HMS Trooper (N91)

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Career (UK) Royal Navy Ensign
Builder: Scotts, Greenock
Laid down: 7 May 1940
Launched: 5 March 1942
Commissioned: 29 August 1942
Fate: sunk 17 October 1943
General characteristics
Class and type: British T class submarine
Displacement: 1,090 tons surfaced
1,575 tons submerged
Length: 275 ft (84 m)
Beam: 26 ft 6 in (8.1 m)
Draught: 16.3 ft (5.0 m)
Propulsion:

Two shafts
Twin diesel engines 2,500 hp (1.86 MW) each

Twin electric motors 1,450 hp (1.08 MW) each
Speed:

15.25 knots (28.7 km/h) surfaced

9 knots (20 km/h) submerged
Range: 4,500 nautical miles at 11 knots (8,330 km at 20 km/h) surfaced
Test depth: 300 ft (91 m) max
Complement: 61
Armament:

6 internal forward facing torpedo tubes
2 external forward facing torpedo tubes
3 external backward facing torpedo tubes
6 reload torpedoes
4 inch (100 mm) deck gun

3 anti-aircraft machine guns

HMS Trooper (N91) was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Scotts, Greenock and launched in March 1942.

[edit] Career

Trooper spent most of her short career serving in the Mediterranean. She sank the Italian tanker Rosario, the Italian merchant Forli, a sailing vessel and the Italian submarine Pietro Micca. She also damaged two other enemy vessels, and unsuccessfully attacked the Italian merchant Belluno (the former French Fort de France).[1]

On her first operation, she took part in Operation Principal, which used human torpedoes to sink Italian ships in Palermo harbour.

Trooper sailed from Beirut on 26 September 1943, on her 8th War Patrol to patrol in the Aegean Sea off the Dodecanese islands. On 14th October she challenged Levant Schooner Flotilla F8 off Alinda Bay, Leros. She failed to return on 17th October and was reported overdue on that day. She is presumed lost on German mines around Leros.

The Germans claimed that Trooper was sunk by Q-ship GA.45 on 15 October 1943. The submarine GA-45 attacked was actually HMS Torbay which escaped undamaged.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ HMS Trooper, Uboot.net
  2. ^ Submarine losses 1904 to present day, RN Submarine Museum, Gosport