The ''Amphion'' class (also known as the "A" class and ''Acheron'' class) of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

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 ...

s were designed for use in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

. Only two were completed before the end of hostilities, but following modernisation in the 1950s, they continued to serve in 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 ...

into the 1970s.

Development and service

The ''Amphion'' class were ordered by the British Admiralty in 1943, upon the realisation that the new Pacific theatre of war following the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

needed a new type of submarine. They were originally designed to replace the S-class and T-class submarines, which were too slow and unable to dive deep enough to be suited to Pacific waters during

World War II 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 ...

. They were essentially the same size as the T class, arranged for fast, simple construction and to utilize much of the materials and equipment set aside for the T boats. They had a high, flared bow for excellent sea performance and had effective air conditioning, essential for

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 ...

submarine operations. They were operated by a crew of between 60 and 68. Originally, 46 submarines were ordered, but only 18 were launched (10 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, w ...

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, 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 Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...

) and 16 commissioned, the other two hulls being used for crush testing. The class was designed for quick construction, using an entirely welded hull which could be fabricated in sections, a technique new to Britain but standard for

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

s. Each submarine took about 8 months from keel-laying to launching, compared with around 15 months for the earlier T class, but only two of the boats were completed before the end of the war: , launched in August 1944, and in January 1945; neither saw action. The ''Amphion'' class was one of only two new British submarine designs produced during World War II, the other being the

X-craft The X class was a World War II midget submarine class built for the Royal Navy during 1943–44. It was substantially larger than the original Chariot manned torpedo. Known individually as X-Craft, the vessels were designed to be towed to thei ...

4-man submarines. Wartime experience had shown that submarines had to operate further from the United Kingdom and with larger patrol areas than had been foreseen—in the

and

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 ...

for example—so the faster and slightly larger A class was designed to have a longer range than the T class, with accommodation suitable for longer missions. After World War II various modifications were made to these Overseas Patrol Submarines, as they were known. A snort mast based on the ''schnorkel'' used by U-boats during the war, a radar which could be used from periscope depth, and a night periscope were added to the A- and surviving T-class submarines. In response to the start of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

in the early 1950s their target changed from surface ships to

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

submarines. In January 1948 the primary operational function of the British submarine fleet was announced to be interception of Soviet submarines slipping out of their bases in Northern Russia, potentially to attack British and Allied merchant vessels. The following April Assistant Chief of Naval Staff Rear-Admiral

Geoffrey Oliver Admiral (Royal Navy), Admiral Sir Geoffrey Nigel Oliver (22 January 1898 – 26 May 1980) was a Royal Navy officer during the Second World War. Early career The oldest son of a botanist, Professor Francis Wall Oliver, Geoffrey Oliver was educat ...

circulated a paper in which he proposed that British submarines take a more offensive role, attacking Soviet submarines off the Northern Russian coast and mining the waters in the area. With the dramatically reduced surface fleet, he commented that this was one of the few methods the Royal Navy had for "getting to the enemy on his home ground". The A and T classes were refitted for their new role between 1955 and 1960 with a complete rebuild of the forward and after hull section, lengthening and streamlining of the upper decks and conning towers, removal of deck guns to improve underwater speed and noise, removal of external torpedo tubes, and greatly improved

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

. When was lost in 1951 all the ''Amphion'' class were briefly confined to port pending investigation into her loss. During the

Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation The Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation or Borneo confrontation (also known by its Indonesian / Malay name, ''Konfrontasi'') was an armed conflict from 1963 to 1966 that stemmed from Indonesia's opposition to the creation of the Federation of ...

in the mid-1960s, some ''Amphion''-class submarines were fitted with either a QF 4-inch Mk XXIII gun or a single 20mm autocannon to counter blockade running junks. They were the last British submarines to carry a

deck gun A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret. The main deck gun was a dual-purpose ...

. The ''Amphion'' class served the

for almost three decades as the backbone of the Royal Naval Submarine Service, and was gradually replaced with the ''Porpoise'' and patrol classes that began to be phased in during 1958. The last operational ''Amphion''-class boat, , was decommissioned in 1974.

Boats

Built at Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness

* ''Amphion'' (P439/S39/S43) (laid down as ''Anchorite'' but name changed before launch) * ''Astute'' (P447/S47/S45) * ''Auriga'' (P419/S19/S69) * ''Aurochs'' (P426/S26/S62) * ''Alcide'' (P415/S15/S65) * ''Alderney'' (P416/S16/S66) * ''Alliance'' (P417/S17/S67) (now at

Royal Navy Submarine Museum The Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport is a maritime museum tracing the international history of submarine development from the age of Alexander the Great to the present day, and particularly the history of the Royal Navy Submarine Service ...

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite t ...

) * ''Ambush'' (P418/S18/S68) * ''Anchorite'' (P422/S22/S64) (originally laid down as ''Amphion'' but name changed before launch) * ''Andrew'' (P423/S23/S63)

Built at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead

* ''Affray'' (P421) (the last British submarine lost at sea) * ''Aeneas'' (P427/S27/S72/SSG72) * ''Alaric'' (P441/S41)

Built at Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Greenock

* ''Artemis'' (P449/S39/S49) * ''Artful'' (P456/S56/S96)

Built at HM Dockyard, Chatham

* ''Acheron'' (P411/S11/S61)

Built at HM Dockyard, Plymouth

These were the two vessels which were launched but not completed. * ''Ace'' (P414) * ''Achates'' (P433)

Cancelled orders

In 1945, besides the two vessels at Devonport, the following orders were cancelled:

Notes and references

External links

*
Maritimequest Amphion Class IndexSubmarines On Stamps
{{UK submarine classes after 1945 Submarine classes