HMS Tuna |
|
| Career (UK) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Tuna |
| Ordered: | 9 December 1937 |
| Builder: | Scotts, Greenock |
| Laid down: | 13 June 1938 |
| Launched: | 10 May 1940 |
| Commissioned: | 1 August 1940 |
| Honours and awards: |
North Sea 1939-45 Biscay 1940-45 |
| Fate: | Broken up June 1946 |
| Badge: | |
| 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 (8.08 m) |
| Draught: | 16.3 ft (5.0 m) |
| Propulsion: |
Two shafts |
| Speed: |
15.25 knots (28.7 km/h) surfaced |
| Range: | 4,500 nautical miles at 11 knots (8,330 km at 20 km/h) surfaced |
| Test depth: | 300 ft (91 m) max |
| Complement: | 59 |
| Armament: |
6 internal forward-facing torpedo tubes |
HMS Tuna (N94) was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Scotts, Greenock and launched on the 10 May 1940. She was equipped with German built engines, and spent her service career in World War II in western European waters, in both the North Sea and off the western coast of France. She took part in many war patrols, and her crew received service medals for the boat's destruction of several U-boats.
Contents |
Tuna was ordered from Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company on 9 December, 1937, as part of an extension of the 1937 construction programme, with an initial round of four submarines ordered earlier that year in July. Tuna was part of a further three submarines to be ordered, along with Triad and Truant, which were both ordered from another shipbuilder.[1]
She was equipped with diesel engines produced by MAN SE, a German company. The engines had been delivered before the outbreak of war, and spare parts were rare, with members of the crew creating replacement parts from other equipment whilst at sea on at least one occasion.[2]
Tuna had a relatively active career, serving in the North Sea and off the French and Scandinavian coasts.
She sunk the 7,230 ton merchant Tirranna on 22 September 1940. The Tirranna was a Norwegian merchant ship that had previously been captured by the German armed merchant cruiser Atlantis, in the Indian Ocean. Tirranna had 292 people on board when sunk, including at least 264 captured Allied sailors and a 16-strong German prize crew. Eighty-seven people died in the sinking, including one German.[3][4] She also torpedoed and sank the German catapult ship Ostmark and the French tug Chassiron. She fired upon and sank the German submarine U-644 and attacked the German submarine U-302 and the Italian submarine Brin as well as two unidentified submarine contacts, all unsuccessfully. Another attack on the German tanker Benno, formerly the Norwegian Ole Jacob, which had also been captured earlier by the Atlantis, also failed.[5]
In January 1941 she and the submarine Snapper were escorted by the captured French minesweeper La Capricieuse as far as Bishop Rock, Isles of Scilly. Snapper departed to go to a different patrol area, and was presumed lost after she failed to return.[6][7] Later that month she engaged and pursued an unidentified U-boat at night on the surface for over an hour. Firing the forward mounted four-inch gun, damage was noted to the U-boat's conning tower. The German vessel returned fire with an aft mounted gun, but no damage was reported to Tuna. The pursuit was called off after the appearance of further enemy vessels, with Tuna diving to avoid them.[8]
In February 1942 she was was ordered towards the Trondheim area along with HMS Trident to provide protection to a convoy from enemy sorties out of the Swedish port. Although Tuna did not engage the enemy, Trident managed to damage the German cruiser Prinz Eugen.[9]
On 30 November, 1942, she sailed from the Holy Loch, Scotland, transporting Royal Marines to the Gironde estuary as part of Operation Frankton.[10] She was scheduled to arrive on 6 December, but was delayed due to both bad weather and the need to navigate a minefield.[11] She arrived at the estuary a day late, surfacing 10 miles (16 km) out from the mouth.[10] The aim of the operation was for several canoes of marines to paddle 60 miles up the Gironde to attack German ships at Bordeaux;[12] in the process of disembarking the canoes, one of the six canoes was damaged, leaving the submarine to return those marines whilst the remainder continued on the operation.[10] The operation resulted in a success although only Corporal Bill Sparks and Major Herbert Hasler survived.[12] The mission was one of the forerunners to the formation of the Special Boat Service.[13]
She returned to home waters for the first time in four war patrols on 18 November, 1943. For the destruction of three U-boats during those patrols, her commanding officer, Lieutenant D. S. R. Martin, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order with two bars.[14] Additionally, the Distinguished Service Cross was awarded to Lt (E) N. Travers, and the Distinguished Service Medal to four other members of the crew.[15]
In August 1945, she attended the first British Navy week held in a foreign port, in Rotterdam. Also in attendance were the cruiser HMS Bellona, and the destroyers Garth and Onslow. Non-British vessels in attendance included two of the Dutch Navy submarines of the T-class, Dolfjin and Zeehond.[16]
Tuna survived the war and was sold to be broken up for scrap on 19 December 1945, a job carried out at Briton Ferry from June 1946.
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