HNoMS Ula (1943)
{{other ships|HNoMS Ula|HMS Varne}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=HNoMS Ula.jpg |Ship caption=HNoMS Ula }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|UK|naval}} |Ship name=HMS Varne |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness |Ship laid down= 29 April 1942 |Ship launched= 22 January 1943 |Ship christened= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service=April 1943 transferred to Royal Norwegian Navy |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship captured= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship fate= |Ship badge=File:HMS Varne badge.jpg }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=Norway |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Norway|navy}} |Ship name=HNoMS Ula |Ship christened= |Ship acquired=April 1943 transferred to Royal Norwegian Navy |Ship commissioned= 3 April 1943 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship captured= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship fate=Scrapped, 1965 at Hamburg |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= U-class submarine |Ship displacement=*Surfaced :
|Ship length={{convert|60|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|4.9|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |Ship draught={{convert|4.62|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |Ship propulsion=*Diesel-electric
|Ship speed=*{{convert|11.25|kn|lk=in}} surfaced
|Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship complement=33 |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*6 × British 21 inch torpedo bow torpedo tubes (4 internal, 2 external)
|Ship armour= }} |
HNoMS Ula, previously HMS Varne, a British-built U-class submarine, and a member of the third group of that class to be built. She never actually served under the name Varne, being transferred before commissioning to the exiled Royal Norwegian Navy as HNoMS Ula (S300). In 1944 she sank a German U-boat during one of her patrols off Norway. She remained in Norwegian service and was scrapped in 1965.
Service history
Originally built for Royal Navy as Varne, it was planned that the Royal Dutch Navy should man her and name her Haai. The Dutch crew (mainly 34 from the decommissioned submarines KIX, KX and KXII) needed to be brought to the UK from Sydney via Cape Town. Their ship from Cape Town was the merchant vessel {{MV|Abosso||2}}, which was unescorted and was attacked and sunk in the Atlantic, 48.30N 28.50W, by the German U Boat Type VIIc {{GS|U-575||2}} on the night of 29 October 1942.
Varne was transferred to the Royal Norwegian Navy as HNoMS Ula (P66) in 1943, remaining there for the remainder of her career. She carried out 14 patrols during World War II, operating as part of the 'Norwegian Section' of the 9th Submarine Flotilla at Dundee. On 19 April 1944, under CO Lt Valvatne RNoN, {{convert|1|km}} south east of Løten on the western Boknafjorden, near Stavanger, Norway, the submarine fired a salvo of four torpedoes. The target was the German Type VIIc U-boat {{GS|U-974||2}} at about {{convert|1,200|m|yd}} range. One torpedo hit its target just behind the conning tower and the U-boat was blown in two and sunk, though eight crew survived.[http://home.cogeco.ca/~gchalcraft/sm/page31.html British Submarines of World War II website] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120527030848/http://home.cogeco.ca/~gchalcraft/sm/page31.html |date=27 May 2012 }}
This was the most notable of Ula{{'}}s victims during her 14 patrols. She sank several other targets, mostly merchant ships, during her war service, all of which was spent on the Norwegian patrol.[http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3570.html U-boat.net website]
Ula was the Allied submarine which sunk the most enemy tonnage in the Atlantic in the Second World War.{{Cite web |url=http://historisches-marinearchiv.de/projekte/asa/uebersicht.php |title=Allied Submarine Attacks : search "ULA" |access-date=17 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410173423/http://historisches-marinearchiv.de/projekte/asa/uebersicht.php |archive-date=10 April 2017 |url-status=dead }}
Ula continued in Norwegian service until 1965, when she was broken up in Hamburg.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{British U class submarine|others}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ula (1943)}}
Category:Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness
Category:World War II submarines of the United Kingdom
Category:British U-class submarines of the Royal Norwegian Navy