HMS Saracen (P247)

HMS ''Saracen'' was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Completed in 1942, ''Saracen'' conducted a patrol in the North Sea where she sank a German U-boat. She was then assigned to the 10th Submarine Flotilla in Malta, from where she made three patrols; on her second, she sank an Italian submarine. ''Saracen'' was then reassigned to the 8th Submarine Flotilla, based in Algiers, French North Africa.

Operating from there, she conducted six patrols, sinking seven ships and landing agents in Corsica and Sardinia. On her twelfth patrol, ''Saracen'' was heavily damaged by two depth charge attacks from Italian destroyers. On 13 August 1943, ''Saracen'' was detected by two Italian corvettes and again attacked with depth charges. With several leaks in her pressure hull, the submarine surfaced and her crewmen abandoned ship. She was then scuttled and 46 out of 48 men were rescued by the Italian ships. ''Saracen''s wreck was discovered in 2015 off Corsica.

Design and description

The S-class submarines were designed to patrol the restricted waters of the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The third batch was slightly enlarged and improved over the preceding second batch of the S class. The submarines had a length of overall, a beam of and a draught of . They displaced on the surface and submerged. The S-class submarines had a crew of 48 officers and ratings. They had a diving depth of .McCartney, p. 7

For surface running, the boats were powered by two diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the third-batch boats had a range of at and at submerged.

The third-batch submarines were armed with seven 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. Six of these were in the bow and there was one external tube in the stern. They carried six reload torpedoes for the bow tubes for a total of thirteen torpedoes. Twelve mines could be carried in lieu of the internally stowed torpedoes. They were also armed with a 3-inch (76 mm) deck gun. The third-batch S-class boats were fitted with either a Type 129AR or 138 ASDIC system and a Type 291 or 291W early-warning radar.

Construction and career

HMS ''Saracen'' was a third-batch S-class submarine and was ordered by the Admiralty on 23 January 1940. She was laid down in the Cammell Laird Shipyard in Birkenhead on 16 July 1940, and launched on 16 February 1942. On 24 June 1942, ''Saracen'', under the command of Lieutenant M.G.R. Lumby, sailed from the shipbuilding yards to Holy Loch, where she was commissioned into the Royal Navy three days later as ''P247''.

During the following month ''Saracen'' conducted training exercises, then departed harbour for her first war patrol, off Norway, on 29 July 1942. After only five days at sea on 3 August, the boat torpedoed and sank the in the North Sea, northeast of the Faroe Islands. Only one of the U-boat's crew of 44 was rescued, while a second sailor declined rescue and drowned. ''U-335'' was also on its first patrol. ''Saracen''s First Lieutenant, Edward Preston Young, was mentioned in dispatches for his part in the action. ''Saracen'' ended her patrol in Lerwick on 9 August, then transferred to Holy Loch, arriving on the 11th.

On 31 August, ''Saracen'' was ordered to conduct a special patrol off Cape Finisterre, Spain, to intercept a possible German blockade runner. Having sighted nothing, the submarine was ordered to continue to Gibraltar, and arrived there on 4 September. After exercises off Gibraltar, ''Saracen'' conducted a patrol in the Alboran Sea from 17 to 27 September but sighted no potential targets.

Malta

''Saracen'' was assigned to the British 10th Submarine Flotilla in Malta, and sailed to her new home port on 9 October 1942. The next day, she sighted the surfaced and fired six torpedoes at it, but the U-boat spotted the torpedo tracks and passed between them. The British submarine then surfaced to use her deck gun, but her opponent dived after only three rounds had been fired, and ''Saracen'' dived. One hour and a half later, ''Saracen'' surfaced again to signal the presence of the enemy submarine and was spotted by ''U-605'' which had remained in the area. ''U-605'' fired four torpedoes at the British submarine, but also missed. The torpedoes were not noticed on board the British submarine, which then received orders to leave the area to allow surface ships to hunt ''U-605''. Having expended half of her torpedoes, ''Saracen'' returned to Gibraltar to load new ones, then left for Malta on a different route following the sinking of the submarine on the QBB.255 route. The boat arrived safely in Malta on 19 October.

From 21 to 24 October, ''Saracen'' conducted a patrol between the Kerkennah Islands and the Kuriat archipelago further north. She did not sight any ships on this patrol, and returned to port after three days.

On 3 November 1942, ''Saracen'' along with her sister ships and , departed Malta for a patrol off North Africa to cover the Allied landings in North Africa. On her way to the patrol area, the submarine was attacked by German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter-bombers, sustaining slight damage to her wireless transmitter. Originally ordered to patrol off Partinico, Sicily, ''Saracen''s orders were changed to operate in the Strait of Sicily, between Tunisia and Sicily. On 9 November 1942, she torpedoed and sank the approximately northwest of Partinico, Sicily; ''Granito'' went down with all hands, in total 46 men. Following the sinking, Young was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his part in the action. One week later, ''Saracen'' launched three torpedoes at the German merchant ship ''Menes'' in the Gulf of Tunis, but missed, and the boat returned to Malta on 24 November.

