HMS Stratagem (P234)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 HMS Stratagem |
|
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | S class submarine |
| Name: | HMS Stratagem |
| Builder: | Cammell Laird & Co Limited, Birkenhead |
| Laid down: | 15 April 1942 |
| Launched: | June 21, 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 9 October 1943 |
| Fate: | Sunk November 22, 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 814-872 tons surfaced 990 tons submerged |
| Length: | 217 ft (66 m) |
| Beam: | 23 ft 6 in (7.2 m) |
| Draught: | 11 ft (3.4 m) |
| Speed: | 14.75 knots surfaced 8 knots submerged |
| Complement: | 48 officers and men |
| Armament: | 6 x forward 21-inch torpedo tubes, one aft 13 torpedoes one three-inch gun (four-inch on later boats) one 20 mm cannon three .303-calibre machine gun |
HMS Stratagem was an S class submarine of the Royal Navy, and part of the Third Group built of that class. She was built by Cammell Laird and launched on June 21, 1943. So far she has been the only ship to bear the name Stratagem.
[edit] Career
She served in the Pacific for most of her short career, where she sank the Japanese tanker Nichinan Maru and unsuccessfully attacked the German submarine U-181.[1]
[edit] Sinking
Stratagem left Trincomalee on November 10, 1944 to patrol in the vicinity of Malacca where it was believed the Japanese were loading ships with bauxite ore. On the 18 November[2] she attacked and sank the tanker Nichinan Maru, but on November 22 she was spotted by a Japanese aircraft. She attempted to dive and escape but the aircraft directed a destroyer to where it had dived. The destroyer launched depth charges, the first of which caused the submarine’s bow to strike the bottom. The submarine was plunged into darkness and the forward part began to flood. Attempts to shut the watertight door to the forward compartment failed and the crew were forced to abandon the ship. Ten of her crew were taken prisoner, of which only three survived captivity.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ HMS Stratagem (P 234). Uboat.net. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
- ^ These sources says it was 19 November 1944:
- Cressman, Robert (2000). "Chapter VI: 1944", The official chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781557501493. OCLC 41977179. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
- HMS Stratagem (P 234). Uboat.net. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
- ^ Submarine losses 1904 to present day. RN Submarine Museum, Gosport. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
- 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.
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