HMS Triumph (N18) was a T-class

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...

 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...

 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...

. She was laid down by Vickers

Vickers

Vickers was a famous name in British engineering that existed through many companies from 1828 until 1999.-Early history:Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor &...

 at Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...

 and launched in September 1938.

Career

Triumph had a relatively active, yet tragic career, serving 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 the Mediterranean.

Home waters

On 26 December 1939, Triumph hit a German mine in the North Sea. Eighteen feet of bow was blown off and her pressure hull was also damaged, but fortunately the torpedoes in the torpedo tubes did not detonate. She managed to limp back home under the protection of fighter aircraft and destroyers, and was under repair at Chatham Dockyard until 27 September 1940.

Mediterranean

Operating in the Mediterranean from early 1941, Triumph sank the Italian merchants Marzamemi, Colomba Lofaro, Ninfea, Monrosa, the Italian auxiliary patrol vessels V 136 / Tugnin F, Valoroso, V 190 / Frieda and V 137 / Trio Frassinetti, the Italian tug Dante de Lutti and salvage vessel , the German merchant Luvsee, and the Greek sailing vessels Panagiotis and Aghia Paraskeva. She also damaged the Italian armed merchant cruiser Ramb III

Italian ship Ramb III

The Italian auxiliary cruiser Ramb III was built at Genoa by Ansaldo in 1938.Ramb III was the third of four sister ships all built to the same design. The other ships were the , the , and the . The four ships were built for the Royal Banana Monopoly Business...

, the Italian tankers Ardor and Poseidone, the Italian merchant Sidamo and the German merchant Norburg

In June 1941 she sank the Italian submarine Salpa near northern Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

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Sinking

Triumph was also used for covert operations, such as landing agents in German occupied areas. She was planned to be used as a rendezvous for commandos in Operation Colossus

Operation Colossus

Operation Colossus was the codename given to the first airborne operation undertaken by the British military, which occurred on 10 February 1941 during World War II...

, but this had to be cancelled when the landing site became untenable. She undertook one such mission in December 1941, in which she successfully landed agents near Piraeus. Her orders were to return and pick the party up on the nightnof 9/10 Jan ADM files at the National Archives Kew contain an Axis report of an attack by an allied SM on a lighter on the morning of 9 Jan off Cape Sounion As Triumph was the only allied boat in the area it is reasonable to conclude that she was the attacking submarine She was lost almost certainly on 9 January 1942 en route from Cape Sounion to Piraeus, where she had a rendezvous with her landing party. She was probably sunk after being mined. All fifty-nine crew were lost.

There is a memorial to her and her lost crew members in All Saint's church, Lindfield, West Sussex

Lindfield, West Sussex

Lindfield is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. The parish lies to the north-east of Haywards Heath, of which the village is a part of the built-up area. It stands on the upper reaches of the River Ouse...

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