HMS P39

HMS P39
Career
Name:	HMS P39
Builder:	Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down:	14 October 1940
Launched:	23 August 1941
Commissioned:	16 November 1941
Fate:	destroyed in air raid 26 March 1942
General characteristics
Class & type:	U-class submarine
Displacement:	Surfaced - 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load Submerged - 730 tons
Length:	58.22 m (191 feet)
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 max surfaced 10 knots max submerged
Complement:	27-31
Armament:	4 bow internal 21 inch torpedo tubes - 8 - 10 torpedoes 1 - 3 inch gun

HMS P39 was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness.

Sinking

P39 had a short-lived career with the Royal Navy. She was assigned to operate in the Mediterranean, based out of Malta as part of the 10th Flotilla. She was in harbour following a patrol in the area east of Tunisia whilst previous bomb damage was being repaired. She was then further damaged by German bombers. She was considered too badly damaged for repair, and was salvaged, towed to Kalkara and beached in 1943, but again badly damaged by another air attack. Many of the crew were later lost on HMS Olympus on their way home to the UK. P39 was finally broken up in 1954.

References

• "HMS P 39". uboat.net. http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3549.html. 
• "P32 to P222". British submarines of World War II. Archived from the original on 2007-04-29. http://web.archive.org/web/20070429122200/http://home.cogeco.ca/~gchalcraft/sm/page6.html. 
• "Submarine losses 1904 to present day". RN Submarine Museum, Gosport. http://www.rnsubmus.co.uk/general/losses.htm. 
• 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.