HMS Ursula was a British U class submarine

British U class submarine

The British U class submarines were a class of 49 small submarines built just before and during the Second World War...

, of the first group of that class, built by Vickers Armstrong

Vickers Armstrong

Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927...

, 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...

. She was laid down on 19 February 1937 and was commissioned on 20 December 1938.

She served in home waters 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 later in the Mediterranean, before being 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.

Opening actions

Ursula started the war operating in home waters. On 9 September 1939, she fired the first British submarine torpedoes of the war when attacking the German submarine U-35. The U-boat escaped only to be sunk roughly 2 months later.

Attacking the Leipzig

On 14 December 1939 Ursula was on patrol off the Elbe estuary when she sighted the German light cruiser Leipzig

German cruiser Leipzig

The German light cruiser Leipzig was the lead ship of her class . She was the fourth German warship to carry the name of the city of Leipzig.-History:...

, escorted by six destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

s. The Leipzig was returning to Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

 to undergo repairs, having been torpedoed and damaged by HMS Salmon

HMS Salmon (N65)

HMS Salmon was a Royal Navy S-class submarine which was launched on April 30, 1934, and fought in the Second World War. Salmon is one of 12 boats named in the song "Twelve Little S-Boats"....

. The waters of the Elbe estuary are shallow and to dive deep is a dangerous undertaking involving the risk of getting stuck on a sandbank. Nevertheless, Ursula dived beneath the destroyer screen and got within range of the cruiser, the depth of water being only just enough to allow this manoeuvre. On coming up again to periscope depth, Ursula was found to be within point-blank range of the Leipzig. She fired a salvo of six torpedoes and the two resulting explosions were so close that the Ursula herself was badly shaken. On returning to periscope depth, there was no sign of the cruiser, but it did reveal four of her escorting destroyers closing in at high speed to attack. One of these, the destroyer escort

Flottenbegleiter

The F class escort ships were a class of fleet escorts used by the Kriegsmarine during the Second World War. Ten ships were built in total, of a type roughly comparable to British frigates or American destroyer escorts. They were the only such type of ship built by the Kriegsmarine...

 F9, had been hit and was sinking. Once again, risking the sandbanks, the Ursula went deep and managed to evade the inevitable depth charges. Of the cruiser, Leipzig, no further trace was seen, but when the Ursula returned to look for evidence, two of the destroyers were still in the area and engaged, apparently, in a search for survivors. Ursula's commander, Lt.Cdr. G.C. Phillips, was awarded the 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...

 and promoted. The Leipzig had in fact been missed, the torpedoes had instead hit the F 9. Leipzig made it to port and underwent repair.

Service in the North Sea and Mediterranean

Ursula continued to harass enemy shipping in the North Sea, sinking the German merchant Heddernheim, before being reassigned to operate in the Mediterranean. There she sank the Italian auxiliary submarine chaser V 135 / Togo and the German merchants Sainte Marguerite II (a former French vessel) and Odysseus (the former Norwegian Gran). She also damaged the Italian merchant Sabbia, but was herself damaged by depth charges during a counter-attack by the Italian torpedo boat Generale Carlo Montanari. She also launched unsuccessful attacks against the German transport ships Brook and Tilly L.M. Russ, the Italian troop transport Vulcania and the German submarine U-73. She also attacked and damaged the Italian tanker Beppe, which had to be towed to Tripoli

Tripoli

Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...

.

The 'Ursula suit'

Early in the war Philips and his crew had become dissatisfied with the conventional garb of oilskins and designed a special form of clothing more suitable for submarines. Ursula's navigating officer, Lt Lakin

Barklie Lakin

Richard Barklie Lakin, DSO, DSC& Bar was a British industrialist, chairman of Vickers Armstrong and an officer in the Royal Navy during the Second World War....

, was a keen motorcyclist and wore a one-piece motorcycling suit made by Barbour

J. Barbour & Sons

J. Barbour & Sons Ltd is a British clothing manufacturer and importer, founded in South Shields, best known for making waterproof and outdoor clothing...

. Philips asked the company to adapt the suit, splitting it into jacket and trousers and adding a hood. The suit became standard watch-keeping clothing in Royal Navy submarines.

Career as V-4

Ursula was transferred on loan to the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 on 26 June 1944. She was renamed V-4 "Soviet Svanetia" by the Soviets after a mountainous province in Georgia where the submarine's new commander Yaroslav Iosseliani

Yaroslav Iosseliani

Yaroslav Iosseliani was a Soviet Navy submarine commander of Georgian ethnicity. He was awarded the honorary title Hero of the Soviet Union.Iosseliani was born in the village of Lakhiri in the Svaneti region of Georgia and was educated in Gagra...

came from. She had a relatively quiet career, surviving the war. She was returned to Britain in early 1950 and was scrapped at Grangemouth in May 1950.