HMS Unruly (P49)

HMS "Unruly" (P49) 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 "Unruly".

Career

"Unruly" spent most of her eventful wartime career in the Mediterranean, apart from a period on convoy escort duty off the North Cape. Whilst serving in the Mediterranean, she sank the French merchant "St Lucien", the Italian merchant "Valentino Coda", twelve sailing vessels, including the Greek "Aghios Giorgios" ("Saint George"), and the German minelayer "Bulgaria". The "Bulgaria" was loaded with supplies for the island of Kos. "Unruly" missed the minelayer "Drache" the same day. She spotted the "Drache" several days later, but again failed to sink her.

"Unruly" also damaged the Italian tanker "Cesco", and the Italian merchant "Nicolo Tommaseo". The damaged "Nicolo Tommaseo" was later sunk by Allied aircraft. "Unruly" also launched failed attacks on the German merchants "Erpel" and "Pelikan", and an unidentified Spanish merchant.

One of her most significant actions however, was the sinking of the Italian submarine "Acciaio" during the Allied invasion of Sicily. She was attacked with four torpedoes, at least one of which hit the Italian submarine, which sank her with the loss of all 46 of her crew. The crew of "Unruly" did not actually see the results of the attack, and initially believed they had missed and their target had escaped.

"Unruly" survived the war and was scrapped at Troon in February 1946.

References

*cite web | url= http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3556.html | title= HMS "Unruly" (P 49) | work= uboat.net
*cite web | url= http://home.cogeco.ca/~gchalcraft/sm/page28.html | title= Universal to Untamed | work= British submarines of World War II
*cite web | url= http://www.regiamarina.net/subs/submarines/acciaio/acciaio_us.htm| title= R.Smg. ACCIAIO | work= Sinking of the Acciaio
*Colledge
*Submarines, War Beneath The Waves, From 1776 To The Present Day, by Robert Hutchinson