HMS Unruffled

HMS Unruffled returning to harbour in Malta after a patrol in the Mediterranean
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Unruffled
Builder	Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down	25 February 1941
Launched	19 December 1941
Commissioned	9 April 1942
Identification	Pennant number P46
Fate	Scrapped January 1946
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	U-class submarine
Displacement	Surfaced – 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load Submerged – 730 tons
Length	191 feet (58 m)
Beam	16 feet 1 inch (4.90 m)
Draught	15 feet 2 inches (4.62 m)
Propulsion	2 shaft diesel-electric 2 Paxman Ricardo diesel generators + electric motors 615 hp (459 kW) / 825 hp (615 kW)
Speed	11.25 knots (20.8 km/h) max surfaced 10 knots (19 km/h) max submerged
Complement	27–31
Armament	4 × bow internal 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes; 8–10 torpedoes 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) gun

HMS Unruffled was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Unruffled.

Career[]

Unruffled spent most of her eventful wartime career in the Mediterranean, where she sank the Vichy-French merchant ship Liberia (the former Greek Cape Corso), the Italian auxiliary minesweeper N 10 / Aquila, the Italian merchant ships Leonardo Palomba, , Sant'Antioco, Citta di Catania, and Città di Spezia, the Italian tankers Castelverde and Teodolinda, the Italian sailing vessel Amabile Carolina, the Italian naval auxiliary Z 90 / Redentore, the German merchant ships Lisboa, Pommern and Baalbeck and the French tanker Henri Desprez.

On 13 October 1942 Unruffled torpedoed and sank the Italian cargo ship Loreto in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the north coast of Sicily. Loreto was carrying prisoners of war, 130 of whom were killed.

Unruffled launched unsuccessful attacks on the Italian submarine Antonio Sciesa and the small German minesweeper R 212. Her most important target was the Italian cruiser Attilio Regolo, which she torpedoed on 7 November 1942. Although 60 feet (18 m) of bow were blown off Unruffled could not sink the cruiser, having by now run out of torpedoes. The damaged cruiser was towed to port by the tug Polifemo, escorted by the torpedo boats Cigno, Lince and Giuseppe Cesare Abba. Another attack by HMS United failed, but Attilio Regolo was out of action for the rest of the war.

As well as these actions, Unruffled took part in operations Harpoon and Vigorous. She was also the recovery vessel for Operation Principal, a chariot attack on Palermo harbour on 3 January 1943.

Unruffled survived the War and was scrapped at Troon in January 1946.

References[]

• "HMS Unruffled (P 46)". uboat.net.
• "Universal to Untamed". British submarines of World War II. Archived from the original on 11 July 2007.
• 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.

External links[]

• IWM Interview with John Stevens, who commanded HMS Unruffled from 1942 to 1944