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B
a t t l e H o n o u r s
SICILY
1943
Launched
in November 1941 as P34 she completed
work-up in February 1942 and after docking
in Ardrossan
was deployed for a North Sea patrol during
March that year. Before being transferred
to join the 10th Submarine Flotilla in
Malta she carried out a patrol to cover
passage of a Russian convoy against U-Boat
attacks.
On
arrival at Gibraltar she took part in
covering a Malta supply convoy (Operation
HARPOON) to attack Italian warships
attempting to intercept this important
relief operation. Whilst on patrol south
of Sardinia on 13th June she attacked an
Italian force comprising two cruisers and
four destroyers obtaining one hit. Before
return to Gibraltar she attacked and
missed a submarine. On arrival in Malta
this submarine began a series of patrols
the first of which was in the Aegean where
she hit a tanker off Levkas
which had to be beached. Her next patrol
off Crete was uneventful but during
October she sank a mercantile off Navaria.
Deployed in the Tyrrhenian Sea the next
month she again encountered a submarine
but the attack failed, although later she
hit and damaged a tanker.
Later
in November she had an uneventful patrol
off Cape St Vito before being selected to
take part in providing cover for an attack
by CHARIOTS on warships in Sardinia by a
patrol off the eastern coast whilst other
submarines launched the midget craft early
in 1943. On return to Malta she was
renamed UNISON and was the first submarine
to carry this name which had been used by
a vessel requisitioned during WW1. She was
deployed for patrol in the Gulf of Gabes
and Hammamet
area for interception of supply ships in
February and sank three small craft by
sunk by surface gun attacks before return
to Malta on 14th February. Her next patrol
off the coast of Calabria was more
successful as she sank an Italian tanker
in convoy and survived a somewhat ill
directed counter attack by diving deep. A
later encounter with a submarine was
again a failure.
Whilst
on patrol in April, north of Sicily she
sank the 6,000 ton mercantile MARCO
FOSCARINI (Groener
- scuttled as a hulk at Tripoli, January
1943) and the next month the
Italian freighter TERM in the Straits of
Messina after which the counter attack was
evaded. Selected for service as a Beach
Marker during the allied landings in
Sicily (Operation HUSKY) she assisted in
accurate navigation of the assault
convoys. Her next interception patrol was
north of Messina during which she
unsuccessfully attacked a mercantile
before going to Bizerta. She was attached
to a convoy for passage to Malta but after
being detached she came under friendly
fire from a merchant ship. This killed one
officer and wounded the commanding officer
as well damage to the structure which
required dockyard repair which was
completed in Malta on 20th August.
This
submarine took passage to UK from Malta
for a refit on 9th September 1943 and
after sailing from Gibraltar carried out a
patrol west of Cadiz before arriving at
Devonport on 28th to Pay-off. Refit work
was completed in February 1944 and she
recommissioned for trials and training
duties in the 6th Submarine Flotilla based
at Blyth. These duties terminated in May
after she had been selected for transfer
to the Soviet Fleet and she prepared for
her new service at Rosyth.
On
completion she took passage to Dundee
where she was handed over to Russia and
renamed V.3 (B.3 in Russian). She arrived
at Polyarno
on 5th August and joined the Northern
Fleet. Retained after the end of
hostilities she was not returned to the RN
until February 1949 when she was placed in
Reserve and went on the Disposal List at Lisahally
until being sold for breaking up at
Stockton on Tees the next year.
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