HMS P38 (1941)
{{short description|Submarine of the Royal Navy}}
{{other ships|HMS P38}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= Hms p38 submarine.jpg |Ship caption= HMS P38 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country= United Kingdom |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}} |Ship badge= |Ship name=P38 |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness |Ship laid down= 2 September 1940 |Ship launched= 9 July 1941 |Ship christened= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= 17 October 1941 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship fate=Sunk 23 February 1942 |Ship homeport= Malta }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship displacement=*Surfaced - 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load
|Ship length={{cvt|58.22|m|ftin}} |Ship beam={{cvt|4.90|m|ftin}} |Ship draught={{cvt|4.62|m|ftin}} |Ship propulsion=*Two shaft diesel-electric
|Ship speed=*{{convert|11.25|kn|lk=in}} surfaced
|Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship complement=27-31 |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*4 × bow internal 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes; 8–10 torpedoes
|Ship armour= |Ship notes= }} |
HMS P38 was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness.
Career
P38 had a short-lived career with the Royal Navy. Commissioned in October 1941, she was assigned to operate with the 10th Flotilla based at Malta for operations in the Mediterranean Sea in January 1942, under the command of Lieutenant Rowland Hemingway. On her first patrol she sank the Italian merchant ship Ariosto of 4,116 tons off Cape Afrika, Tunisia on 15 February 1942. 138 Allied prisoners of war aboard were lost. This was the only successful attack by P38.
Sinking
P38 left Malta on 16 February 1942, to intercept a very important large supply convoy for Axis forces off Tripoli, Libya. By 23 February, she was in position as the group of ships approached. Amongst them was the Italian torpedo boat {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|Circe||2}}, equipped with German sonar and depth charge throwers. At 08:14 British time (10:14 Italian time), Circe reported a sonar contact at {{cvt|1800|m}} with a submarine and that she was turning in to attack, ordering the convoy to turn to port.
Shortly after 10:32 (Italian time), following a single attack in which all depth charges were dropped by Circe, P38 rose only to sink immediately again. At 10:40 (Italian time), after further attacks with depth charges and machine guns by the escorts {{ship|Italian destroyer|Emanuele Pessagno||2}}, and {{ship|Italian destroyer|Antoniotto Usodimare||2}}, as well as aircraft, during which one Italian rating was killed by friendly fire, P38 rose out of the water, her propellers still turning, steering planes set to surfacing, before crashing back beneath the waves at a bow-down angle of 40 degrees. A large patch of oil appeared on the surface as well as debris and human remains. P38 was sunk in {{cvt|350|m}} of water in position 32 degrees 48 minutes north and 14 degrees 58 minutes east some {{convert|90|nmi|lk=in}} east of Tripoli, off Cape Misuratha. There were no survivors from her complement of 32.
References
{{Reflist}}
- {{cite book | last = Royal| first = Navy| title = Naval Staff History - Submarines Vol. II Operations in the Mediterranean | year = 1955 | publisher = Unpublished }}
- {{cite web | url= http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3548.html | title= HMS P 38 | work= uboat.net}}
- {{cite web | url= http://home.cogeco.ca/~gchalcraft/sm/page6.html | title= P32 to P222 | work= British submarines of World War II | access-date= 15 July 2007 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070711184647/http://home.cogeco.ca/~gchalcraft/sm/page6.html | archive-date= 11 July 2007 | url-status= dead }}
- {{cite web | url= http://www.submarine-museum.co.uk/what-we-have/memorial-chapel/submarine-losses?start=7 | title= Submarine losses 1904 to present day | work= RN Submarine Museum, Gosport | access-date= 7 January 2015 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130714021235/http://www.submarine-museum.co.uk/what-we-have/memorial-chapel/submarine-losses?start=7 | archive-date= 14 July 2013 | url-status= dead }}
- {{Cite Colledge2006}}
- {{cite book | last = Hutchinson | first = Robert | title = Jane's Submarines: War Beneath the Waves from 1776 to the Present Day | url = https://archive.org/details/janessubmarinesw0000hutc | url-access = registration | year = 2001 | location = London | publisher = HarperCollins | isbn = 978-0-00-710558-8 | oclc = 53783010 }}
- Wingate, John. The Fighting Tenth: The Tenth Submarine Flotilla and the Siege of Malta. Pen & Sword. 1991. {{ISBN|978-0-85052-891-6}}
{{coord|32|48|0|N|14|58|0|E|display=title}}
{{British U class submarine}}
{{February 1942 shipwrecks}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:P038}}
Category:British U-class submarines
Category:Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness
Category:World War II submarines of the United Kingdom
Category:Lost submarines of the United Kingdom
Category:Maritime incidents in February 1942