HMS Tactician (P314)

HMS Tactician in 1953
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Tactician
Builder	Vickers Armstrong, Barrow
Laid down	13 November 1941
Launched	29 July 1942
Commissioned	29 November 1942
Fate	Scrapped December 1963
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	British T class submarine
Displacement	1,290 tons surfaced 1,560 tons submerged
Length	276 ft 6 in (84.28 m)
Beam	25 ft 6 in (7.77 m)
Draught	12 ft 9 in (3.89 m) forward 14 ft 7 in (4.45 m) aft
Propulsion	Two shafts Twin diesel engines 2,500 hp (1.86 MW) each Twin electric motors 1,450 hp (1.08 MW) each
Speed	15.5 knots (28.7 km/h) surfaced 9 knots (20 km/h) submerged
Range	4,500 nautical miles at 11 knots (8,330 km at 20 km/h) surfaced
Test depth	300 ft (91 m) max
Complement	61
Armament	6 internal forward-facing 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 2 external forward-facing torpedo tubes 2 external amidships rear-facing torpedo tubes 1 external rear-facing torpedo tubes 6 reload torpedoes 1 x 4-inch (102 mm) deck gun 3 anti aircraft machine guns

HMS Tactician was a British submarine of the third group of the T class. She was built as P314 by Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow, and launched on 29 July 1942.

Service[]

Tactician served in the Mediterranean and the Far East during her wartime career. Whilst operating against the Italians, she sank the Italian auxiliary patrol vessel V17 / Pia and the Italian sailing vessel Bice. She also torpedoed the Italian merchant vessel Rosandra off the coast of Albania; sinking her the following day.

On being transferred to the Pacific, commanded by Lt. Cdr. Anthony Collett, DSC, she continued to harass enemy shipping, sinking a small Japanese vessel and two Siamese sailing vessels before the end of the war. She took part in Operation Cockpit, where she rescued a downed US airman, Lt. D. C. Klahn, under fire.^[1]

A newsreel dated 1952^[2] shows Tactician taking part in an exercise in the Sea of Japan. In it, the submarine is seen diving.^[3]

Tactician survived the war and continued in service with the navy, finally being scrapped at Newport on 6 December 1963.^[4]

See also[]

• List of submarines of the Royal Navy
• British T class submarine

References[]

• 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 Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• 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.