HMS ''Taurus'' was a

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

T-class

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

, 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, wi ...

, Barrow.

Career

As HMS ''Taurus''

The submarine was laid down on 30 September 1941, and launched on 27 June 1942. ''Taurus'' was commissioned on 3 November 1942 with the

pennant number In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...

P399. She served 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 north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

and the Pacific

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

during the

. Whilst serving in the Mediterranean, she sank the small French merchant ''Clairette'', the Spanish merchant ''Bartolo'', the Italian merchant ''Derna'', the French tug ''Ghrib'' and two barges, the Portuguese ''Santa Irene '', the small Italian tanker ''Alcione C.'', the Italian sailing vessel ''Luigi'', twenty eight Greek sailing vessels, and the small Greek ship ''Romano''. She also damaged a further two sailing ships and the Greek merchant ''Konstantinos Louloudis''. It was during this period off the Greek coast she had the unusual distinction of engaging a Bulgarian cavalry unit while bombarding a small port. She was transferred to the Far East to operate against the Japanese, where she sank the Japanese submarine , two Japanese tugboats and a barge and the Japanese salvage vessel ''Hokuan I-Go''. She also laid a number of mines, which damaged the Japanese submarine and sank the Japanese transport ship ''Kasumi Maru''. Having survived the war, ''Taurus'' was transferred to the

Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy ( nl, Koninklijke Marine, links=no) is the naval force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. During the 17th century, the navy of the Dutch Republic (1581–1795) was one of the most powerful naval forces in the world an ...

on 4 June 1948 and commissioned into service the same day. She was renamed ''Dolfijn''.

As HNLMS ''Dolfijn''

''Dolfijn'' had a relatively quiet career, making a number of cruises before being decommissioned on 7 November 1953 and transferred back to the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

.HNLMS ''Dolfijn''
at dutchsubmarines.com

As HMS ''Taurus'' again

''Dolfijn'' was recommissioned into the Royal Navy on 8 December 1953 and her name returned to the original HMS ''Taurus''. She served for another seven years before being sold to be broken up for scrap in April 1960.

References

Publications

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External links

IWM Interview with Mervyn Wingfield, who commanded HMS Taurus from 1942 to 1944
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taurus (P399) British T-class submarines of the Royal Navy Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1942 ships World War II submarines of the United Kingdom Zwaardvisch-class submarines Cold War submarines of the United Kingdom