HMS Snapper (39S)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Career | |
---|---|
Class and type: | S-class submarine |
Name: | HMS Snapper |
Builder: | Chatham Dockyard |
Launched: | 25 October 1934 |
Fate: | Sunk February 1941 |
General characteristics | |
Displacement: | 670 tons surfaced 960 tons submerged |
Length: | 208 ft 9 in (63.6 m) |
Beam: | 24 ft (7.3 m) |
Draught: | 10 ft 6 in (3.2 m) |
Propulsion: | Twin diesel/electric |
Speed: | 13.75 knots surfaced 10 knots submerged |
Complement: | 39 officers and men |
Armament: | 6 x forward 21-inch torpedo tubes 12 torpedoes one three-inch gun one .303-calibre machine gun |
HMS Snapper was a Royal Navy S-class submarine which was launched October 25, 1934 and fought in World War II. Snapper is one of 12 boats named in the song Twelve Little S-Boats.
[edit] Career
Snapper spent most of her career in home waters. She was mistakenly attacked by a British aircraft when returning to Harwich after a patrol in the North Sea. Although suffering a direct hit, Snapper escaped damage. She went on to sink the small German tanker Moonsund, the German merchant Florida, the German auxiliary minesweepers M 1701 / H. M. Behrens and M 1702 / Carsten Janssen, the German armed trawler V 1107 / Portland and the Norwegian merchant Cygnus. She also attacked the German armed merchant cruiser Schiff 21 / Widder, but the torpedoes missed their target.[1]
[edit] Sinking
She left the Clyde on January 29, 1941 to patrol in the Bay of Biscay. She should have arrived in her patrol area on February 1. She was ordered to remain on station until the 10th and then to return with her escort. Snapper failed to make the rendezvous with the escort and was not heard from again. It is believed that she met her fate through a mine or that she was mortally damaged by a minesweeper which attacked a submarine in Snapper’s area on the 11th although Snapper should have been out of the area by then. [2]
[edit] References
- ^ HMS Snapper, Uboat.net
- ^ Submarine losses 1904 to present day, RN Submarine Museum, Gosport
- Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
|