HMS ''Thistle'' (N24) 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 ...

. She was laid down 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, wi ...

, Barrow and launched in October 1938. She was sunk by the German submarine on 10 April 1940 near

Skudenes Skudenes is a former municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It was part of the traditional district of Haugaland. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1965. The administrative centre was the town of Skudeneshavn (whi ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Career

At the onset of the Second World War, ''Thistle'' was a member of the 2nd Submarine Flotilla. From 26 to 29 August 1939, the flotilla deployed to its war bases at

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

and Blyth.Rohwer, p. 1 ''Thistle'', under the command of Lt. Wilfrid Frederick Haselfoot, was ordered to patrol off

Stavanger Stavanger, officially the Stavanger Municipality, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the ...

, and to sink any enemy vessel that she might spot in the harbour, since British authorities believed that a German invasion of Norway was imminent. On 10 April, ''Thistle'' signaled her intention to comply with this order and that she had two torpedoes remaining after an unsuccessful attack on a

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 ...

. With this in mind the Admiralty changed her orders to patrol off

. No further contact was made with ''Thistle''.

Sinking

It was later discovered that ', the U-boat ''Thistle'' had previously attacked, had sighted the submarine on the surface and sunk her with torpedoes. The action began when HMS ''Thistle'' spotted ''U-4'' cruising on the surface with a periscope. At 16:04 hours on 9 April 1940 HMS ''Thistle'' fired a spread of six torpedoes, all of which missed. HMS ''Thistle'' later reported the unsuccessful engagement via radio, and that the submarine had only two torpedoes left. ''U-4'' observed one torpedo passing ten meters ahead and evaded further underwater attacks by crash diving. The U-boat crew later heard three explosions of the off-track torpedoes at the end of their run. Afterwards ''U-4'' found HMS ''Thistle'' on the surface recharging its batteries. At 02:13 hours on the morning of 10 April 1940, ''U-4'' fired a spread of two torpedoes at its attacker. The first, a

G7a torpedo The G7a(TI) was the standard issue ''Kriegsmarine'' torpedo introduced to service in 1934. It was a steam-powered design, using a wet heater engine burning decaline, with a range of at speed. In 1936, the Kriegsmarine's first electrical power ...

, missed. The second, a magnetic

G7e torpedo The G7e torpedo was the standard electric torpedo used by the German ''Kriegsmarine'' submarines in World War II. It came in 20 different versions, with the initial model G7e(TII) in service at the outbreak of the war. Due to several problems, le ...

, found its mark, sinking ''Thistle'' with all hands near

Discovery

The wreck of the ''Thistle'', missing its tower, was discovered by the

Norwegian Institute of Marine Research The Norwegian Institute of Marine Research () is a national consultative research institute which is owned by the Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs. The institute performs research and provides advisory services in the fields of marine ec ...

in the spring of 2023, at 160 meters of depth. A second cruise in October 2023 identified the wreck as being ''Thistle''. Royal Navy confirmed the boat is HMS ''Thistle''.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thistle (N24) British T-class submarines of the Royal Navy Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1938 ships World War II submarines of the United Kingdom Lost submarines of the United Kingdom Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II World War II shipwrecks in the Norwegian Sea Maritime incidents in April 1940 Submarines lost with all hands Submarines sunk by submarines