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HMS Unique (N95)

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Submarine of the Royal Navy For other ships with the same name, see HMS Unique.

HMS Unique
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Unique
BuilderVickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down30 October 1939
Launched6 June 1940
Commissioned27 September 1940
FateSunk around 10 October 1942
Badge
General characteristics
Class and typeU-class submarine
Displacement
  • Surfaced - 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load
  • Submerged - 730 tons
Length58.22 m (191 ft 0 in)
Beam4.90 m (16 ft 1 in)
Draught4.62 m (15 ft 2 in)
Propulsion
  • 2 shaft diesel-electric
  • 2 Paxman Ricardo diesel generators + electric motors
  • 615 / 825 hp
Speed
  • 11.25 knots (20.84 km/h; 12.95 mph) max surfaced
  • 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) max submerged
Complement27–31
Armament

HMS Unique was a U-class submarine of the Royal Navy, of the second group of that class, built by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness. She was laid down on 30 October 1939 and was commissioned on 27 September 1940.

Career

She spent most of her career operating in the Mediterranean from mid 1941 under the command of Captain Arthur Hezlet, where she sank the Italian passenger/cargo ship Fenicia and the Italian troop transport Esperia. She also damaged the Italian cargo ship Arsia, which was later declared a total loss. On 5 January 1942, she made an unsuccessful attack on the Italian battleship Littorio.

Sinking

Unique left Holy Loch after a refit, for a patrol in the Bay of Biscay on 7 October 1942. She left her escort off the Scillies on 9 October. No more was seen or heard from her after that date. HMS Ursula was in the area on 10 October and reported hearing underwater explosions that led her to believe Unique was under attack, although the Germans made no claims of her sinking. She was reported overdue on 24 October 1942 when she failed to arrive at Gibraltar.

Citations

  1. HMS Unique, uboat.net
  2. Submarine losses 1904 to present day Archived 8 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine, RN Submarine Museum, Gosport

References

British U-class submarines
First group
Second group
Third group
Other operators
 Royal Danish Navy
 Free French Naval Forces
 French Navy
 Royal Hellenic Navy
 Royal Netherlands Navy
 Royal Norwegian Navy
 Polish Navy
 Soviet Navy
  • V-2 (ex-Unbroken)
  • V-3 (ex-Unison)
  • V-4 (ex-Ursula)
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in October 1942
Shipwrecks
Other incidents
1941 1942 1943
September 1942 November 1942
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