HMS Sunfish (N81)

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HMS Sunfish (N81)
W-1 (В-1)
Royal Navy Военно Морскоий Флот СССР (Soviet Naval Navy)
Deck gun of HMS Sunfish off Portsmouth on November 4, 1943
General data
Ship type : Submarine
Ship class : Shark class ( S class )
Navies :
Builder : Chatham Dockyard ( Chatham )
Keel laying : July 22, 1935
Launch : September 30, 1936
Commissioning:
  • July 2, 1937 (RN)
  • June 26, 1944 (SM)
Whereabouts: Sunk by mistake by British bombers on July 17, 1944 .
Technical data
(see Shark class )

HMS Sunfish (N81) was a British Royal Navy submarine during World War II . The submarine was handed over to the allied Soviet Union in 1944 , but was lost due to friendly fire on the crossing to Northern Russia .

Constructive features

see: Design features of the S-Class

The Sunfish ( Engl. : Sun or moon fish ) was a boat of the second construction lot of the successful S-Class . This lot is also known as the Shark class .

As the only submarine of the Shark class , the Sunfish had the enhanced diesel propulsion of the S-class construction section, which was built later during the war, making it more than one knot faster than its sister ships over water .

history

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

The HMS Sunfish was laid on the Chatham Dockyard in Chatham on July 22, 1935 and launched on September 30, 1936. She was commissioned by the Royal Navy on July 2, 1937.

After the outbreak of the Second World War , the Sunfish operated in the North Sea .

On February 19, 1940, they attacked 30 NM northeast of Helgoland at 54 ° 28 '  N , 7 ° 11'  O the German submarine U 14 at. All four torpedoes missed their target.

On April 9, 1940, German armed forces began occupying Denmark and Norway as part of the Weser Exercise Company . The Sunfish took an active part in the defensive battles. On 9 April, the British submarine sank in the Kattegat at 58 ° 13 '  N , 11 ° 13'  O the German van Amasis (7129 BRT) with torpedoes. On the morning of April 10th, she missed a German auxiliary patrol boat and the freighter Hanau (5892 GRT). On the evening of the same day torpedoed and sank the sunfish at 58 ° 3 '  N , 11 ° 0'  O the German transport ship Antares (2593 BRT). On April 13, torpedierte and damaged it at 58 ° 1 '  N , 11 ° 20'  O the German Q-Ship Ship 40 / Schürbeck and put on the following day at 57 ° 42 '  N , 10 ° 54'  O U -Boat trap Schiff 35 / Oldenburg .

On 5 December 1940, the British submarine sank before Sildegapet at position 62 ° 3 '  N , 5 ° 6'  O the Finnish merchant vessel Oscar Midling (2182 BRT) with torpedoes. On December 7th, the Norwegian merchant ship Dixie (1715 GRT) was torpedoed off Stadlandet at 62 ° 10 '  N , 5 ° 5'  E.

The HMS Sunfish was handed over to the Soviet Navy on April 10, 1944 , which put the submarine into service on June 26, 1944 with the name W-1 ( В-1 ).

On July 27, 1944, the W-1 was off the Norwegian coast on its way to Murmansk . The submarine was not on course when a British Consolidated B-24 spotted it. For such a meeting it was planned that the submarine would not submerge and fire signal rockets. The W-1 dived, however, which is why the bomber crew thought it was an enemy submarine and attacked with depth charges. The submarine was devastated. The entire crew was killed.

See also

Web links

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

literature

  • Erminio Bagnasco: Submarines in World War II. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-613-01252-9 .
  • Robert Hutchinson: FIGHT UNDER WATER - Submarines from 1776 to the present day. 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 Dixie at www.warsailors.com/homefleet. (engl.)