HMS Unsparing (P55)

History
Class and type:	U-class submarine
Name:	HMS Unsparing
Builder:	Vickers Armstrong, Newcastle upon Tyne
Laid down:	11 August 1941
Launched:	28 July 1942
Commissioned:	29 November 1942
Fate:	scrapped 1946
Badge:
General characteristics
Displacement:	Surfaced - 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load Submerged - 730 tons
Length:	58.22 m (191 ft)
Beam:	4.90 m (16 ft 1 in)
Draught:	4.62 m (15 ft 2 in)
Propulsion:	2 shaft diesel-electric 2 Paxman Ricardo diesel generators + electric motors 615 / 825 hp
Speed:	11.25 knots (20.8 km/h) max surfaced 10 knots (19 km/h) max submerged
Complement:	27-31
Armament:	4 bow internal 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes - 8 - 10 torpedoes 1 - 3-inch (76 mm) gun

HMS Unsparing (P55) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Unsparing.

Career

Unsparing spent most of her wartime career in the Mediterranean, where she sank the Italian tanker Flegetonte, the German merchant Ingeborg (the former French Ste. Martine), the German submarine chaser UJ 2106 (the former Greek minelayer Tenedos), the German barge Sybille (the former French Caisson) and the German ferry SF 284, as well as six sailing vessels, including the Greek Evangelistria. She also torpedoed and damaged the German merchant Peter, as well as a number of sailing vessels.

Unsparing survived the war and was scrapped at Inverkeithing in 1946.

References

• "HMS Unsparing (P 55)". uboat.net.
• "Universal to Untamed". British submarines of World War II.
• 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.
• Hutchinson, Robert (2001). Jane's Submarines: War Beneath the Waves from 1776 to the Present Day. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-710558-8. OCLC 53783010.

External links

• IWM Interview with Aston Piper, who commanded HMS Unsparing from 1943 to 1944