HMS Regent (N41)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Regent.
Career (UK)
Name: HMS Regent
Ordered: 28 February 1929
Builder: Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down: 19 June 1929
Launched: 11 June 1930
Commissioned: 11 November 1930
Fate: Sunk 18 April 1943
General characteristics
Class and type:Rainbow-class submarine
Displacement:1,763 long tons (1,791 t) surfaced
2,030 long tons (2,060 t) submerged
Length:287 ft (87 m)
Beam:30 ft (9.1 m)
Draught:16 ft (4.9 m)
Propulsion:Diesel-electric
2 × Admiralty diesel engines, 4,640 hp
2 × electric motors, 1,635 hp
2 shafts
Speed:17.5 knots (20.1 mph; 32.4 km/h) surfaced
8.6 kn (9.9 mph; 15.9 km/h) submerged
Complement:53
Armament:8 × 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes (6 bow, 2 stern) with 14 reloads
1 × 4.7 in QF Mark IX deck gun
Notes:Pennant number: N41

HMS Regent was a Rainbow-class submarine designed and built by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering in Barrow-in-Furness for the Royal Navy, and was launched on 11 June 1930. She was lost with all hands after striking a mine on 18 April 1943.

Pre-World War II

Regent was commissioned for service in the 4th Submarine Flotilla on the China Station. She was deployed at Hong Kong until 1940. There Medway, the Royal Navy's first purpose-built submarine depot ship, supported her and her class mates, Rainbow, Regulus, and Rover.[1]

1939-40

Lieutenant Commander Browne RN assumed command of Regent on 9 April 1939.[1]

Between April and May 1940 Regent and the other boats of 4th Submarine Flotilla transferred to 1st Submarine Flotilla based in Alexandria, Egypt. There she received pennant "N41". She initially laid mines off North Africa.[1]

From June 1940 to December Regent deployed in the eastern Mediterranean with 1st Flotilla. While conducting interception patrols, in October Regent sank two merchant vessels off Durazzo, Albania. The vessels had a total tonnage of 6068 tons.[1] One vessel was an Italian sailing vessel, Maria Grazia, of 188 GRT. Regent sank Maria Grazia by ramming her on 5 October off Bari at 41°05′N 17°45′E / 41.083°N 17.750°E. Four days later Regent claimed her second victim, an Italian merchantman of 5,900 GRT. Regent torpedoed Antonietta Costa at 41°05′N 17°45′E / 41.083°N 17.750°E. Antonietta Costa grounded but proved unsalvageable.[2]

On 14 or 15 January 1942 Regent was off Benghazi, Libya. There she sank the MV Città di Messina, with the loss of 432 men.[3] Citta di Messina, of 2,742 tons, was under escort by the Italian torpedo boat Centauro, which was able to rescue 166 survivors.[1] The incident took place 45 nautical miles east of Tripoli, Libya, at 32°59′N 14°11′E / 32.983°N 14.183°E.[2]

On 21 February Regent attacked three merchant vessels. She damaged Menes, of 5,609 tons, but Seatta, one of the three destroyers escorting the merchantmen, took that vessel into tow.[1] Menes was a German vessel and the attack took place at 33°41′N 12°48′E / 33.683°N 12.800°E, which is about 55 nautical miles NNW of Tripoli, Libya. Before Saetta took Menes into tow she dropped depth charges on Regent, which damaged the submarine.[2]

British-Yugoslavian Ambassador Incident[4]

The Regent achieved fame after it wove its way in April 1941 through two minefields and entered the Italian Port of Kotor, present-day Montenegro, to negotiate the release of the then British Foreign Minister to Belgrade, Ronald Campbell.

After waiting for nine hours, a Yugoslav Commander informed Browne that Yugoslavia had been overrun by German forces and Campbell was being held by the German Allies and occupying Italians at a small village called Ercegnovi, a short distance down the coast.

