''K XVIII'' was one of five s built for 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 ...

. She served 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Service history

The submarine was laid down in ''Rotterdam'' at the shipyard of ''Fijenoord'' on 10 June 1931. The launch took place on 27 September 1932. On 23 March 1934 the boat was commissioned in the Dutch navy. From 20 June to 1 August 1934 ''K XVIII'', , , and made a trip to the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. The ports of

Gdynia Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in th ...

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was ...

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...

and

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

were visited. On 14 November 1934 the boat was sent to the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, whic ...

, where she arrived on 11 July 1935 in ''Surabaya''. During this journey Felix Andries Vening Meinesz conducted gravity measurements, as he had previously done aboard the in the Caribbean. On 6 September 1938 she participated in a fleet show at ''Surabaya''. The show was held in honor of the Dutch Queen

Wilhelmina of the Netherlands Wilhelmina (; Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria; 31 August 1880 – 28 November 1962) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw World Wa ...

who celebrating her fortieth year as head of state. More than twenty navy ships participated in the show. In the war ''K XVIII'' sank several Japanese ships. On 24 January 1942 the boat was severely damaged by Japanese

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive hydraulic shock. Most depth charges use h ...

s and was forced to return to

Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Java and the second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern border of Java island, on the M ...

to be repaired. While still under repair at ''Surabaya'' she was scuttled on 2 March 1942 in order to prevent the Japanese from capturing the boat. ''K XVIII'' was raised by the Japanese in 1944 and converted into an air warning picket hulk and deployed in the

Madura Strait Madura Strait is a stretch of water that separates the Indonesian islands of Java and Madura, in the province of East Java. The islands of Kambing, Giliraja, Genteng, and Ketapang lie in the Strait. The Suramadu Bridge, the longest in Indones ...

. On 16 June 1945 the hulk was sunk by the British submarine .

Summary of raiding history

Ships sunk and damaged by ''K XVIII''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:K XVIII, HNLMS 1932 ships Ships built in Schiedam K XIV-class submarines Scuttled vessels Naval ships of the Netherlands captured by Japan during World War II Ships sunk by British submarines Maritime incidents in March 1942 Submarines sunk by submarines Submarines built by Wilton-Fijenoord