HMS ''Triad'' was a T-class submarine of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

. 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, w ...

Barrow Barrow may refer to: Places England * Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria ** Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, local authority encompassing the wider area ** Barrow and Furness (UK Parliament constituency) * Barrow, Cheshire * Barrow, Gloucestershire * Barro ...

and launched in May 1939.

Career

''Triad'' had a relatively short career, serving in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

and 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 north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th ...

. In April 1940 during her patrol on the North Sea, she sank the German troop transport and attacked, but failed to sink the German depot ship .

Mediterranean deployment and loss

Shortly after, ''Triad'' was assigned to the Mediterranean. On 9 October 1940 she sailed from

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

to operate in the

Gulf of Taranto The Gulf of Taranto ( it, Golfo di Taranto; Tarantino: ; la, Sinus Tarentinus) is a gulf of the Ionian Sea, in Southern Italy. The Gulf of Taranto is almost square, long and wide, making it the largest gulf in Italy, and it is delimited by t ...

, with orders to reach

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandr ...

on completion of her patrol. She failed to make port and by 20 October the submarine was declared overdue. She was believed to have been lost in a minefield or sunk by Italian anti-submarine aircraft. New evidence suggests that ''Triad'' was engaged and sunk with all hands on the night of 14/15 October by the . For years, it was assumed that ''Enrico Toti'' had engaged and sunk , which was thought to be operating in the same area. At the time of her sinking, ''Triad'' was commanded by Lt.Cdr. G.S. Salt, father of future Royal Naval Admiral Sam Salt.

Last action

At 01:00 on 15 October, ''Enrico Toti'' sighted a large submarine to port: both boats manoeuvred into attack position. Italian accounts claim the British opened fire first, but all of ''Triad''s shells missed. She also fired a torpedo which ''Enrico Toti'' avoided by turning sharply, then closed on the enemy submarine at top speed, firing as she approached. Soon, machine gun fire compelled the British gunners to abandon the exposed deck. As the British submarine started to dive, ''Enrico Toti'' fired a torpedo and hit the British submarine with two 120 mm shells. The boat rose vertically then disappeared without survivors. The action lasted around 30 minutes. Famous Italian writer Dino Buzzati, then a very young navy war correspondent gave a lively account of the ''Triad'' vs ''Enrico Toti'' engagement. Though he was not directly on board the Italian submarine (he would later embark on an Italian cruiser and give a first hand account of the

Battle of Cape Matapan The Battle of Cape Matapan ( el, Ναυμαχία του Ταινάρου) was a naval battle during the Second World War between the Allies, represented by the navies of the United Kingdom and Australia, and the Royal Italian navy, from 27 ...

), Buzzati interviewed officers and sailors of ''Enrico Toti'' on its return to base and published the story in October 1940. According to sailors' testimonies, the commanding officer of ''Enrico Toti'' held his gun fire until he was in a favourable position to launch a torpedo, but both ships were so close that an angered Italian gunner threw his shoes at the head of his British counterpart as he could not yet fire the gun. Until 1988 it was believed the ship sunk by ''Enrico Toti'' was ''Rainbow'', however ''Rainbow'' is now believed to have been sunk by the Italian steamer ''Antonietta Costa'' in a collision on 4 October. ''Rainbow'' had been ordered to leave the area on 13 October, she would have been gone 26–30 hours before the action described above began. Even at the modest speed of , ''Rainbow'' would have been away from the spot at the time of the action. The only boat in ''Enrico Toti''s vicinity was ''Triad''.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Triad (N53) British T-class submarines of the Royal Navy Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1939 ships World War II submarines of the United Kingdom Lost submarines of the United Kingdom Ships sunk by Italian submarines World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea Maritime incidents in October 1940 Submarines lost with all hands Submarines sunk by submarines