B a t t l
e H o n o u r s
SICILY
1943
Deployed as
P46 this submarine completed working-up in the Clyde area during May
and then carried out patrols off Norway. She was transferred to the
Mediterranean in and took passage to join the 10th Submarine
Flotilla at Malta on 12th June 1942.
She carried
out an uneventful patrol off the Alboran
islands from Gibraltar in July and before leaving
for Malta on 1st August was under repair for two
weeks. Whilst on passage she carried out a patrol to intercept
Italian warships attempting to
intercept the PEDESTAL relief convoy to Malta An attack on a mercantile on 10th August failed
on release from PEDESTAL cover she
arrived in Malta on 15th for Flotilla duties. Her first patrol from
Malta off Misrata was uneventful but on her second sortie off Kuriat in September she sank two supply
ships by torpedo and a schooner in a gun attack. During patrol off north Sicily and the
Italian mainland in November she bombarded a railway line hitting a
train and sank two more Italian
mercantiles before return to Malta on 15th of the month. She sailed
for her next patro1 early in November and encountered a submarine on which a
torpedo attack missed. Her fortunes were restored later when she hit
and damaged the Italian cruiser
ATTILIO REGOLO which was under repair for several months. On a later
patrol in the Gulf of Sirte she damaged a small tug in a gun attack. On
her next patrol off Cape Bon she sank the Italian mv CASTTELVEROE
of 6,665
tons before taking part in Operation PRINCIPAL an attack by
"Chariots" on warships at Palermo.
She acted as
a recovery submarine and rescued
two personnel on 3rd January 1943. Later that month, whilst on
patrol in the Gulf of Hammamet she attacked two small sailing craft and also
two larger supply ships. In the same area during February under
her: new name, used for the first
time by the RN, she attacked a two ship convoy sinking the German
mv BAALBEK. She carried out two special reconnaissance patrols
off Sicily in April prior to the allied landings planned for July
(Operation HUSKY). Deployed in the
Tyrrhenian Sea the next month she sank an
German tanker of 9,805 tons, HENFIDEPREZ (?). Before serving as a
navigational marker during HUSKY landings in ACID AREA she carried
out a third reconnaissance patrol
off Sicily and after the assault of 8th July launched two FOLBOATS.
She sailed for patrol again on 27th July and whilst off Brindisi sank the Italian mv CITTA DA CATANIA, 2,474 tons. Later during
August 1943 she was deployed again in the Adriatic and carried intelligence agents
and stores to Cephalonia before an interception patrol during which
she sank on supply ships and
missed another during an attack on a convoy.
Nominated for
return to UK for refit she carried out a final patrol in the western Mediterranean and
attacked, unsuccessfully, a convoy during passage to Algiers. Whilst
on passage from Gibraltar she had
to return for repair and did not arrive in Sheerness until 29th
November after calls at Falmouth and Portsmouth. Refit was carried out at Tilbury
and the submarine Paid-off in December 1943.
On completion
of post refit repairs discovered
during trials in April 1944 she worked-up at Plymouth for a month
and joined the 7th Submarine Flotilla for anti-submarine training duties on 3rd June.
Three weeks later she was transferred for training duties in the
West Indies and sailed from Rothesay on 26th. She was deployed at Bermuda
for only a few weeks until 9th September when she returned
to Rothesay.
Paid-off at Londonderry and reduced to Reserve status during October
1945 she was placed on the Disposal List and sold for breaking-up at
Troon where she arrived on 21st January
1946.
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