Allied Warships

HMS Tactician (P 314)

Submarine of the T class

NavyThe Royal Navy
TypeSubmarine
ClassT 
PennantP 314 
Built byVickers Armstrong (Barrow-in-Furness, U.K.) 
Ordered 
Laid down13 Nov 1941 
Launched29 Jul 1942 
Commissioned29 Nov 1942 
End service 
Loss position
 
History

Scrapped at Newport on 6 December 1963.

Commanding Officers:
Lt.Cdr. Anthony Foster Collett, DSC, RN
12 December 1942 - 1 October 1944
Bar to DSC awarded on 25 August 1944

Lt. Charles Philip Bowers, RN
1 October 1944 - 15 November 1944

Lt.Cdr. Norman Limbury Auchinleck Jewell, MBE, DSC, RN
15 November 1944 - 25 June 1945

Lt. William Henry Kett, DSC, RNR
25 June 1945 - still in command in October 1945 according to the Navy List

 

Commands listed for HMS Tactician (P 314)

Please note that we're still working on this section.

CommanderFromTo
1Lt.Cdr. Edward Arthur Woodward, DSO, RNca aug 4212 Dec 1942
2Lt.Cdr. Anthony Foster Collett, DSC, RN12 Dec 19421 Oct 1944
3Lt. Charles Philip Bowers, RN1 Oct 194415 Nov 1944
4Lt.Cdr. Norman Limbury Auchinleck Jewell, DSC, RN15 Nov 194425 Jun 1945
5Lt. William Henry Kett, DSC, RNR18 Jun 19459 Nov 1945

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Noteable events involving Tactician include:


5 May 1943
HMS Tactician (Lt.Cdr. A.F. Collett, DSC, RN) sinks the Italian auxiliary patrol vessel V17 / Pia (385 GRT) with gunfire about 10 nautical miles west of Grosseto, Italy in position 42º34'N, 10º45'E. (see map)

12 Jun 1943
HMS Tactician (Lt.Cdr. A.F. Collett, DSC, RN) sinks the Italian schooner Bice (1459 GRT, built 1902) with gunfire 5 nautical miles north-east of the Bari lighthouse.

At 1220 hours (no time zone given in patrol report) Tactician surfaced and engaged a large schooner with gunfire from 2200 yards. The schooner was escorted by an armed vessel that was approximately 4500 yards away.

The first round was fired only 24 seconds after Tactician passed 10 feet. The fourth and fifth round were a hits on the schooners hull. The crew of the schooner abandoned ship.

About 5 minutes into the action the armed vessel opened fire on Tactician which now shifted target. Several hits were obtained on this vessel with one of the hits knocking out it's gun. The enemy vessel eventually fled towards Bari harbour.

Target was now shifted back to the schooner again that soon started to settle after several more hits.

At 1234 hours Tactician was taken under fire by shore batteries forcing Lt.Cdr. Collett to dive and break off the action.

At 1320 hours 23 depth charges were dropped but these caused no damage.

14 Jun 1943
HMS Tactician (Lt.Cdr. A.F. Collett, DSC, RN) torpedoes and damages the Italian merchant Rosandra (8035 GRT) off the coast of Albania in position 40º14'N, 19º28'E. The ship sinks the following day.

At 1610 hours (no time zone given in patrol report), while Tactician was in position 15 nautical miles bearing 155 Cape Linguetta, a northbound merchant vessel of 7600 tons was sighted clore inshore.

Four torpedoes were fired when range was closed to 2200 yards. Although no escort was seen during the setup of the attack there was one that closed Tactician and forced her deep shortly after firing the torpedoes.

Before the last torpedo exploded a depth charge was dropped that was very close. Within 10 minutes 16 more depth charges were dropped with three of them even closer then the first one. No real damage was done and the escort lost contact soon after. (see map)

20 Feb 1944
HMS Tactician (Lt.Cdr. A.F. Collett, DSC, RN) attacks a Japanese submarine north of Sumatra in position 05º53'5N, 96º46'2E. Five torpedoes were fired but these missed.

At 0725 hours (no time zone given in the patrol report but most likely it was -6.5) Tactician spotted a Japanese submarine on the surface steering course 125. At 0729 hours 5 torpedoes were fired from 5000-6000 yards. All five torpedoes missed the target. It was intended to fire eight torpedoes but when the 5th torpedo was fired it was realised that the targets speed was underestimated. (see map)

28 Feb 1944
HMS Tactician (Lt.Cdr. A.F. Collett, DSC, RN) sinks a small Japanese vessel off Penang.

27 May 1944
HMS Tactician (Lt.Cdr. A.F. Collett, DSC, RN) sinks two Siamese sailing vessels with gunfire of the west coast of Siam.

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