trials. [3]
P46's first wartime patrol began on 13 May 1942, sailing from Holy Loch to the coast of Norway. This proved an uneventful patrol, and P46 returned to Lerwick on 1 June having encountered no hostile ships. [4] P46 then travelled to Gibraltar, arriving on the morning of 25 June under escort by HMT Haarlem. [4]
While in Gibraltar, P46 was boarded by a cat, who the crew adopted as a pet, and named Timoshenko after the Russian general Semyon Timoshenko. 'Timmo' undertook twenty patrols on board the submarine, and was considered a good luck charm by the crew - so much so that, on one occasion, sailing was delayed for twenty-four hours until he could be found. [5]
P46 left Gibraltar on 1 August to take part in Operation Pedestal, joining a major armed convoy to deliver supplies to the besieged island of Malta. On 10 August P46 sighted the Italian merchant Siculo ship off of Marettimo and fired three torpedos, all of which missed the target. [6] P46 arrived at Malta on 15 August, navigating through a minefield and entering Marsamxett Harbour. [5]
P46's first successful action came in the early hours of the morning on 21 September, when she engaged the Italian auxiliary minesweeper N10 / Aquila with her three-inch gun. Firing twelve rounds, P46 landed eight hits; Aquila's crew abandoned ship after the first hit. A second victory was to come half an hour later, when P46 sighted the Vichy French merchant ship Liberia and struck her with a torpedo, sinking her. The following day, P46 engaged the Italian merchant ship SS Leonardo Palomba. P46's first torpedos missed, at which point she surfaced to engage with the three-inch gun, but was forced to submerge by machine-gun fire. P46 shadowed Leonardo Palomba for just over an hour before engaging with torpedos again, striking amidships and igniting the ship's petrol stores. [7] Following this engagement, P46 returned to Malta.
On her following patrol, P46 surfaced off the coast of Calabria on the night of 8/9 October, and opened fire on a passing train; two hits were observed, but damage was light. Two days later on the 11th, P46 torpedoed and sunk a Yugoslavian cargo ship, Una, near Capri, before fleeing from an Italian warship and falling back to Cape Gallo. [7]
P46's next action came on the 13th, torpedoing and sinking the Italian cargo ship Loreto. Unbeknownst to the crew of P46, Loreto had been carrying 350 prisoners of war from the British Indian Army, 130 of whom died. [8] British intelligence had been aware that Loreto was carrying prisoners of war since the 9th, and had transmitted this information out, however this was seemingly never received by P46. [7]
On 3 November P46 put to sea as part of Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa, with orders to attack enemy warships that may have interfered with the landings. On 6 November P46 sighted an Italian U-boat and gave chase; the two submarines exchanged torpedos, without either landing a hit, before P46 called off the chase. [7]
On 8 November, P46 encountered and Italian flotilla led by the cruiser Attilio Regolo and attacked, scoring a hit with one torpedo that shattered the cruisder's bow. At this point P46 was out of torpedos, and surfaced to call for allied ships to finish off the damaged cruiser. In the event HMS Safari attempted to do so, but was driven off, and Attilio Regolo was towed to drydock, where she would spend the rest of the war. P46 returned to Malta, arriving on the 11th. [7]
P46 was back at sea on the 16th, and on the 22nd unsuccessfully engaged an Italian tug with the three-inch gun, before returning on the 29th. Her next patrol began on 10 December. On the 14th, she encountered an Italian convoy, which was under attack by submarine P212. P46 joined the attack, sinking the tanker Castelverde, while P212 sank the Honestas. The following day P46 sighted and sank another Italian merchant vessel, the Sant'Antioco. Following this she was attacked by an Italian aircraft dropping depth charges, which caused minor damage to P46, but ultimately she survived and returned to Malta on 18 December. [7]
In early January 1943 P46 accompanied Operation Principal, a frogman attack on Palermo, and recovered two crews after they deployed their Chariot manned torpedos. Her next patrol saw her engage a schooner with her three-inch gun on 23 January, before being forced to submerge by shore guns. On the 26th she engaged and sunk the Italian Z 90 / Redentore, and on the 31st, the German SS Lisbon. The patrol concluded on 2 February, and while in port, P46 was formally named HMS Unruffled. [7]
Unruffled's first engagement since being named came on 18 February, when she fired on two schooners, hitting neither but forcing both crews to abandon ship. The schooners were wrecked on the shore, but as Unruffled had not hit them, they were not added to her tally. On 21 February Unruffled sank the German merchant vessel Baalbek. She returned to Malta on the 24th. [7]
Unruffled's next patrol saw two crew members board an abandoned lighter and sink it with a demolition charge on 16 March. Her next two patrols were reconnaissance patrols in advance of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. Her next combat patrol began on 25 May, and say her sink the French tanker Henri Desprez on 3 June before returning to Malta on 8 June. [7]
From 9 June to 10 July, Unruffled undertook another two reconnaissance patrols. Her next combat patrol began on 27 July, and saw the sinking of the Italian merchant vessel Citta du Catania on 3 August. [7]
Upon arriving back in Malta on 10 August, a fault was found with Unruffled's propellor, and she was laid up for repairs until the 22nd, when she again took to sea. She had on board two Greek officers, who she delivered to Cephalonia on the 25th to undertake sabotage missions. Two days later she engaged and sank the Italian merchant vessel Citta di Catania. She returned to Malta on 5 September, in time for the crew to celebrate Italy's surrender on the 8th. [7]
Unruffled's departed Malta for her final patrol in the Mediterranean on 26 September, and docked in Algiers on 9 October. The crew spent a week aboard HMS Maidstone, before departing for Britain on 17 October. Unruffled stopped in Gibraltar from 21 October to 4 November, where they parted company with Timoshenko, before reaching Gosport on 18 November. [7] [9]
This was to be the end of Unruffled's combat career, spending the rest of the war being refitted at Tilbury, and then partaking in exercises in the North Sea and near Bermuda. Following the end of the war, she was scrapped at Troon in January 1946. [4]
United Kingdom
