HMS ''P311'' was a
T-class 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
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 ...
, the only boat of her class never to be given a name. She was to have received the name ''Tutankhamen'' but was lost before this was formally done. ''P311'' was a Group 3 T-class boat built 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 ...
at
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
commissioned on 5 March 1942 under the command of Lieutenant R.D. Cayley. She was one of only two T-class submarines completed without an
Oerlikon 20 mm anti-aircraft gun, the other being
HMS ''Trespasser''.
Naming
The
prime minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
,
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
had minuted the Admiralty on 5 November 1942, 19 December, and again on 27 December, saying that all submarines should have names. In the last he provided a list of suggestions and insisted that all unnamed submarines be given names within a fortnight. ''P311'' was to be assigned the name ''Tutankhamen'', after the
Egyptian king. She would have been the only vessel of the Royal Navy, before or since, to bear the name. She was lost in the
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 ...
between late December 1942 or early January 1943, before the new name could be formally assigned. She therefore never received the name ''Tutankhamen'', and is officially designated as ''P311''.
[HMS P311](_blank)
Uboat.net
Career
She joined the
10th Submarine Flotilla
The 10th Submarine Flotilla was a Royal Navy submarine formation during World War I and during World War II
In January 1915 it was based on the Humber but by January 1917 it had relocated to the Tees.
During the Second World War it was formed at ...
at
Malta
Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
in November 1942, and was lost with all hands between 30 December 1942 and 8 January 1943 whilst en route to
La Maddalena
La Maddalena (Gallurese: ''Madalena'' or ''La Madalena'', ) is a town and ''comune'' located on the islands of the Maddalena archipelago in the province of Sassari, northern Sardinia, Italy. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most be ...
,
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...
, where she was to attack two Italian 8-inch gun
cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea ...
s, the ''
Gorizia
Gorizia (; ; , ; ; ) is a town and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, Region ...
'' and the ''
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...
'', using
chariot manned torpedo
The Chariot was a British human torpedo used in World War II. The Chariot was inspired by the operations of Italian naval commandos, in particular the Raid on Alexandria (1941), raid on 19 December 1941 by members of the Decima Flottiglia MAS who r ...
es carried on the casing as part of
Operation Principal.
The submarine sent her final received signal on 31 December 1942, from position 38º10'N, 11º30'E.
She was reported overdue on 8 January 1943 when she failed to return to base.
It is presumed that she was sunk by Italian
mine
Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to:
Extraction or digging
*Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging
*Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine
Grammar
*Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun
M ...
s in the approaches to Maddalena on or around 2 January 1943.
Wreck discovery
In late May 2016 the Royal Navy announced that it was investigating a wreck found close to
Tavolara Island by diver Massimo Domenico Bondone on 21 May 2016 which Bondone had identified as ''P311''. Bondone reported that he made the identification based on the wreck having two chariots strapped to her hull.
The bodies of the 71 crew members and chariot operators who perished are reported still on board, believed to have died of
suffocation
Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects all the tissues and organs, some more rapidly than others. There are m ...
. The vessel is reported as being in good condition and pictures have been released of the underwater wreck. It is reported that only the
bow BOW as an acronym may refer to:
* Bag of waters, amniotic sac
* Bartow Municipal Airport (IATA:BOW), a public use airport near Bartow, Florida, United States
* Basic operating weight of an aircraft
* BOW counties, made of Brown, Outagamie, and Winn ...
is seriously damaged due to the mine explosion which sank her.
See also
*
British commando frogmen
Britain's commando frogman force is now the Special Boat Service (SBS), whose members are drawn largely from the Royal Marines. They perform various operations on land as well as in the water. Until the late 1990s, all members of the Special Air ...
References
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:P311
British T-class submarines of the Royal Navy
Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness
1942 ships
World War II submarines of the United Kingdom
Ships sunk by mines
Lost submarines of the United Kingdom
World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
Maritime incidents in December 1942
Missing submarines of World War II