HMS Umbra (P35)

HMS "Umbra" (P35) 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 "Umbra".

Career

She spent most of the war in the Mediterranean, where she sank the Italian merchants "Assunta De Gregori", "Francesco Barbaro", "Sacro Cuore", "Emilio Morandi", the Italian transport ship "Manfredo Campiero", and the German merchant "Süllberg". She also sank the Italian salvage vessel "Rampino", and picked up her sole survivor, and torpedoed and sank the damaged Italian heavy cruiser "Trento" on 15 June 1942. "Trento" had already damaged by a torpedo from a British Beaufort aircraft (217. Sqn. RAF based at Malta). She also attacked the Italian battleship "Littorio", but her torpedoes missed their target.

"Umbra" also torpedoed and destroyed the grounded German supply ship "Amsterdam" on 23 October 1942, and also sank the Italian tug "Pronta" that was trying to salvage the "Amsterdam". The "Amsterdam" had been grounded after being hit by a torpedo during an air attack. "Umbra" also damaged the Italian troop transport "Piemonte" and the Italian merchant "Napoli". The ship was beached and later destroyed by aircraft. She later attacked and damaged the German troop transport "Macedonia" north of Sousse, Tunisia. The damaged German ship was beached and abandoned. She also launched an attack on the Italian merchant "Nino Bixio", but missed her.

One of her last actions was to attack the Italian sailing vessels "Nuovo Domenico" and "Concetta Falco" with gunfire in the Gulf of Hammamet on 11 January, 1943. The "Nuovo Domenico" was damaged during the attack.

She survived the war and was sold to be broken up for scrap on 9 July 1946, and scrapped at Blyth.

References

*cite web | url= http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3545.html | title= HMS "Umbra" (P 35) | work= uboat.net | accessdate=2007-02-25