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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 CASTELVERDE
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 BAALBECK. 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 a German
tanker of 9,805 tons, HENRY DESPREZ
(requistioned French tanker). 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 DI 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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