Regent arrived at Ercegnovi and sent Lt D. Lambert ashore to negotiate Campbell's release. To assuage British fear that the Italians would take Lambert hostage, the Italians exchanged a staff officer.

Just after half-past three, several supposed Italian dive-bombers attacked the Regent. For the safety of his crew, Browne decided he would have to leave Lambert ashore and attempt to escape. Regent successfully escaped into the Adriatic Sea after the aircraft had followed Regent, firing at its periscope.

Although the Regent's crew initially thought the dive-bombers were Italian, it later turned out that they were German. Their arrival caused much annoyance to the Italian Admiral conducting the negotiations for Campbell's release.

Return to combat service

Lieutenant Walter Neville Ronald Knox replaced Browne on 20 July 1941.[1]

On 1 August, Regent used her gun to sink the Italian auxiliary minesweeper B 23 (Igea), of 160 GRT.[5] The attack took place at 31°33′N 19°56′E / 31.550°N 19.933°E, which is about 33 nautical miles south of Benghazi.[2]

In November, the British submarines Regent, Otus, Unique, Ultimatum, Ursula and Urge deployed to interdict convoys sailing between Italy and Tripoli. The group did not meet with any success.[1]

Then on 1 December Regent succeeded in torpedoing an Italian merchant vessel, the Enrico, of 2,350 GRT. The attack took place at 37°52′N 11°52′E / 37.867°N 11.867°E, which is 10 nautical miles south-east of the Aegadian island of Marettimo.[2]

In January 1942 Regent deployed to Gibraltar, but then sailed to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, USA, for a refit, which began on 16 February.[Note 1] While Regent was on her way via Punta Delgado in the Azores, Clyde fired two torpedoes, fortunately unsuccessfully, at Regent. Regent and '"Clyde were both on the surface, and Clyde fired just before she dove.[6]

Regent completed her refitting on 18 September.[1] Between 3 December and 21 January 1943 she reportedly was at Bermuda for repairs of storm damage. She then returned to Gibraltar, where she resumed her deployment in the Mediterranean.

Loss

On 11 April 1943 Regent sailed to patrol the southern Adriatic, and she was lost with all hands at some point during the weeks which followed. The loss was discovered when the submarine failed to return to its base in Beirut, Lebanon, to re-fuel and take on supplies by 1 May 1943.

In 2014, Regent‍ '​s wreckage was found at a depth of 28 meters at 41°29′N 16°16′E / 41.483°N 16.267°E, some ten miles north of Barletta, on Italy's Adriatic coast.[2]

In the years before the finding of the wreck, accounts of the loss had differed.

One theory, which has gained credence, is that on 18 April Regent struck a mine north of Barletta, after attacking an Italian convoy.[2] It is reported that earlier that day an unidentified submarine had attempted to torpedo the small Italian tanker Bivona, of 1,646 GRT, and the submarine in question may have been Regent.[2]

A second theory was that on 18 April the submarine was north of Monopoli, further along the same coast, where she fired a torpedo at the merchant vessel Baltic, but missed. The Italian warship Gabbiano was escorting Baltic and immediately launched a depth charges attack which it was thought could have destroyed Regent.[1] Gabbiano was the ship after which the Italian Navy's Gabbiano class of corvettes was named.

Notes, citations and references

Notes

  1. ↑ Source: Thomas Heinrich, Associate Professor of American Industrial History, New York, in a personal communication with Lt. Cdr. Geoffrey B. Mason RN (Rtd).[1]

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 Mason (2006), HMS Regent (N41).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Uboat Net:Regent (N41), - accessed 3 January 2015.
  3. ↑ MV Citta di Messina (+1941), - accessed 1 January 2015.
  4. ↑ Admiralty, Admiralty Staff (1997), pp.40-43.
  5. ↑ Wreck site:B23 (Igea) (+1941): - accessed 3 January 2015.
  6. ↑ Kemp (1993), p.130.

References