The ''Amphion'' class (also known as the "A" class and ''Acheron'' class) of
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
diesel-electric submarine
A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
s were designed for use in the
Pacific War
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...
. Only two were completed before the end of hostilities, but following modernisation in the 1950s, they continued to serve in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
into the 1970s.
Development and service

The ''Amphion'' class were ordered by the British Admiralty in 1943, upon the realisation that the new Pacific theatre of war following the
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...
needed a new type of submarine. They were originally designed to replace the
S-class and
T-class submarines, which were too slow and unable to dive deep enough to be suited to Pacific waters during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. They were essentially the same size as the T class, arranged for fast, simple construction and to utilize much of the materials and equipment set aside for the T boats. They had a high, flared bow for excellent sea performance and had effective air conditioning, essential for
Far East
The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...
submarine operations. They were operated by a crew of between 60 and 68.
Originally, 46 submarines were ordered, but only 18 were
launched (10 by
Vickers-Armstrong
Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...
in
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...
) and 16
commissioned, the other two hulls being used for crush testing. The class was designed for quick construction, using an entirely welded hull which could be fabricated in sections, a technique new to Britain but standard for
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
's
U-boat
U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...
s. Each submarine took about 8 months from keel-laying to launching, compared with around 15 months for the earlier T class, but only two of the boats were completed before the end of the war: , launched in August 1944, and in January 1945; neither saw action.
The ''Amphion'' class was one of only two new British submarine designs produced during World War II, the other being the
X-craft
The X class was a World War II midget submarine class built for the Royal Navy during 1943–44. It was substantially larger than the original Chariot manned torpedo.
Known individually as X-Craft, the vessels were designed to be towed to the ...
4-man submarines. Wartime experience had shown that submarines had to operate further from the United Kingdom and with larger patrol areas than had been foreseen—in the
Far East
The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...
and
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
for example—so the faster and slightly larger A class was designed to have a longer range than the T class, with accommodation suitable for longer missions.
After World War II various modifications were made to these Overseas Patrol Submarines, as they were known. A
snort mast based on the ''schnorkel'' used by U-boats during the war, a radar which could be used from periscope depth, and a night periscope were added to the A- and surviving T-class submarines.
In response to the start of the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
in the early 1950s their target changed from surface ships to
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
submarines. In January 1948 the primary operational function of the British submarine fleet was announced to be interception of Soviet submarines slipping out of their bases in Northern Russia, potentially to attack British and Allied merchant vessels. The following April Assistant Chief of Naval Staff Rear-Admiral
Geoffrey Oliver
Admiral Sir Geoffrey Nigel Oliver (22 January 1898 – 26 May 1980) was a Royal Navy officer during the Second World War.
Early career
The oldest son of a botanist, Professor Francis Wall Oliver, Geoffrey Oliver was educated at Durnford Prepar ...
circulated a paper in which he proposed that British submarines take a more offensive role, attacking Soviet submarines off the Northern Russian coast and mining the waters in the area. With the dramatically reduced surface fleet, he commented that this was one of the few methods the Royal Navy had for "getting to the enemy on his home ground".
The A and T classes were refitted for their new role between 1955 and 1960 with a complete rebuild of the forward and after hull section, lengthening and streamlining of the upper decks and conning towers, removal of deck guns to improve underwater speed and noise, removal of external torpedo tubes, and greatly improved
sonar
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...
. When was lost in 1951 all the ''Amphion'' class were briefly confined to port pending investigation into her loss.
During the
Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation in the mid-1960s, some ''Amphion''-class submarines were fitted with either a
QF 4-inch Mk XXIII gun or a single 20mm autocannon to counter blockade running
junk
Junk may refer to:
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s. They were the last British submarines to carry a
deck gun
A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret.
The main deck gun was a dual-purpose w ...
.
The ''Amphion'' class served the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
for almost three decades as the backbone of the
Royal Naval Submarine Service, and was gradually replaced with the
''Porpoise'' and patrol classes that began to be phased in during 1958. The last operational ''Amphion''-class boat, , was decommissioned in 1974.
Boats
Built at Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness
*
''Amphion'' (P439/S39/S43) (laid down as ''Anchorite'' but name changed before launch)
*
''Astute'' (P447/S47/S45)
*
''Auriga'' (P419/S19/S69)
*
''Aurochs'' (P426/S26/S62)
*
''Alcide'' (P415/S15/S65)
*
''Alderney'' (P416/S16/S66)
*
''Alliance'' (P417/S17/S67) (now at
Royal Navy Submarine Museum
The Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport is a maritime museum tracing the international history of submarine development from the age of Alexander the Great to the present day, and particularly the history of the Royal Navy Submarine Service fr ...
,
Gosport
Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hampshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 70,131 and the district had a pop ...
)
*
''Ambush'' (P418/S18/S68)
*
''Anchorite'' (P422/S22/S64) (originally laid down as ''Amphion'' but name changed before launch)
*
''Andrew'' (P423/S23/S63)
Built at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead
*
''Affray'' (P421) (the last British submarine lost at sea)
*
''Aeneas'' (P427/S27/S72/SSG72)
*
''Alaric'' (P441/S41)
Built at Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Greenock
*
''Artemis'' (P449/S39/S49)
*
''Artful'' (P456/S56/S96)
Built at HM Dockyard, Chatham
*
''Acheron'' (P411/S11/S61)
Built at HM Dockyard, Plymouth
These were the two vessels which were launched but not completed.
*
''Ace'' (P414)
*
''Achates'' (P433)
Cancelled orders
In 1945, besides the two vessels at Devonport, the following orders were cancelled:
See also
*
List of ship classes of the Second World War
The List of ship classes of World War II is an alphabetical list of all ship classes that served in World War II. Only actual classes are included as opposed to unique ships (which are still included if they were the only one of a class to be buil ...
Notes and references
External links
*
Maritimequest Amphion Class IndexSubmarines On Stamps
{{UK submarine classes after 1945
Submarine classes