HMS Trident (N52)

HMS "Trident" was a British T class submarine built by Cammell Laird, Birkenhead. She was laid down on 12 January 1937 and was commissioned on 1 October 1939. HMS "Trident" was part of the first group of T class submarines.

Career

"Trident" operated in most of the naval theatres of the Second World War, in home waters in the North Sea and off the Scandinavian coast, in the Mediterranean and in the Pacific far east.

Home waters

She spent the period from 1941 to mid 1943 in the North Sea, where she sank the German merchants "Edmund Hugo Stinnes 4", "Ostpreußen", "Donau II", "Hödur" and "Bahia Laura", the German tanker "Stedingen" and the German auxiliary submarine chaser UJ 1213 / "Rau IV". She also attacked and damaged the German merchants "Cläre Hugo Stinnes" and"Levante", and unsuccessfully attacked the German merchants "Palime", "Wandsbek", "Pelikan" and "Altkirch", the German oiler "Dithmarschen", the German hospital ship "Birka", the German minesweeper depot ship MRS 3 / "Bali" and the German submarine "U-31". Whilst returning to base at Polyarnoe, Russia, "Trident" was fired upon but missed by the German submarine "U-566".

Perhaps her most important targets were the German heavy cruisers "Prinz Eugen" and "Admiral Hipper", which she sighted off Norway on the 23 February 1942. "Trident" fired seven torpedoes against them, one of which hit "Prinz Eugen" in the stern and jammed her rudder and damaged her engines, but the "Admiral Hipper" escaped unscathed.

Mediterranean

In 1943, "Trident" was assigned to operate in the Mediterranean. She sank five sailing vessels and damaged the Italian merchant "Vesta" and the German patrol vessel GA 41 / "Tassia Christa", and attacked the German auxiliary submarine chaser "UJ 2202". She was unlucky on numerous occasions, however, her torpedoes missing two submarines, the Italian merchant "Agnani" and the French passenger/cargo ship "Cap Corse".

She did not spend long in the Mediterranean before being reassigned to the Pacific far east, arriving there in mid 1943.

Far east

She spent the last part of her wartime career in operations against the Japanese, sinking a Japanese sailing vessel and landing craft and unsuccessfully attacking the Japanese training cruiser "Kashii". [ [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3487.html HMS Trident] , Uboot.net]

Post war

HMS "Trident" survived the war, and was sold for scrap on 17 February 1946, and was broken up by Cashmore, of Newport.

References

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