HMS Strongbow (P235)

HMS Strongbow was an S class submarine of the Royal Navy, and part of the Third Group built of that class. She was built by Scotts, of Greenock and launched on 30 August 1943.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Strongbow.

HMS Strongbow
History
United Kingdom
Class and type:	S class submarine
Name:	HMS Strongbow
Builder:	Scotts, Greenock
Laid down:	17 April 1942
Launched:	30 August 1943
Commissioned:	23 December 1943
Fate:	broken up April 1946
General characteristics
Displacement:	814-872 tons surfaced 990 tons submerged
Length:	217 ft (66 m)
Beam:	23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
Draught:	11 ft (3.4 m)
Speed:	14.75 knots surfaced 8 knots submerged
Complement:	48 officers and men
Armament:	6 × forward 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, one aft 13 torpedoes one three-inch (76 mm) gun (QF 4-inch on later boats) one 20 mm cannon three .303-calibre machine gun

She served in the Second World War, spending most of it in the Pacific Far East, where she sank the small Japanese army cargo ship Toso Maru No.1, the Japanese merchant cargo ship Manryo Maru, four Japanese sailing vessels, a Japanese tug and a Japanese barge, three small unidentified Japanese vessels, three Siamese sailing vessels and six other small Siamese / Japanese vessels.

Strongbow was detected on the surface off Port Swettenham, Malaya on 13 January 1945. Japanese escorts, minelayer Hatsutaka, sub chaser CH-9, auxiliary sub-chaser CHa-41 and one other, soon arrived to attack her. Strongbow managed to escape but sustained such depth charge damage during a 14-hour attack that she was rendered unfit for further service. She was decommissioned at Falmouth in June 1945, and scrapped at Preston in April 1946.[1]

References

1. HMS Strongbow, Uboat.net

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.

External links

• IWM Interview with John Troup, who commanded HMS Strongbow from 1944 to 1945