HMS ''Unbroken'' (P42) was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

U-class

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

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 ...

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...

; it was part of the third group of that class and has been the only vessel of the Royal Navy to bear the name. She entered service as P42 and was renamed ''Unbroken'' on 1 February 1943.

Career

''Unbroken'' was commissioned on 29 January 1942 as P42. After work up trials in

Holy Loch The Holy Loch ( gd, An Loch Sianta/Seunta) is a sea loch, a part of the Cowal peninsula coast of the Firth of Clyde, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The "Holy Loch" name is believed to date from the 6th century, when Saint Munn landed there afte ...

, ''Unbroken'' went out to join the 10th Flotilla at

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 ...

, with a work-up patrol from

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

. She spent most of her wartime career 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 north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

. She landed saboteurs under the command of Captain

Peter Churchill Peter Morland Churchill, (14 January 1909 – 1 May 1972) was a British Special Operations Executive (SOE) officer in France during the Second World War. His wartime operations, which resulted in his capture and imprisonment in German concentrat ...

Antibes Antibes (, also , ; oc, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of southeastern France, on the French Riviera, Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice. The town of ...

in the south of France. She then proceeded to Malta to reform the 10th Flotilla in June 1942. She was the only submarine operating from Malta until , and joined. She took part in Operations

Harpoon A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument and tool used in fishing, whaling, seal hunting, sealing, and other marine hunting to catch and injure large fish or marine mammals such as seals and whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the t ...

and Vigorous, in June 1942. In July 1942, ''Unbroken'' attacked the main west coast railway line on the Italian mainland, and succeeded in blocking the line for 24 hours. However, she received return fire from coastal artillery and sustained a hit on the battery, forcing her to return to Malta. She was badly damaged in October 1942, by a counter-attack by Italian escorts after hitting a tanker, and was again repaired at Malta. During her time in the Mediterranean, she sank the Italian merchants ''Edda'' and ''Bologna'' (the former French ''Monaco''), the Italian pilot vessel F 20 / ''Enrica'', and the Italian auxiliary minesweeper No. 17/''Milano''. She also damaged the Italian sailing vessel ''Vale Formoso II'', the German (former Norwegian) tanker ''Regina'', and most significantly, the Italian heavy cruiser ''Bolzano'' and the Italian light cruiser ''Muzio Attendolo'' during

Operation Pedestal Operation Pedestal ( it, Battaglia di Mezzo Agosto, Battle of mid-August), known in Malta as (), was a British operation to carry supplies to the island of Malta in August 1942, during the Second World War. Malta was a base from which British ...

. ''Bolzano'' was hit in her oil tanks and set ablaze; she had to be beached at

Panarea Panarea (; scn, Panarìa) is the smallest of the seven inhabited Aeolian Islands, a volcanic island chain in north of Sicily, southern Italy. It is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Lipari. There are currently about 280 residents living on t ...

island; the ''Attendolo'' lost sixty feet of bow. ''Bolzano'' was out of action for the rest of the war. ''Unbroken'' also attacked the Italian merchant ''Algerino'', but missed her with her torpedoes. She later damaged the Italian merchant ''Titania'', north-west of

Tripoli, Libya Tripoli (; ar, طرابلس الغرب, translit= Ṭarābulus al-Gharb , translation=Western Tripoli) is the capital and largest city of Libya, with a population of about 1.1 million people in 2019. It is located in the northwest of Libya o ...

. ''Titania'' was taken in tow by the . ''Titania'' was sunk early the next day by . ''Unbroken'' returned to the UK in December 1943.

In Soviet service

''Unbroken'' was transferred on loan to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

on 26 June 1944, where she was renamed ''V-2'' (

Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

: ''В-2''). Sailing under Soviet flag she sank the German

submarine chaser A submarine chaser or subchaser is a small naval vessel that is specifically intended for anti-submarine warfare. Many of the American submarine chasers used in World War I found their way to Allied nations by way of Lend-Lease in World War II. ...

''UJ-1220'' on 12 October 1944. She spent four years in Soviet service before being returned to the Royal Navy in 1949. She was scrapped at Gateshead from 9 May 1950.

References

Bibliography

* * * * Submarines, War Beneath The Waves, From 1776 To The Present Day, by Robert Hutchinson

External links

Captain Sir Edward Archdale, Bt
- Daily Telegraph obituary
Unbroken: The Story of a Submarine
by Alastair Mars, an autobiographical account by her commanding officer. {{DEFAULTSORT:Unbroken (P42) British U-class submarines Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1941 ships World War II submarines of the United Kingdom British U-class submarines of the Soviet Navy World War II submarines of the Soviet Union Soviet Union–United Kingdom relations