HMS ''Undaunted'' was a British U class submarine, of the second group of that class, 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-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of B ...

. She was laid down on 2 December 1939 and was commissioned on 30 December 1940.

Sinking

''Undaunted'' spent much of her short career operating 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 Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

. On 1 May 1941, she sailed from

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

to patrol off

Tripoli, Libya Tripoli (; ar, طرابلس الغرب, translit= Ṭarābulus al-Gharb , translation=Western Tripoli) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Libya, with a population of about 1.1 million people in 2019. It is located in the northwe ...

. She was due to return to Malta on 11 May but she failed to do so and is presumed lost on mines. It is also possible that she was sunk by the Italian torpedo boat ''Pegaso'', which had sailed from Tripoli on the 12th. ''Pegaso'' had signalled that she had attacked a submarine with depth charges and that a large patch of oil had been observed, an indication of the submarine's destruction. Against this theory is the fact that by that date ''Undaunted'' should have been back at Malta, but it is possible that a decision to remain at sea longer had been taken, or that she had suffered mechanical problems preventing her return. It is also possible that she was sunk by the Italian torpedo boat ''Pleiade'' off Tripoli on the 13th but this is not very likely.Submarine losses 1904 to present day
, RN Submarine Museum, Gosport

Citations

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Undaunted (N55) British U-class submarines Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1940 ships World War II submarines of the United Kingdom Lost submarines of the United Kingdom Submarines lost with all hands Maritime incidents in May 1941