HMS Snapper (N39)

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HMS Snapper (N39)
Royal Navy
HMS Snapper around 1935
General data
Ship type : Submarine
Ship class : Shark class ( S class )
Navy : Royal Navy
Builder : Chatham Dockyard ( Chatham )
Keel laying : September 18, 1933
Launch : October 25, 1934
Commissioning: June 14, 1935
Whereabouts: Missed in the Bay of Biscay since February 1941 .
Technical data
(see Shark class )

HMS Snapper (N39) was a British Royal Navy submarine during World War II .

history

see: History of the Shark-Class and Detailed History of the S-Class

The snapper ( engl. : Snapper ) belonged to the second assembly of the successful S-class . This lot is also known as the Shark class . She was laid down at the Chatham Naval Yard on September 18, 1933, launched on October 25, 1934, and entered service by the Royal Navy on June 14, 1935.

After the outbreak of World War II , the Snapper operated in the North Sea .

On December 3, 1939, the submarine was mistakenly attacked by a British aircraft. Despite direct hits, the boat was not damaged and was able to end its patrol on December 6th.

After the German invasion of Northern Europe on April 9, 1940, the Snapper sank several German transport and warships in the Skagerrak . On 12 April, before Larvik in position 58 ° 53 '  N , 10 ° 43'  O the little German tanker Moonsund (322 BRT) with the deck gun sunk. On April 14 torpedoed and sank the British submarine in position 58 ° 10 '  N , 10 ° 59'  O the German van Florida (6150 BRT). On April 15, the German auxiliary minesweepers M 1701 / HM Behrens (525 BRT) and M 1702 / Carsten Janssen (472 BRT) were sunk with torpedoes northeast of Skagen at the position 57 ° 55 '  N , 10 ° 53'  E.

On May 6, the handle Snapper east of Denmark at position 55 ° 35 '  N , 7 ° 16'  O the German auxiliary cruiser Aries , but the two torpedoes missed their targets.

The Snapper torpedoed and sank the German outpost boat V 1107 / Portland (286 GRT) on June 25 south of Stavanger (Norway) at position 58 ° 54 ′  N , 5 ° 5 ′  E. On July 3, the Norwegian freighter was Cygnus (1334 BRT) west of Hadryet in position 58 ° 13 '  N , 5 ° 6'  O sunk with torpedoes.

On January 29, 1941, the HMS Snapper left its base to patrol the Bay of Biscay off the French island of Ouessant . There has been no contact with the submarine since then. The Snapper and their crew have been officially missing since February 12, 1941. Presumably she ran into a German sea ​​mine . Another possible explanation is that the British submarine was hit by German minesweepers M-2 , M-13 and M-25 at 47 ° 52 ′  N , 5 ° 47 ′  on the night of February 10th and 11th. W was sunk with depth charges.

Web links

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

literature

  • Erminio Bagnasco: Submarines in World War II. 5th edition, Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-613-01252-9 .
  • Robert Hutchinson: Fight Under Water - Submarines from 1776 to the Present. 1st edition. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-613-02585-X .
  • Anthony Preston: The History of the Submarines. Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1998, ISBN 3-86070-697-7 .

Explanations and references

  1. ↑ HMS is the abbreviation for His / Her Majesty's Ship and the name prefix of British ships. HMS means His / Her Majesty's Ship .
  2. ↑ See Cygnus at www.warsailors.com/homefleet. (engl.)