HMS Upholder

This article is about a submarine of Royal Navy during World War II. It was involved in Battle of the Duisburg Convoy and so on.

The HMS Upholder (P37) was a U-class submarine of Royal Navy built by Vickers Armstrong atBarrow-in-Furness. It was set on 30 October 1939 and was launched the July 8, 1940 by Mrs. Doris Thompson, the wife of one of the directors of manufacturers. The submarine was commissioned Oct. 31, 1940. He was one of four submarines of U-class torpedo tubes were external in addition to internal included in all four ships. It was excluded from subsequent ships because they interfered with the maintenance of the quota at periscope depth.

Career

It was commanded his entire career by Lt. Commander (equivalent of Lieutenant Commander) Malcolm David Wanklyn and became the most successful British submarine of World War II, awarded the Victoria Cross and the Distinguished Service Order. After a period of training, he left for Malta December 10, 1940 and was united to the 10th Submarine Flotilla stationed there. 24 completed surveys, sinking about 120 000 tons of enemy ships including the destroyer Libeccio after the Battle of the convoy Duisburg (named after one of the steamboats that composed), a cruiser, three U-boats (including the Italian submarine Saint Bon ), three troop transports, ten cargo ships, two tankers and a trawler. Wanklyn was awarded the Victoria Cross for recognition in 1941 when he attacked a convoy particularly well defended and sank the Italian liner Conte Rosso 18 000 tonnes on the night of May 24. It also damaged the Italian cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Sinking

The Upholder was lost with all hands in his twenty-fifth survey, which was to be his last before returning to England. He left April 6, 1942 and was lost on April 14. On 12 April he was ordered, with the HMS Urge and HMS Thrasher to form a line to intercept a convoy of recognition, even if you do not know if he ever received the signal. The most logical explanation for his loss is that it was the victim of depth charges dropped by the Italian torpedo boat Pegaso northeast ofTripoli April 14, 1942, even if you have not spotted wreckage on the surface. The attack took place about 100 miles from the area of ​​recognition of Wanklyn and is supposed to have changed location to find other targets. It is also possible that the submarine is sunk after hitting a mine’s April 11, 1942 nearTripoli, when a submarine was sighted approaching a minefield or by German torpedo planes.