HMS Unshaken (P54)

HMS "Unshaken" (P54) 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 "Unshaken".

Career

After a period operating of the coast of Norway, "Unshaken" spent most ofher wartime career in the Mediterranean. Whilst in northern waters, on 5 July 1942, "Unshaken" radioed in a sighting and an exact description of a heavy German force - including the "Tirpitz", "Admiral Scheer" and "Admiral Hipper" - as at sea in pursuit of the ill-fated convoy PQ17 off North Norway. Hearing of these allied sighting reports (also made by Russian submarine "K-21" and a Catalina patrol aircraft) through intelligence, Admiral Raeder cancelled the sortie, ordering the surface fleet to return to port and leaving the Luftwaffe and U-boats to attack the convoy. The convoy lost 24 ships out of 40, but it could have been even worse for the convoy if the heavy force had remained at sea.

"Unshaken" also sank the German merchant "Georg L.M. Russ" off southern Norway, before being reassigned to the Mediterranean in late 1942.

Serving in the Mediterranean, she sank the Italian merchants "Foggia" and "Pomo" (the former Yugoslavian "Nico Matkovic"), the Italian torpedo boat "Climene", the Italian sailing vessel "Giovanni G.", the Italian auxiliary patrol vessel No 265 / "Cesena", and the Italian troop transport "Asmara". She also damaged the Italian tanker "Dora C.". She launched unsuccessful attacks against the French merchant "Oasis", the Italian merchants "Pomo", "Nina" and "Campania", and the French passenger/cargo ship "Cap Corse". "Unshaken" had a narrow escape, after she was attacked by four torpedoes launched by the Polish submarine ORP "Dzik". The Poles thought they were attacking an enemy submarine, but luckily the torpedoes missed their target. "Unshaken" captured the Italian submarine "Menolti" on the night that Italy ceased hostilities and escorted it to Malta.

After a return to home waters in mid 1944, "Unshaken" sank the German merchant "Asien" off Lista, Norway.

"Unshaken" survived the war and was scrapped at Troon in March 1946.

References

*cite web | url= http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3559.html | title= HMS "Unshaken" (P 54) | 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
*Colledge
*Submarines, War Beneath The Waves, From 1776 To The Present Day, by Robert Hutchinson