HMS Triumph (N18)

HMS Triumph (N18) was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness and launched in September 1938.

Career

Triumph had a relatively active, yet tragic career, serving in the North Sea and the Mediterranean.

Home waters

On 26 December 1939, Triumph hit a German mine in the North Sea. Eighteen feet of bow was blown off and her pressure hull was also damaged, but fortunately the torpedoes in the torpedo tubes did not detonate. She managed to limp back home under the protection of fighter aircraft and destroyers, and was under repair at Chatham Dockyard until 27 September 1940.

Mediterranean

Operating in the Mediterranean from early 1941, Triumph sank the Italian merchants Marzamemi, Colomba Lofaro, Ninfea, Monrosa, the Italian auxiliary patrol vessels V 136 / Tugnin F, Valoroso, V 190 / Frieda and V 137 / Trio Frassinetti, the Italian tug Dante de Lutti and salvage vessel Hercules, the German merchant Luvsee, and the Greek sailing vessels Panagiotis and Aghia Paraskeva. She also damaged the Italian armed merchant cruiser Ramb III, the Italian tankers Ardor and Poseidone, the Italian merchant Sidamo and the German merchant Norburg

In June 1941 she sank the Italian submarine Salpa near northern Egypt.

Sinking

Triumph was also used for covert operations, such as landing agents in German occupied areas. She was planned to be used as a rendezvous for commandos in Operation Colossus, but this had to be cancelled when the landing site became untenable. She undertook one such mission in December 1941, in which she successfully landed agents near Piraeus. Her orders were to return and pick the party up on the nightnof 9/10 Jan ADM files at the National Archives Kew contain an Axis report of an attack by an allied SM on a lighter on the morning of 9 Jan off Cape Sounion As Triumph was the only allied boat in the area it is reasonable to conclude that she was the attacking submarine She was lost almost certainly on 9 January 1942 en route from Cape Sounion to Piraeus, where she had a rendezvous with her landing party. She was probably sunk after being mined. All fifty-nine crew were lost.^[1]

There is a memorial to her and her lost crew members in All Saint's church, Lindfield, West Sussex.

References

1. ^ Submarine losses 1904 to present day, RN Submarine Museum, Gosport

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. 
• Hutchinson, Robert (2001). Jane's Submarines: War Beneath the Waves from 1776 to the Present Day. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-710558-8. OCLC 53783010.