''Saracen'' departed Malta again on 7 December 1942, with orders to patrol off Naples, Italy, then later, eastern Tunisia. On 17 December, she missed the German transport ''Ankara'' with four torpedoes north of Bizerte, Tunisia. On 22 December, ''Saracen'' twice sighted the , but failed to manoeuvre into a suitable attack position. ''Argento'' also sighted the British submarine, but did not attack it because it might have been her sister . ''Saracen'' ended her patrol on Christmas 1942 in Algiers, where she joined the 8th Submarine Flotilla.

Algiers

On 10 January 1943, ''Saracen'' departed Algiers for her seventh war patrol, close to Naples, in the Tyrrhenian Sea. About south of the island of Capri, the submarine sank the Italian patrol boat ''Maria Angeletta'' with gunfire on 20 January. On 22 and 23 January, ''Saracen'' missed a small oil tanker and an unidentified ship with four torpedoes each, then returned to Algiers on the 27th.

''Saracen'' commenced another patrol in the Gulf of Genoa on 7 February. In the early morning of 11 February, the submarine landed three men in Cupabia, south of Ajaccio, Corsica. The next day, she sank with gunfire the Vichy French tugboats ''Provinçale II'' and ''Marseillaise V'' off Cape Sardineaux, southern France. On 15 February, ''Saracen'', until then called HMS ''P247'', was officially given her name ''Saracen'', then later in the day she torpedoed and damaged the German oil tanker ''Marguerite Finaly''. On 19 February, ''Saracen'' surfaced and fired her deck gun into a small shipbuilding yard at Cervo, Italy. Two ships under construction were damaged before the boat was forced to submerge due to fire from coastal batteries. ''Saracen'' returned to Algiers on 22 February.

On 25 February 1943, ''Saracen'' departed for Malta, then left Malta on 16 March to conduct a patrol north of Sicily. Two days later, she sighted two German landing craft, but did not attack them due to their shallow draft, which would have caused torpedoes to run under. On 20 March ''Saracen'' sighted an Italian convoy of two merchant ships, four destroyers, and sixteen aircraft, but she was detected by one of the escorting ships' sonar, which foiled the attack. On 1 April, the boat returned to Algiers, ending her patrol.

''Saracen'' left harbour again on 13 March to conduct a patrol in the Gulf of Genoa. On 19 April, she sighted an Italian convoy and sank the Italian cargo/passenger ship ''Francesco Crispi'' with six torpedoes off Elba. ''Francesco Crispi'' was transporting 1,085 soldiers to Bastia, and ''Saracen'' was attacked with depth charges by the escorting ships, but was not damaged. The submarine then torpedoed and sank the Italian merchantman ''Tagliamento'' three days later, south of the island of Pianosa, Italy; according to ''Saracen''s logbook, "A sheet of orange flame went up hundreds of feet into the air and burning debris hurtled in all directions. As ''Saracen'' was diving the bridge of the merchant vessel flew overhead". The boat ended her patrol in Algiers on 27 April.

Between 9 and 25 May, ''Saracen'' conducted a patrol northeast of Sardinia, but did not sight any ships.

On 27 June, the submarine departed Algiers to patrol east of Corsica and provide cover for the Allied landings in Sicily. Shortly after leaving port, ''Saracen'' was spotted and identified by the , but the U-boat had been ordered not to attack submarines in the area and let ''Saracen'' proceed unharmed. After midnight on 2 July, ''Saracen'' landed six men off Cape Palmeri, Sardinia, then torpedoed and sank the Italian merchant ship ''Tripoli'' south of Capraia, Italy on 6 July. Four days later, the submarine was detected with Asdic by an Italian destroyer east of Bastia, which dropped 27 depth charges, causing considerable damage aboard ''Saracen''. The next day, the boat torpedoed and sank the German merchantman ''Tell'' and was again depth charged, causing more damage. ''Saracen'' returned to Algiers on 21 July.

Last patrol and sinking

After repairs in Algiers, ''Saracen'' scuttled the beached ammunition ship with her deck gun, then commenced a patrol, again east of Corsica, on 7 August; this was to be her last patrol. Shortly after midnight of 13 August, ''Saracen'' was detected on sonar by the Italian ''Minerva''; the corvette dropped six patterns of depth charges for a total of 40. ''Saracen'' initially attempted to escape by diving deep but at a depth of several depth charges exploded close to ''Saracen'', starting leaks in her pressure hull. ''Saracen'' was forced to surface and was fired upon by ''Minerva'' and her sister ship ''Euterpe''s surface guns. ''Saracen''s crew abandoned ship and the submarine was scuttled to prevent her capture by the Italians. Forty-six crewmen were picked up, twenty by ''Euterpe'' and twenty-six by ''Minerva''; two ratings went missing.

Ironically, ''Saracen'' was sunk shortly after midnight of a Friday the 13th, and this patrol was ''Saracen''s 13th as well. In 2015, her wreck was discovered and photographed on the seabed, at a depth of off the coast of Corsica.

Summary of raiding history

During her service with the Royal Navy ''Saracen'' sank 7 ships for a total of 16,039 GRT as well as a German and an Italian U-boat.

Citations

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Saracen (P247)
British S-class submarines (1931)
World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
1942 ships
World War II submarines of the United Kingdom
Lost submarines of the United Kingdom
Maritime incidents in August 1943
Submarines sunk by Italian warships
Ships built on the River Mersey