HMS Sunfish was a 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...

 S-class

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...

 submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

 which was launched on 30 September 1936 and fought in the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Sunfish is one of 12 boats named in the song Twelve Little S-Boats.

She spent an eventful period with the Royal Navy on the outbreak of war, and was commanded for much of her career in the war by Lieutenant Commander

Lieutenant Commander

Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...

 J.E. Slaughter. In February 1940, she attacked U-14, but failed to sink her, and in April sank two German

Kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...

 merchant ships, the Amasis and the Antares

Antares

Antares is a red supergiant star in the Milky Way galaxy and the sixteenth brightest star in the nighttime sky . Along with Aldebaran, Spica, and Regulus it is one of the four brightest stars near the ecliptic...

, and narrowly missed out on sinking the Hanau and an auxiliary patrol vessel.

She also sank a couple of German 'Q ships' that month, the Schürbeck and the Oldenburg. On 7 December 1940, she sank the Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 merchant and damaged the Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 merchant Dixie off Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

.

Sunfish was transferred to the Soviet Navy

Soviet Navy

The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...

 in 1944 and renamed V-1.

She did not spend long under Soviet command, being bombed and sunk in error by a RAF Coastal Command

RAF Coastal Command

RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force . Founded in 1936, it was the RAF's premier maritime arm, after the Royal Navy's secondment of the Fleet Air Arm in 1937. Naval aviation was neglected in the inter-war period, 1919–1939, and as a consequence the service did not receive...

 Liberator

Consolidated Liberator I

Consolidated Liberator I was the service name of the first Consolidated B-24 Liberator 4-engined bombers to see use with the Royal Air Force .-Service history:In August 1939, the USAAC ordered 38 examples of the Consolidated B-24A...

 off Norway, during passage from Dundee

Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

 to Murmansk

Murmansk

Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...

 on 27 July 1944. Her commander — Capt. 2nd rank Fisanovich

Israel Fisanovich

Israel Ilyich Fisanovich born 1914, died 1944, was a Soviet Navy submarine commander and Hero of the Soviet Union. He died when his submarine, the former was sunk in a friendly fire incident....

— had taken her out of her assigned area and she was diving when the aircraft came in sight instead of staying on the surface and firing recognition signals as instructed. All crew — including the British liaison staff - were lost.