HMS Tribune was a British T class submarine

British T class submarine

The Royal Navy's T class of diesel-electric submarines was designed in the 1930s to replace the O, P and R classes. Fifty-three members of the class were built just before and during the Second World War, where they played a major role in the Royal Navy's submarine operations...

 built by Scotts

Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company

Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, often referred to simply as Scotts, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Greenock on the River Clyde.- History :...

, Greenock

Greenock

Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...

. She was laid down on 3 March 1937 and was commissioned on 17 October 1939. HMS Tribune was part of the first group of T class submarines.

Career

Tribune started the war with operations in the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

 and off the Scandinavian coast. She had a number of fruitless patrols, attacking an unidentified German submarine and merchant, the U-56

German submarine U-56 (1938)

German submarine U-56 was a Type IIC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine that served in the Second World War. She was produced by Deutsche Werke AG, Kiel, and was commissioned on 26 November 1938.-Wartime Activity:...

, the German tanker Karibisches Meer and the German merchant Birkenfels, all without success.
She had marginally better luck in the Mediterranean, damaging the French merchant Dalny, which was beached to prevent her from sinking, and then damaging the now beached Dalny the next day. She also torpedoed and damaged the German tanker Präsident Herrenschmidt, and attacked the Italian merchant Benevento, but failed to hit her.

HMS Tribune survived the war, and was sold for scrap in July 1947, and was broken up in November, by Ward, of Milford Haven.

The making of the film "Close Quarters"

HMS Tribune and crew starred in the British wartime propaganda film "Close Quarters" made in 1943, depicting a North Sea patrol off Norway. She was called "HMS Tyrant" in the film.