HMS Triumph (N18)

HMS "Triumph" (N18) was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness and launched in September 1938.

Career

"Triumph" had a relatively active, yet tragic career, serving in the North Sea and the Mediterranean.

Home waters

On 26 December 1939, "Triumph" hit a German mine in the North Sea. Eighteen feet of bow was blown off and her pressure hull was also damaged, but fortunately the torpedoes in the torpedo tubes did not detonate. She managed to limp back home under the protection of fighter aircraft and destroyers, and was under repair at Chatham Dockyard until 27 September 1940.

Mediterranean

Operating in the Mediterranean from early 1941, "Triumph" sank the Italian merchants "Marzamemi", "Colomba Lofaro", "Ninfea", "Monrosa", the Italian auxiliary patrol vessels V 136 / "Tugnin F", "Valoroso", V 190 / "Frieda" and V 137 / "Trio Frassinetti", the Italian tugs "Dante de Lutti" and "Hercules", the German merchant "Luvsee", and the Greek sailing vessels "Panagiotis" and "Aghia Paraskeva". She also damaged the Italian armed merchant cruiser "Ramb III", the Italian tankers "Ardor" and "Poseidone", the Italian merchant "Sidamo" and the German merchant "Norburg"

In early 1941, she sank the Italian submarine "Salpa" off the port of Alexandria, Egypt. In August of that year, she torpedoed the Italian cruiser "Bolzano", which suffered considerable damage but survived. "Bolzano" was later captured by the Germans after the surrender of Italy in 1943, while she was under repair from the damage she had received from "Triumph". The cruiser was later sunk in 1944. [ [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3484.html HMS Triton] , Uboat.net]

inking

"Triumph" was also used for covert operations, such as landing agents in German occupied areas. She was planned to be used as a rendevouz for commandos in Operation Colossus, but this had to be cancelled when the landing site became untenable. She undertook one such mission in December 1941, in which she successfully landed agents in Greece. She was lost just over a week later, off Greece, probably to a collision with a mine in early January 1942. All fifty-nine crew were lost. [ [http://www.rnsubmus.co.uk/general/losses.htm Submarine losses 1904 to present day] , RN Submarine Museum, Gosport]

References

*"Submarines, War Beneath The Waves, From 1776 To The Present Day", by Robert Hutchinson
*Colledge