British S-class submarine (1931)
HMS Stonehenge
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | S class |
| Preceded by: | Rainbow class |
| Succeeded by: | River class |
| Completed: | 62 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Submarine |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | First group |
| Completed: | 4 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Submarine |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 202 ft 6 in (61.72 m) |
| Beam: | 24 ft (7.3 m) |
| Draught: | 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) |
| Speed: |
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| Complement: | 36 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Second group |
| Completed: | 8 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Submarine |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 208 ft 9 in (63.63 m) |
| Beam: | 24 ft (7.3 m) |
| Draught: | 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) |
| Speed: |
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| Complement: | 39 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Third group |
| Completed: | 50 (excluding cancelled boats) |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Submarine |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 217 ft (66 m) |
| Beam: | 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m) |
| Draught: | 11 ft (3.4 m) |
| Speed: |
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| Complement: | 49 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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The S-class submarines of the Royal Navy were originally designed and built during the modernisation of the submarine force in the early 1930s to meet the need for smaller boats to patrol the restricted waters of the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, replacing the British H class submarines. As part of the major naval construction for the Royal Navy during the Second World War, the S class became the largest single group of submarines ever built for the Royal Navy. A total of 62 was constructed over a period of 15 years, with fifty of the "improved" S-class being launched between 1940 and 1945.
The submarines operated in the waters around the United Kingdom and in the Mediterranean, and later in the Far East after being fitted with extra tankage.
After the war S-class boats continued to serve in the Royal Navy until the 1960s. The last operational boat in the Royal Navy was Sea Devil, launched in 1945 and scrapped in February 1966. Springer was in Israeli service as INS Tanin and was decommissioned in 1972.
Several S-class submarines were sold on or lent to other navies:
A modified version was ordered by the Turkish navy in 1939 as the Oruç Reis class.
Of the twelve S-class boats that were in service in 1939, only three survived to see the end of World War II, a loss rate that inspired the song "Twelve Little S-Boats", based on a nursery rhyme originally written by Septimus Winner in 1868.
The survivors, left blank in the fatalistic rhyme, were HMS Sealion (scuttled), HMS Seawolf (broken up), and HMS Sturgeon (sold).
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Wikipedia