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HMS Storm (P233)
Encyclopedia
HMS Storm was an S-class submarine
of the Royal Navy
, and part of the third group built of that class. She was built by Cammell Laird and launched on 18 May 1943. So far, she is the only RN ship to bear the name Storm.
She served in the Far East, from Trincomalee
in modern Sri Lanka and from Perth, Australia
. She was notable for being the first submarine to be commanded by a British officer from the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Commander Edward Young, DSO
, DSC
and bar.
. The day after Boxing Day 1943 she departed Holy Loch for the long passage to Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka
) via Gibraltar
and the Suez Canal
, arriving in Trincomalee
on 20 February 1944.
Her first patrol in the Far East was to the Malacca Straits between Malaya
and Sumatra
, both then occupied by the Japanese. On 11 March 1944 she sank her first victim, a 500 ton coaster, with gunfire. In April she patrolled to the Andaman Islands
in the Bay of Bengal
south of Rangoon and on 14 April made her first sinking by torpedo
, a 3,500 ton merchant vessel. The following day Storm attacked a merchant ship with a destroyer escort, sinking the latter and damaging the former with torpedoes.
Storm's third patrol was a so-called "cloak-and-dagger" operation, to land a local agent on an island off the northern tip of Sumatra. This ended in failure when men in an inflatable dinghy sent out to retrieve the agent from the island heard him calling from the shore at night. His voice was coming from the wrong location, and sounded strained: the dinghy retreated and Japanese machine guns opened up. The dinghy occupants made it safely back to the submarine, but the fate of the agent was unknown. The fourth patrol was back to the Malacca Straits and a third victim was sunk by torpedo; this time a Japanese submarine-chaser. A subsequent patrol led to the taking of Japanese prisoners who were brought back to Trincomalee, the first such captures of the war.
In September 1944 Storm was deployed to Fremantle
in Western Australia
. The distance to the cruising grounds around Java
and Celebes
were so great that one of her ballast tank
s was converted to carry diesel fuel in order to manage the 4,800 mile round trip. In November several schooners and other small craft carrying nickel ore were sunk. In January 1945 Storm briefly held the record - 37 days - for a patrol by an S-class boat, covering 7,151 miles in the process. However this was her last patrol, and she received orders to return home. She finally did so on 8 April 1945, flying the traditional Jolly Roger
flag to signify the end of a successful patrol. Since leaving her builders she had travelled 71,000 miles and spent over 1,400 hours under water - the equivalent of 60 days and nights.
, had been in publishing, and when he returned to the trade he described his wartime service in the book One Of Our Submarines (including his account of the loss of HMS Umpire (N82)
).
It was first published in 1952 by Rupert Hart-Davis
, with a foreword by Admiral Sir George Creasy
. The book was designed by typographer (and RNR
) Ruari McLean
and the endpapers feature a cross-section diagram of Storm.
The title was later issued in 1954 as the 1,000th publication from Penguin Books
, and Young designed the cover. As a 21-year old office junior before the war, Young had previously designed the famous "triple stripe" standard Penguin cover, as well as the first version of the Penguin logo. A model of HMS Storm is on display in the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport
along with the medals won by its captain.
British S class submarine (1931)
The S-class submarines of the Royal Navy were originally designed and built during the modernisation of the submarine force in the early 1930s to meet the need for smaller boats to patrol the restricted waters of the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea replacing the British H class submarines...
of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, and part of the third group built of that class. She was built by Cammell Laird and launched on 18 May 1943. So far, she is the only RN ship to bear the name Storm.
She served in the Far East, from Trincomalee
Trincomalee
Trincomalee is a port city in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and lies on the east coast of the island, about 113 miles south of Jaffna. It has a population of approximately 100,000 . The city is built on a peninsula, which divides the inner and outer harbours. Overlooking the Kottiyar Bay,...
in modern Sri Lanka and from Perth, Australia
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
. She was notable for being the first submarine to be commanded by a British officer from the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Commander Edward Young, DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
, DSC
Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)
The Distinguished Service Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers, and other ranks, of the British Armed Forces, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and British Merchant Navy and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries.The DSC, which may be awarded posthumously, is...
and bar.
Career
After sea trials and working up in Holy Loch and Scapa Flow, Storm's first (and uneventful) patrol was to the Norwegian coast, north of the Arctic CircleArctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....
. The day after Boxing Day 1943 she departed Holy Loch for the long passage to Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
) via Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
and the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
, arriving in Trincomalee
Trincomalee
Trincomalee is a port city in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and lies on the east coast of the island, about 113 miles south of Jaffna. It has a population of approximately 100,000 . The city is built on a peninsula, which divides the inner and outer harbours. Overlooking the Kottiyar Bay,...
on 20 February 1944.
