HMS Unshaken (P54)
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | U-class submarine |
| Name: | HMS Unshaken |
| Builder: | Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness |
| Laid down: | 12 June 1941 |
| Launched: | 17 February 1942 |
| Commissioned: | 21 May 1942 |
| Fate: | scrapped March 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: |
Surfaced - 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load Submerged - 730 tons |
| Length: | 58.22 m (191 ft) |
| Beam: | 4.90 m (16 ft 1 in) |
| Draught: | 4.62 m (15 ft 2 in) |
| Propulsion: |
2 shaft diesel-electric |
| Speed: |
11.25 knots max surfaced 10 knots (19 km/h) max submerged |
| Complement: | 27-31 |
| Armament: |
4 bow internal 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes - 8 - 10 torpedoes 1 - 3-inch (76 mm) gun |
HMS Unshaken (P54) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Unshaken.
[edit] Career
After a period operating of the coast of Norway, Unshaken spent most ofher wartime career in the Mediterranean. Whilst in northern waters, on 5 July 1942, Unshaken radioed in a sighting and an exact description of a heavy German force - including the Tirpitz, Admiral Scheer and Admiral Hipper - as at sea in pursuit of the ill-fated convoy PQ17 off North Norway. Hearing of these allied sighting reports (also made by Russian submarine K-21 and a Catalina patrol aircraft) through intelligence, Admiral Raeder cancelled the sortie, ordering the surface fleet to return to port and leaving the Luftwaffe and U-boats to attack the convoy. The convoy lost 24 ships out of 40, but it could have been even worse for the convoy if the heavy force had remained at sea.
Unshaken also sank the German merchant Georg L.M. Russ off southern Norway, before being reassigned to the Mediterranean in late 1942.
Serving in the Mediterranean, she sank the Italian merchants Foggia and Pomo (the former Yugoslavian Nico Matkovic), the Italian torpedo boat Climene, the Italian sailing vessel Giovanni G., the Italian auxiliary patrol vessel No 265 / Cesena, and the Italian troop transport Asmara. She also damaged the Italian tanker Dora C.. She launched unsuccessful attacks against the French merchant Oasis, the Italian merchants Pomo, Nina and Campania, and the French passenger/cargo ship Cap Corse. Unshaken had a narrow escape, after she was attacked by four torpedoes launched by the Polish submarine ORP Dzik. The Poles thought they were attacking an enemy submarine, but luckily the torpedoes missed their target. Unshaken captured the Italian submarine Menolti on the night that Italy ceased hostilities and escorted it to Malta.
After a return to home waters in mid 1944, Unshaken sank the German merchant Asien off Lista, Norway.
Unshaken survived the war and was scrapped at Troon in March 1946.
[edit] References
- HMS Unshaken (P 54). uboat.net.
- Universal to Untamed. British submarines of World War II.
- 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.
- Submarines, War Beneath The Waves, From 1776 To The Present Day, by Robert Hutchinson
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