History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Vivid |
Builder | Vickers Armstrong, Walker-on-Tyne [1] |
Laid down | 27 October 1942 [1] |
Launched | 15 September 1943 [1] |
Commissioned | 19 January 1944 [1] |
Identification | Pennant number P77 |
Fate | Scrapped at Faslane, October 1950 [1] |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | V-class submarine |
Length | 204 ft 6 in (62.33 m) |
Beam | 15 ft 9 in (4.80 m) [2] |
Depth | 15 ft 10 in (4.83 m) [2] |
Speed | |
Endurance |
|
Test depth | 200 ft (61 m) [2] |
Complement | 33 [2] |
Armament | 4 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tube. 1 × 3 in gun, 3 × 0.303 in machine guns [2] |
HMS Vivid was a V-class submarine laid down in 1942 and launched in 1943 by Vickers Armstrong in Newcastle-upon-Tyne for the British Royal Navy. [1] [2] [3] She was launched in September 1943 and, under the command of Lieutenant John Cromwell Varley DSC, served with the 10th Submarine Flotilla based at Malta during the closing stages of the Allied campaign in the Mediterranean sinking various German, Greek and Italian merchant ships off the coast of Greece. [1] [2]
During one of her sorties in 1944, Vivid sighted the requisitioned merchant ship SS Tanais 14 nautical miles (26 km; 16 mi) northwest of the islet of Dia on 9 June. Vivid fired a spread of four torpedoes at a range of 2,400 yards (2,200 m). Two hit Tanais, sinking her in just 12 seconds; between 425 and 1,000 people died in the sinking, including deported Cretan Jews and Italian prisoners of war.
Following a refit, HMS Vivid was transferred to the 2nd Submarine Flotilla in the Far East for one patrol in June 1945. [1] The vessel was paid off into Reserve in 1946 and scrapped at Faslane, Gare Loch in October 1950. [1]
HMS Jervis, was a J-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the late 1930s. She was 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.
HMS Triumph (N18) was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness and launched in 1938. The boat was lost in transit in 1942, with a crew of 64, and its fate was unknown until the sunken boat was rediscovered in June 2023.
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.
HMS Lance was a Laforey-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. Launched a few months before the outbreak of the First World War and attached to the Harwich Force, Lance took part in several engagements during the war, including the sinking of the Königin Luise and the Battle off Texel. She was responsible for firing the first British shot of the war.
HMS Opal was an Admiralty M-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She served in the First World War following her construction at Sunderland in 1915. Attached to the 12th Destroyer Flotilla based with the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow, Opal had an eventful short life, which ended in shipwreck after two and a half years of service.
German submarine U-596 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II. She was laid down on 4 January 1941 by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg as yard number 572, launched on 17 September 1941 and commissioned on 13 November under Kapitänleutnant Gunter Jahn. He was replaced on 28 July 1943 by Oberleutnant zur See Victor-Whilhelm Nonn who was superseded by Oblt.z.S. Hans Kolbus in July 1944.
HMS Thrasher was a "thirty-knotter" torpedo boat destroyer of the British Royal Navy. She was completed by Laird, Son & Company, Birkenhead, in 1897. One of four Quail-class destroyers, she served in the First World War, sinking the German submarine UC-39 in 1917, and was sold off after hostilities ended.
HMS Sahib was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She was launched on 19 January 1942 and commissioned on 13 May 1942. She was the only British naval vessel to bear the name Sahib.
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 Tetrarch (N77) was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow and launched in November 1939.
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HMS Trooper (N91) was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Scotts, Greenock, and launched in March 1942. On 3 October 2024 it was reported that HMS Trooper was discovered at a depth of 253 metres (830 ft) in the Icarian Sea in Greece.
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.
HMS P47 was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong. She was transferred to the Royal Netherlands Navy before completion and renamed HNLMS Dolfijn.
HMS Vanoc was a British V-class destroyer, launched in 1917. The ship saw service in both the First and Second World Wars. During the First World War, Vanoc served as part of two destroyer flotillas, undertaking minelayer and convoy escort roles. In 1919, the destroyer took part in British operations in the Baltic as part of Allied efforts to intervene in the Russian Civil War. During the Second World War, Vanoc was involved in evacuation efforts to remove troops from Norway and France, and was utilised as a convoy escort, protecting convoys from German U-boats. In this role, Vanoc sank a German submarine, German submarine U-100 in March 1941 in the Atlantic, and assisted in the destruction of another, German submarine U-99. Three years later, Vanoc was involved in sinking U-392 in the Straits of Gibraltar in concert with a British frigate and several US anti-submarine aircraft. In January 1945, she was involved in a collision with another Allied vessel off Normandy, before being placed into reserve in June. She was later sold for scrap and was broken up after mid-1946.
HMS Regent was a Rainbow-class submarine designed and built by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering in Barrow-in-Furness for the Royal Navy, and was launched on 11 June 1930. She was lost with all hands after striking a mine on 18 April 1943.
German submarine U-435 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II. She was laid down on 11 April 1940 by F Schichau GmbH in Danzig as yard number 1477, launched on 31 May 1941 and commissioned on 30 August 1941 under Korvettenkapitän Siegfried Strelow.
HMS Tyne was a Royal Navy store ship. Charles Mitchell of Low Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne built her as yard number 354, and launched her on 19 January 1878 as the merchant ship Mariotis for the Moss Steam Ship Company of Liverpool. The Admiralty bought her for the Royal Navy on 8 March 1878. She was completed in June 1878.
SS Tanais, mistakenly referred to as Danae or Danais, was a British-built, Greek-owned cargo ship that German occupational forces in Greece requisitioned in World War II. On 9 June 1944, Royal Navy submarine HMS Vivid sank her off Heraklion, Crete, with Tanais sinking in just 12 seconds. Almost everyone onboard died, including hundreds of deported Cretan Jews and Christians and Italian prisoners of war who were onboard. Sources differ as to the number of people who died in the sinking; estimates vary between 425 and 1,000.
This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales Licence, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project.