HMS Swordfish (61S)

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HMS Swordfish (61S)
Royal Navy
HMS Swordfish around 1939
General data
Ship type : Submarine
Ship class : Swordfish class ( S class )
Navy : Royal Navy
Builder : Chatham Dockyard ( Chatham )
Keel laying : December 1, 1930
Launch : November 10, 1931
Commissioning: November 28, 1932
Whereabouts: Missed since November 7, 1940. Found in the English Channel in 1983 , presumably sunk after a sea mine explosion .
Technical data
(see Swordfish class )

HMS Swordfish (61S) was a submarine of the British Royal Navy , which in the Second World War was used.

history

The keel of the submarine with the hull number "61S" was laid up on December 1, 1930 in the Chatham naval shipyard . The Swordfish ( Engl. : Swordfish ) was the lead ship of the same name first contract section of the S-Class . The launch took place on November 10, 1931, the commissioning on November 28, 1932. HMS Swordfish was one of the most advanced submarine types of its time. The S-Class boats were heavily armed, medium-sized, had excellent maneuverability, and could dive very quickly (the time required for this was only half the length of a German VIIc boat ).

After the start of the Second World War, the submarine commanded by Lieutenant CB Crouch drove several patrols in the North Sea and the English Channel . On September 14, 1939, it was attacked near Aberdeen ( Scotland ) by its sister ship HMS Sturgeon , which had mistaken the Swordfish for a German submarine. Fortunately, however, the torpedoes missed their target. During a patrol off the Norwegian coast, on April 20, 1940, the submarine carried out an unsuccessful attack on the German freighter Santos (5,943 GRT ) off Larvik , and on July 28, 1940 it hid a group of Norwegians who had defected theirs  from the German occupiers Fled from their homeland from the yacht Maski . After taking over the men, the Swordfish sank the ship with artillery fire . On October 1, the submarine cruising off Cherbourg unsuccessfully attacked the two German torpedo boats Falke and Kondor .

On November 7, 1940, HMS Swordfish , now under the command of Lieutenant MA Langley, DSC , left Portsmouth Harbor . The submarine was supposed to replace the HMS Usk , which was cruising off Ushant in the English Channel , but never reached its destination and disappeared without a trace with its 40-man crew. It was suspected that it had been sunk by a German destroyer , but for a long time no precise clues were found about its fate.

Rediscovery of the wreck

The wreck of the HMS Swordfish was discovered in 1983 by the diver Martin Woodward south of St Catherine's Point, Isle of Wight , at the position 50 ° 28 ′ 47 ″  N , 1 ° 21 ′ 57 ″  W at a depth of 36 m. Apparently a sea ​​mine explosion tore the submarine in two. The hull has broken off in front of the gun, the front part is on the port side, while the rear part is upright on the seabed. The forward subscripts are in the diving position and the bridge telegraph shows "Slow speed ahead". The rear exit hatch is open. As a result, some of the crew members may have survived the sinking and attempted to escape. Since 2006, HMS Swordfish has been protected as a "Protected Place" by the " Protection of Military Remains Act " of 1986. The wreck can be viewed from the outside by divers, but entering, collecting souvenirs or performing salvage work is prohibited.

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 .
  • Peter Padfield: The Submarine War 1939-1945. Ullstein Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-548-24766-0 .

Explanations and references

  1. ↑ a b The uboat.net states that the Swordfish was commissioned on November 28, 1932. Hutchinson (see literature ) gives in KAMPF UNDER WASSER September 16, 1932.
  2. ↑ HMS is the abbreviation for His / Her Majesty's Ship and the name prefix of British ships. HMS means His / Her Majesty's Ship .