HMSP311

Practice torpedo is loaded onto P311 at theHoly Loch,Scotland, 1942
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMSP311
Ordered	11 June 1931
Builder	Vickers Armstrong,Barrow
Laid down	25 April 1941
Launched	5 March 1942
Commissioned	7 August 1942
Fate	Sunk 8 January 1943
Badge
General characteristics
Displacement	1,290tonssurfaced 1,560 tons submerged
Length	276 ft 6 in (84.28 m)
Beam	25 ft 6 in (7.77 m)
Draught	12 ft 9 in (3.89 m) forward 14 ft 7 in (4.45 m) aft
Propulsion	Two shafts Twin diesel engines 2,500 hp (1.86 MW) each Twin electric motors 1,450 hp (1.08 MW) each
Speed	15.5 knots (28.7 km/h) surfaced 9 knots (20 km/h) submerged
Range	4,500 nautical miles at 11 knots (8,330 km at 20 km/h) surfaced
Test depth	300 ft (91 m)
Complement	61
Armament	6 internal forward-facing21-inch (533 mm)torpedo tubes 2 external forward-facing torpedo tubes 2 external amidships rear-facing torpedo tubes 1 external rear-facing torpedo tubes 6 reload torpedoes 1 x4-inch (102 mm) deck gun

HMSP311was aT-classsubmarineof theRoyal Navy,the only boat of her class never to be given a name. She was to have received the nameTutankhamenbut was lost before this was formally done.P311was a Group 3 T-class boat built byVickers-ArmstrongatBarrow-in-Furnessandcommissionedon 5 March 1942 under the command of Lieutenant R.D. Cayley. She was one of only two T-class submarines completed without anOerlikon 20 mm anti-aircraft gun,the other beingHMSTrespasser.

Naming

Theprime minister,Winston Churchillhad minuted the Admiralty on 5 November 1942, 19 December, and again on 27 December, saying that all submarines should have names. In the last he provided a list of suggestions and insisted that all unnamed submarines be given names within a fortnight.P311was to be assigned the nameTutankhamen,after theEgyptian king.She would have been the only vessel of the Royal Navy, before or since, to bear the name. She was lost in theMediterraneanbetween late December 1942 or early January 1943, before the new name could be formally assigned. She therefore never received the nameTutankhamen,and is officially designated asP311.

Career

She joined the10th Submarine FlotillaatMaltain November 1942, and was lost with all hands between 30 December 1942 and 8 January 1943 whilst en route toLa Maddalena,Sardinia,where she was to attack two Italian 8-inch guncruisers,theGoriziaand theTrieste,usingchariot manned torpedoescarried on the casing as part ofOperation Principal.The submarine sent her final received signal on 31 December 1942, from position 38º10'N, 11º30'E.She was reported overdue on 8 January 1943 when she failed to return to base.It is presumed that she was sunk by Italianminesin the approaches to Maddalena on or around 2 January 1943.

Wreck discovery

In late May 2016 the Royal Navy announced that it was investigating a wreck found close toTavolara Islandby diver Massimo Domenico Bondone on 21 May 2016 which Bondone had identified asP311.Bondone reported that he made the identification based on the wreck having two chariots strapped to her hull.The bodies of the 71 crew members and chariot operators who perished are reported still on board, believed to have died ofsuffocation.The vessel is reported as being in good condition and pictures have been released of the underwater wreck.It is reported that only thebowis seriously damaged due to the mine explosion which sank her.

See also

• British commando frogmen

References

• 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.ISBN978-1-86176-281-8.
• Hutchinson, Robert (2001).Jane's Submarines: War Beneath the Waves from 1776 to the Present Day.London:HarperCollins.ISBN978-0-00-710558-8.OCLC53783010.