HMS ''Tradewind'' was a British

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 ...

of the third group of the ''T'' class. She was built as ''P329'' at Chatham, and launched on 11 December 1942. she is the only ship of 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 ...

to have been named ''Tradewind'', after the

trade wind The trade winds or easterlies are permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere, ...

Second World War service

She spent most of her wartime career operating against the Japanese in the Far East, attacking enemy shipping and laying mines. She sank nine Japanese sailing vessels, and two small unidentified Japanese vessels, a Japanese tug and the Japanese merchant tanker ''Takasago Maru''. The Japanese merchant cargo vessel ''Kyokko Maru'' was sunk after hitting a mine laid by ''Tradewind''. Her most infamous sinking was of the Japanese army cargo ship ''

Junyō Maru Junyo (sometimes written ''Dyunyo'') may refer to either of the Japanese ships: * * , a Japanese cargo ship that was sunk in 1944 {{italic title Ship names ...

'' which was headed for

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

, on 18 September 1944. Unbeknown to the Commanding Officer of ''Tradewind'', Lt.Cdr. Lynch Maydon, the Japanese ship was carrying 4,200 Javanese slave labourers and 2,300 Allied

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

from Batavia to

Padang Padang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of West Sumatra. It had a population of 833,562 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 909,040 at the 2020 Census;Bad ...

. 5,620 people died in the sinking.

Post-war service

''Tradewind'' survived the war and was modified in July 1945-September 1946 to become an acoustic trials submarine, and used for tests. The modifications included the removal of external torpedo tubes and guns, the bridge was faired, the hull streamlined and some internal torpedo tubes blanked over. Measurements made using ''Tradewind'' were used to overhaul several of the ''T'' class boats to increase their ability to act stealthily against Soviet submarines and surface ships. In 1953 she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.Souvenir Programme, ''Coronation Review of the Fleet, Spithead, 15th June 1953'', HMSO, Gale and Polden She was scrapped at Charlestown on 14 December 1955.

References

Publications

* *

External links

* http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.2558 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tradewind (P329) British T-class submarines of the Royal Navy Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1942 ships World War II submarines of the United Kingdom Cold War submarines of the United Kingdom Royal Navy ship names