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H. M.
S. U N I S O N
B a t t l
e H o n o u r s
SICILY
1943
Launched in
November 1941 as P34 she completed work-up in February 1942 and
after docking in Ardrossan was deployed
for a North Sea patrol during March that year. Before being
transferred to join the 10th Submarine Flotilla in Malta she carried
out a patrol to cover passage of a Russian convoy against U-Boat
attacks.
On arrival at
Gibraltar she took part in covering a Malta supply convoy (Operation
HARPOON) to attack Italian warships attempting to intercept this
important relief operation. Whilst on patrol south of Sardinia on
13th June she attacked an Italian force comprising two cruisers and
four destroyers obtaining one hit. Before return to Gibraltar she
attacked and missed a submarine. On arrival in Malta this submarine
began a series of patrols the first of which was in the Aegean where
she hit a tanker off Levkas which had to
be beached. Her next patrol off Crete was uneventful but during
October she sank a mercantile off Navaria.
Deployed in the Tyrrhenian Sea the next month she again encountered
a submarine but the attack failed, although later she hit and
damaged a tanker.
Later in
November she had an uneventful patrol off Cape St Vito before being
selected to take part in providing cover for an attack by "CHARIOTS"
on warships in Sardinia by a patrol off the eastern coast whilst
other submarines launched the midget craft early in 1943. On return
to Malta she was renamed UNISON and was the first submarine to carry
this name which had been used by a vessel requisitioned during WW1.
She was deployed for patrol in the Gulf of Gabes and Hammamet
area for interception of supply ships in February and sank three
small craft by sunk by surface gun attacks before return to Malta on
14th February. Her next patrol off the coast of Calabria was more
successful as she sank an Italian tanker in convoy and survived a
somewhat ill directed counter attack by diving deep. A later encounter with a submarine was again a
failure.
Whilst on
patrol in April, north of Sicily she sank the 6,000 ton mercantile
MARCO FOSCARINI and the next month the Italian freighter TERM in the
Straits of Messina after which the counter attack was evaded.
Selected for service as a Beach Marker during the allied landings in
Sicily (Operation HUSKY) she assisted in accurate navigation of the
assault convoys. Her next interception patrol was north of Messina
during which she unsuccessfully attacked a mercantile before going
to Bizerta. She was attached to a convoy for passage to Malta but
after being detached she came under friendly fire from a merchant
ship. This killed one officer and wounded the commanding officer as
well damage to the structure which required dockyard repair which
was completed in Malta on 20th August. This submarine took passage
to UK from Malta for a refit on 9th September 1943 and after sailing
from Gibraltar carried out a patrol west of Cadiz before arriving at
Devonport on 28th to Pay-off. Refit work was completed in February
1944 and she recommissioned for trials and training duties in the
6th Submarine Flotilla based at Blyth. These duties terminated in
May after she had been selected for transfer to the Soviet Fleet and
she prepared for her new service at Rosyth.
On completion
she took passage to Dundee where she was handed over to Russia and
renamed V.3 (B.3 in Russian). She arrived at Polyarno on 5th August and joined the Northern
Fleet. Retained after the end of hostilities she was not returned to
the RN until February 1949 when she was placed in Reserve and went
on the Disposal List at Lisahally until
being sold for breaking up at Stockton on Tees the next
year. |
