HMS Terrapin (P323)

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HMS Terrapin (P323)
Royal Navy
HMS Terrapin (P323) on January 19, 1944
General data
Ship type : Submarine
Ship class : Taciturn class ( T class )
Navy : Royal Navy
Builder : Vickers-Armstrong ( Barrow )
Keel laying : October 19, 1942
Launch : August 31, 1943
Commissioning: January 22, 1944
Whereabouts: Scrapped in June 1946.
Technical data
(see Taciturn class )

HMS Terrapin (P323) was a submarine of the T class of the British Royal Navy in World War II .

The HMS Terrapin was the last loss of a British submarine in World War II and to date (2008) is the Royal Navy's last submarine loss to date due to enemy action.

Construction and commissioning

The Terrapin belonged to the third group of the T-class , which showed various improvements over the first two groups. The boat was laid on October 19, 1942 at Vickers-Armstrong in Barrow-in-Furness . It was launched on August 31, 1943 and entered service on January 22, 1944.

history

The boat initially served in the North Sea . On March 24, 1944, it attacked a German supply convoy off the Norwegian coast near Egersund and torpedoed the former catapult ship Schwabenland (8186 GRT) and the tanker Wörth (6256 GRT, the former Dutch Omala ), which was used as a troop and material transporter . The Schwabenland could be stranded and later towed to Oslo , and the Wörth was towed to Egersund.

In the summer of 1944 the Terrapin was relocated to the Indian Ocean . There, on August 5, 1944, they shelled Japanese artillery positions near Gunung Sitoli on the island of Nias (West Sumatra ), sank a Japanese guard boat, the Shime Maru , and damaged a second one by gunfire . In the following weeks she sank a Japanese mine-layer and a frigate with torpedoes and a total of twelve merchant ships by gunfire and six more by boarding and detonating explosive charges .

Now under Lt. Brunner sank the Terrapin on October 30th, three Japanese sailing freighters, on November 2nd the auxiliary net-laying machine Kumano Maru (872 GRT), and on November 4th the minesweeper W 5 (620 tons), all in the Malacca Strait .

On December 22nd, the Terrapin and her sister boat HMS Trenchant sank the Japanese tanker Yaei Maru No.6 (834 GRT) by gunfire south of Singapore . Three days later, the two boats together sank the auxiliary mine clearer Reisui Maru (219 GRT), a fishing trawler and three coastal freighters. On December 29th, the Terrapin sank a sailing ship and on December 30th two more in the Malacca Straits.

On February 24, 1945, again together with the Trenchant , four small ships were sunk in the Malacca Straits, a fifth by the Terrapin alone. On March 1 and 2, the Terrapin sank another sailing ship. On March 4, again in association with the Trenchant , the Japanese submarine hunter CH 8 was sunk by gunfire about 85 nautical miles south of Penang . The Terrapin then supported its sister boat in the sinking of the submarine hunter CH 5 .

The End

At the end of March 1945 the Terrapin moved to Fremantle in Western Australia in order to operate from there with US submarines in the Pacific .

On May 17, she sank a sailing ship and damaged a second in the Java Sea . Two days later, the boat was discovered by Japanese submarines during an attack on a tanker west of Batavia (Jakarta) and attacked with depth charges. The boat was badly damaged. The hull was indented almost 40 cm on the port side over a length of about 13 meters. There was considerable water ingress in the forward torpedo room and the forward part of the main pumping and flooding system was destroyed.

The Terrapin escaped and returned to Fremantle in the company of the American submarine Cavalla , where she arrived on the evening of May 30th. Investigations there showed that the hull had suffered a slight banana curve and repairs would be too costly. The Terrapin was written off as a total structural loss and scrapped in June 1946.

Commanders

  • Lt. (from March 23, 1944 Lt. Cdr . ) Desmond Samuel Royst Martin (October 10, 1943 - August 30, 1944)
  • Lt. Robert Henry Hugh Brunner (August 30, 1944 - October 1945)

Battle successes (selection)

→ Main article: History of the T submarine class

date
March 24, 1944 HMS Terrapin attacks a German convoy off Egersund (Norway) and damages the Schwabenland seaplane tender (8186 GRT) and the tanker Wörth (6256 GRT) with torpedoes. The Schwabenland is set on the ground. The Wörth is towed away.
August 5, 1944 HMS Terrapin bombs Japanese positions near Gunungsitoli ( Nias , Dutch East Indies). On the same day, a coaster sunk and another damaged.
October 30, 1944 HMS Terrapin sinks three Japanese sailing ships with the deck gun in Malakka Street .
November 2, 1944 HMS Terrapin sunk in the Malay road at 1 ° 30 '  N , 103 ° 0'  O Japanese auxiliary vessel Kumano Maru (872 BRT).
November 4, 1944 HMS Terrapin torpedoes and sunk in the Malay road at 3 ° 44 '  N , 99 ° 50'  O Japanese minesweeper W-5 .
December 22, 1944 HMS Terrapin sunk together with HMS Trenchant at 1 ° 4 '  S , 104 ° 34'  O Japanese tanker Yaei Maru No. 6 (834 GRT) with artillery on board.
December 25, 1944 Together with HMS Trenchant, HMS Terrapin sinks the Japanese rescue minesweeper Reisui Maru (219 GRT). The two submarines also report the sinking of a fishing vessel and three coasters.
December 29, 1944 HMS Terrapin sinks a Japanese sailing ship with the deck gun in Malakka Street.
December 30, 1944 HMS Terrapin sinks two Japanese sailing ships with the deck gun in Malakka Street.
February 24, 1945 HMS Terrapin and HMS Trenchant are jointly sinking four Japanese coasters with their deck guns in Malakka Street. Terrapin also sinks another small unit.
March 1, 1945 HMS Terrapin sinks two Japanese sailing ships with the deck gun in Malakka Street.
March 2, 1945 HMS Terrapin sunk in the Malay road at 3 ° 28 '  N , 101 ° 0'  O a Japanese sailing boat with the deck gun.
March 4, 1945 HMS Terrapin and HMS Trenchant sink together in the Malay Straße 85 nautical miles south of Penang at 4 ° 4 '  N , 100 ° 35'  O Japanese U-Hunter Ch 8 with on-board artillery.
May 17, 1945 HMS Terrapin sank a Japanese sailing ship with the deck gun in the western Java Sea and damaged another.

Web links

Commons : Taciturn class  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Erminio Bagnasco: Submarines in World War II , Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart, 5th edition 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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The uboat.net specifies Bellis & Morcom in Ladywood ( Birmingham , England) as an additional shipyard . Bagnasco and Hutchinson do not mention the shipyard.
  2. ↑ Hutchinson and Bagnasco do not provide any information on the launching of the T-class submarines. The information on launch runs comes from uboat.net .
  3. ↑ a b The uboat.net states January 22, 1944 for the commissioning of the HMS Terrapin . Hutchinson gives January 21, 1944.
  4. ↑ a b W-5 on www.combinedfleet.com (English)
  5. ↑ Desmond Martin on uboat.net (English)
  6. ↑ Robert Brunner in uboat.net (English)

Remarks

  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 . Terrapin means box turtle .