1940 HMS Spearfish returns home

British Newsreel. April 22, 1940.HMS Spearfish was a Royal Navy S-class submarine which was launched April 21, 1936 and fought in World War II. Spearfish is one of 12 boats named in the song Twelve Little S-Boats. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to be named Spearfish.Her wartime career started inauspiciously, when on the 24th September, 1939, she was heavily damaged by German warships off Horns Reef. She was unable to submerge but nevertheless managed to escape. A rescue mission was undertaken by the British Humber force and Home Fleet, including the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, and the battleship HMS Nelson, which performed escort duty whilst search and rescue attempts were made. Spearfish safely put in Rosyth on the 26th, and repairs were completed in early March 1940.Another notable action occurred on April 4, 1940, when whilst patrolling in the Kattegat when she torpedoed and damaged the German pocket battleship Lützow, putting her out of action for over a year. Later that year, on May 20, she sunk two Danish fishing vessels with gunfire in the North Sea.Spearfish sailed from Rosyth on July 31 1940 to patrol off the Norwegian coast. On August 1 she was spotted on the surface by U34 who attacked and sank her. There was only one survivor.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• HMS
• Spearfish
• Royal
• Navy
• Submarine
• North
• Sea
• Battle
• Atlantic
• Lutzow
• German
• Pocket
• Battleship

[sachahall123]

my grandad was on spearfish i was lucky enough to be given his hat and a photo by my aunty great to see this video

[aleksmart]

Mine too. The submarine museum down South has some interesting facts about it. Completely unrelated, but spookily co-incidental... I have a tattoo on my arm which reads "Dum Spiro Spero" (It's Latin). This phrase turned out to be written under the boats name and is it's 'logo'

[almquist24]

My Great Uncle is on this video. Its nice to have something to watch and think about how it was for them.

[hitlersHQ]

my grandmas brother fought in that he and his crew died because they got sunk on north of scotland