HMS Sportsman: A Tragedy Aboard the Petrella

Chatham-Built

HMS Sportsman was built at Chatham Dockyard, ordered on 14 October 1940, laid down on 1 July 1941, launched on 17 April 1942 and commissioned on 21 December that year, an S-class submarine that after initial patrols off Norway spent the bulk of the war in the Mediterranean under Lieutenant Richard Gatehouse and, later, Lieutenant Peter Langley-Smith and Lieutenant Commander Norman Jewell.

A Highly Productive War

Sportsman proved one of the more successful S-class boats of the war, sinking twelve Axis ships totalling over 20,000 tons.

Her targets included the Vichy French passenger ship Général Bonaparte on 19 May 1943, the Italian merchant Bolzaneto on 29 June 1943, and the German merchant Lüneburg on 28 April 1944, alongside numerous Greek and German vessels in the Aegean and special operations landing agents near San Remo.

At 04:51 on 12 September 1943 she was mistakenly attacked by an Allied B-24 Liberator of the 480th Bombardment Squadron, which dropped seven depth charges and wounded one crew member, sustaining serious damage in a friendly-fire incident that could easily have ended her career there and then.

The Loss of the Petrella

On 8 February 1944, Sportsman torpedoed and sank the German transport Petrella off the Greek coast, a strike that resulted in devastating loss of life among the roughly 3,173 Italian prisoners of war being transported aboard her, with 2,670 confirmed killed.

Accounts differ on whether Petrella carried markings identifying her as a vessel transporting prisoners of war, and this painful episode is remembered as one of the heaviest losses of life connected to any British submarine action of the war, a tragedy for the Italian servicemen aboard that deserves to be recorded with full seriousness rather than folded quietly into a simple tally of ships sunk.

Lost with All Hands as Sibylle

Sportsman survived the war and was placed in reserve at Harwich, before being lent to the French Navy on 8 July 1952 and renamed Sibylle. She was lost with all 47 of her crew during anti-submarine exercises off Toulon on 23 or 24 September 1952, the exact cause never conclusively established, a sobering end for a submarine whose wartime record had been so eventful.