HMS L10

Career
Name: HMS L10
Builder: William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton
Commissioned: June 1918
Fate: Sunk, 4 October 1918
General characteristics
Class and type:L class submarine
Displacement:890 long tons (904 t) surfaced
1,074 long tons (1,091 t) submerged[1]
Length:228 ft (69 m)
Beam:23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
Speed:17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) surfaced
10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph) submerged
Range:2,800 nmi (5,200 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) surfaced[1]
Complement:38
Armament:• 4 × 21 in (533 mm) bow torpedo tubes
• 2 × 18 in (457 mm) beam torpedo tubes
• 8 × 21 inch and 2 × 18 inch torpedoes
• 1 × 4-inch gun[1]

HMS L10 was a British L class submarine commissioned in June 1918 and destroyed by enemy action in October of the same year. Built at Dumbarton by William Denny, L10 was a modern and advanced boat with six torpedo tubes and a 4-inch gun. She was assigned to serve in the North Sea against German surface units counteracting German efforts to sow mines in British waters.

Sinking

Her greatest success led to her destruction, when on the morning of the 4 October 1918, aged just under four months, the L10 surfaced in the Heligoland Bight with the mission of intercepting a German raiding party. This group, consisting of the destroyers S34, S33, V28 and V29 had been delayed in the Bight because the S34 had detonated a mine. The other destroyers were crowded round their damaged comrade, and so it was easy for L10's commander, Alfred Edward Whitehouse to sneak into position and put a torpedo into the S33, which rapidly began to sink. Unfortunately, as she fired, the L10 rose suddenly to the surface and was seen instantly by the V28 and V29. Although she turned and tried to flee, L10 was not fast enough to escape her pursuers and was rapidly chased down and sunk with all hands. She was the only L class boat to be lost during the First World War.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "L Class Submarines". battleships-cruisers.co.uk. Retrieved 12 May 2010.