HNLMS ''K X'' was one of the three s of the

Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy (, ) is the Navy, maritime service branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It traces its history to 8 January 1488, making it the List of navies, third-oldest navy in the world. During the 17th and early 18th centurie ...

, built to serve as a patrol vessel in the Dutch colonies.

Ship history

The submarine was ordered from the Koninklijke Maatschappij de Schelde shipyard at

Vlissingen Vlissingen (; ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an importan ...

on 27 June 1917, but not laid down until 1 November 1919, and finally launched on 2 May 1923. Commissioned on 24 September 1923, she sailed alone to the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

in late 1924.

World War II

In February and March 1941 ''K X'', and patrolled the

Sunda Strait The Sunda Strait () is the strait between the Indonesian islands of Java island, Java and Sumatra. It connects the Java Sea with the Indian Ocean. Etymology The strait takes its name from the Sunda Kingdom, which ruled the western portion of Ja ...

while based at

Tanjung Priok Tanjung Priok is a district in the administrative city of North Jakarta, Indonesia. It hosts the western part of the city's main harbor, the Port of Tanjung Priok (located in Tanjung Priok District and Koja District). The district of Tanjung Prio ...

, while the was sinking Allied merchant shipping in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

. After repairs at

Surabaya Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Provinces of Indonesia, province and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern corner of Java island, on the Madura Strai ...

''K X'' returned to service on 8 December 1941 for local defense duties following the start of the war with Japan. On 25 December 1941 ''K X'' sailed to the

Celebes Sea The Celebes Sea ( ; ) or Sulawesi Sea (; ) of the western Pacific Ocean is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines, on the east by the Sangihe Islands chain, on the south by Sulawes ...

following the

Japanese invasion of the Philippines Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. On 8 January 1942 ''K X'' arrived at

Tarakan Tarakan is an island and co-extensively the sole city within the Indonesian province of North Kalimantan. The island city is the largest urban area in North Kalimantan population-wise and is located in northern Borneo, midway along the coast of ...

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

for repairs, just days before the Japanese invasion. ''K X'' slipped out of port on 10 January and after dark observed a large fleet of Japanese ships at anchor off the coast. While attempting to position herself for a torpedo attack the submarine was spotted by an enemy destroyer and was forced to submerge. Short on battery power and with faulty steering gear and only one diesel engine operating the submarine returned to Surabaya for repairs. ''K X'' returned to duty on 24 February to patrol off Surabaya. During the Japanese invasion of Java she was damaged by depth charges and forced to return to port. On 2 March 1942 ''K X'' was scuttled at Surabaya to avoid being captured by the Japanese. ''K X'' was raised by the Japanese during the war and used as a floating oil hulk. Recovered by the Dutch after the war, she was scrapped at Surabaya in 1946. Crewmen from ''K X'', and were sent back to England to crew the submarine ''Haai'', then under construction as , but their unescorted passenger ship was sunk by the German

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 ...

north of the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

on 29 October 1942, and only four of the 34 Dutch Navy men aboard survived.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:K X 1923 ships Ships built in Vlissingen K VIII-class submarines World War II submarines of the Netherlands Maritime incidents in March 1942