HMS ''Unruly'' was a

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 ...

U-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 ...

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 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 ...

. So far she has been the only ship of the

to bear the name ''Unruly''.

Career

''Unruly'' spent most of her eventful 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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

, apart from a period on convoy escort duty off the North Cape. Whilst serving in the Mediterranean, she sank the French merchant ''St Lucien'', the Italian merchant ''Valentino Coda'', twelve sailing vessels, including the Greek ''Aghios Giorgios'', and the . ''Bulgaria'' was loaded with supplies for the island of

Kos Kos or Cos (; ) is a Greek island, which is part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 37,089 (2021 census), making ...

. ''Unruly'' missed the minelayer ''Drache'' the same day. She spotted ''Drache'' several days later, but again failed to sink her. ''Unruly'' also damaged the Italian tanker ''Cesco'', and the Italian merchant ''Nicolo Tommaseo''. The damaged ''Nicolo Tommaseo'' was later sunk by Allied aircraft. ''Unruly'' also launched failed attacks on the German merchants ''Erpel'' and ''Pelikan'', and an unidentified Spanish merchant. One of her most significant actions however, was the sinking of the during the

Allied invasion of Sicily The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as the Battle of Sicily and Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allies of World War II, Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis p ...

. She was attacked with four torpedoes, at least one of which hit the Italian submarine, which sank her with the loss of all 46 of her crew. The crew of ''Unruly'' did not actually see the results of the attack, and initially believed they had missed and their target had escaped. ''Unruly'' survived the war and was scrapped in February 1946 by

Thos. W. Ward Thos. W. Ward Ltd was a Sheffield, Yorkshire, business primarily working steel, engineering and cement. It began as coal and coke merchants. It expanded into recycling metal for Sheffield's steel industry, and then the supply and manufacture ...

Inverkeithing Inverkeithing ( ; ) is a coastal town, parish and historic Royal burgh in Fife, Scotland. The town lies on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, northwest of Edinburgh city centre and south of Dunfermline. A town of ancient origin, Inverke ...

Citations

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Unruly (P49) British U-class submarines Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1942 ships World War II submarines of the United Kingdom