HMS Syrtis (P241)

HMS Syrtis in April, 1943
History
Class and type:	S class submarine
Name:	HMS Syrtis
Builder:	Cammell Laird & Co Limited, Birkenhead
Laid down:	14 October 1941
Launched:	4 February 1943
Commissioned:	23 April 1943
Fate:	Sunk 28 March 1944
General characteristics
Displacement:	814-872 tons surfaced 990 tons submerged
Length:	217 ft (66 m)
Beam:	23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
Draught:	11 ft (3.4 m)
Speed:	14.75 knots surfaced eight knots submerged
Complement:	48 officers and men
Armament:	6 × forward 21-inch torpedo tubes, one aft 13 torpedoes one three-inch gun (four-inch on later boats) one 20 mm cannon three .303-calibre machine guns

HMS Syrtis was an S class submarine of the Royal Navy, and part of the Third Group built of that class. She was constructed by Cammell Laird and launched on March 23, 1943. So far she has been the only vessel to bear the name Syrtis, the Latin name for the Gulf of Gabes in the Mediterranean Sea.^[1]

She served in home waters, and left Lerwick on 16 March 1944 to patrol off the Norwegian coast. On 20 March she was ordered to an area near Bodø. Two days later she sank the steamer Narvik with gunfire. On the 28th Syrtis was ordered to return to Lerwick. The signal was never acknowledged and the submarine failed to return. German reports indicate the sinking of a submarine in the Bodø area at the time by shore batteries, but the most likely cause of her loss is a mine.^[2]

References

1. HMS Syrtis, Uboat.net
2. Submarine losses 1904 to present day, RN Submarine Museum, Gosport

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.

Coordinates: 66°45′N 13°11′E / 66.750°N 13.183°E