Her first patrol in the Far East was to the Malacca Straits between Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
and Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, both then occupied by the Japanese. On 11 March 1944 she sank her first victim, a 500 ton coaster, with gunfire. In April she patrolled to the Andaman Islands
Andaman Islands
The Andaman Islands are a group of Indian Ocean archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal between India to the west, and Burma , to the north and east...
in the Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...
south of Rangoon and on 14 April made her first sinking by torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
, a 3,500 ton merchant vessel. The following day Storm attacked a merchant ship with a destroyer escort, sinking the latter and damaging the former with torpedoes.
Storm's third patrol was a so-called "cloak-and-dagger" operation, to land a local agent on an island off the northern tip of Sumatra. This ended in failure when men in an inflatable dinghy sent out to retrieve the agent from the island heard him calling from the shore at night. His voice was coming from the wrong location, and sounded strained: the dinghy retreated and Japanese machine guns opened up. The dinghy occupants made it safely back to the submarine, but the fate of the agent was unknown. The fourth patrol was back to the Malacca Straits and a third victim was sunk by torpedo; this time a Japanese submarine-chaser. A subsequent patrol led to the taking of Japanese prisoners who were brought back to Trincomalee, the first such captures of the war.
Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
in Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. The distance to the cruising grounds around Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
and Celebes
Sulawesi
Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...
were so great that one of her ballast tank
Saddle tank (submarine)
Saddle tanks are a type of ballast tank configuration fitted to mid-era submarines, those of World War II.Saddle tanks are fitted in pairs external to the pressure hull, one on each side, in a similar manner to that of a horse's saddle-bags, the positioning of which they resemble in appearance.-...
s was converted to carry diesel fuel in order to manage the 4,800 mile round trip. In November several schooners and other small craft carrying nickel ore were sunk. In January 1945 Storm briefly held the record - 37 days - for a patrol by an S-class boat, covering 7,151 miles in the process. However this was her last patrol, and she received orders to return home. She finally did so on 8 April 1945, flying the traditional Jolly Roger
Jolly Roger
The Jolly Roger is any of various flags flown to identify a ship's crew as pirates. The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly Roger today is the skull and crossbones, a flag consisting of a human skull above two long bones set in an x-mark arrangement on a black field. This design was used by...
flag to signify the end of a successful patrol. Since leaving her builders she had travelled 71,000 miles and spent over 1,400 hours under water - the equivalent of 60 days and nights.
One Of Our Submarines
Before the war Storms Captain, Edward YoungEdward Preston Young
Edward Preston "Teddy" Young DSO, DSC & bar was a British graphic designer, submariner and publisher. In 1935 he joined the then new publishing firm of Penguin Books and was responsible for designing the cover scheme used by Penguin for many years as well as drawing the original penguin logo...
, had been in publishing, and when he returned to the trade he described his wartime service in the book One Of Our Submarines (including his account of the loss of HMS Umpire (N82)
HMS Umpire (N82)
HMS Umpire was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built at Chatham Dockyard and sunk in an accident nine days after commissioning with the loss of 22 men....
).
It was first published in 1952 by Rupert Hart-Davis
Rupert Hart-Davis
Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis was an English publisher, editor and man of letters. He founded the publishing company Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd...
, with a foreword by Admiral Sir George Creasy
George Creasy
Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Elvey Creasy GCB CBE DSO MVO was a senior Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.-Naval career:...
. The book was designed by typographer (and RNR
Royal Naval Reserve
The Royal Naval Reserve is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. The present Royal Naval Reserve was formed in 1958 by merging the original Royal Naval Reserve and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve , a reserve of civilian volunteers founded in 1903...
) Ruari McLean
Ruari McLean
John David Ruari McLean CBE, DSC was a leading British typographic designer.-Early life and apprenticeship:Ruari McLean was born in Newton Stewart, Galloway, Scotland and educated at the Dragon School and Eastbourne College. He was apprenticed in the printing trade at the Shakespeare Head Press,...
and the endpapers feature a cross-section diagram of Storm.
The title was later issued in 1954 as the 1,000th publication from Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
, and Young designed the cover. As a 21-year old office junior before the war, Young had previously designed the famous "triple stripe" standard Penguin cover, as well as the first version of the Penguin logo. A model of HMS Storm is on display in the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport
Gosport
Gosport is a town, district and borough situated on the south coast of England, within the county of Hampshire. It has approximately 80,000 permanent residents with a further 5,000-10,000 during the summer months...
along with the medals won by its captain.