HMS Sidon (P259)

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HMS Sidon (P259)
Royal Navy
HMS Sidon (P259) on November 17, 1944
General data
Ship type : Submarine
Ship class : Subtle class ( S class )
Navy : Royal Navy (RN)
Builder : Cammell Laird ( Birkenhead )
Keel laying : July 7, 1943
Launch : September 4, 1944
Commissioning: November 23, 1944
Whereabouts: Sunk as a training target in 1957.
Technical specifications

(see Subtle class )

The HMS Sidon (P259) was a British Royal Navy submarine during World War II and after.

history

The Sidon (named after the battle near the city of Sidon in Lebanon, which was shot at and captured by an Anglo-Austrian fleet on September 27, 1840) was a boat from the fourth batch of the British S-Class . This lot is also known as the Subtle class . The submarine was launched on July 7, 1943 at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead , northwest England, was launched on September 4, 1944 and was commissioned by the Royal Navy on November 23, 1944.

On June 16, 1955, the HMS Sidon was loaded with two MK12 torpedoes in the port of Portland to test the new weapons. The test projectiles did not have any sharp warheads. The MK12 project was a Navy development aimed at high-speed torpedoes powered by hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizer . The HMS Sidon sank in the harbor after one of the torpedoes exploded. 13 seafarers were killed in the accident. The wreck was lifted a week later. The bodies of the victims were recovered and buried on land. The submarine was sunk two years later on June 14, 1957 as a sonar target. It is about 15 nautical miles off Portland at a depth of 34 m.

Since there had been other accidents with the extremely unstable and chemically aggressive oxidizer hydrogen peroxide, the Royal Navy discontinued the MK12 project .

British efforts to use hydrogen peroxide based on the model of the German Walter submarines as an oxygen supplier for propulsion systems that are independent of the outside air , also failed because of the same problems that the German inventors of the technology were ultimately unable to solve.

Modern submarines with non-nuclear, air-independent propulsion such as B. the Swedish Gotland class or the German submarine class 212 A do not use chemically bound oxygen as an oxidizing agent , but oxygen gas liquefied under high pressure . With the sinking of the Russian nuclear submarine K-141 Kursk , which also sank as a result of a torpedo explosion, it became apparent that at least experiments have been carried out with the extremely dangerous hydrogen peroxide to this day.

See also

Web links

Commons : British S-Class Submarines  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Erminio Bagnasco: Submarines in World War II. (Technology - Classes - Types. A Comprehensive Encyclopedia). 5th edition. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-613-01252-9 .
  • Robert Hutchinson: KAMPF UNDER WASSER - Submarines from 1776 to today , Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart, 1st edition 2006, ISBN 3-613-02585-X
  • Anthony Preston: The history of the submarines , Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen, German edition 1998, ISBN 3-86070-697-7

Explanations and references

  1. ↑ a b The uboat.net specifies November 23, 1944 for the Sidon to be commissioned. Hutchinson (see literature ) gives October 24, 1944.
  2. ↑ a b Source: www.histarmar.com.ar
  3. ↑ HMS is the abbreviation for His / Her Majesty's Ship and the name prefix of British ships. HMS means His / Her Majesty's Ship .
  4. ↑ Source: www.janmaat.de/seen_kursk.htm