HMS Syrtis (P241): Lost Off Bodo After a Grim Run of Losses

Laid Down at Birkenhead

HMS Syrtis was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead, laid down on 14 October 1941, launched on 4 February 1943 and commissioned on 23 April 1943 under Lieutenant Michael Hugh Jupp, a third-batch S-class submarine of 865 tons surfaced displacement that would find herself closely bound up with Operation Source, the extraordinary midget submarine attack on the German battleship fleet moored in northern Norway.

A Difficult Role in Operation Source

In September 1943, Syrtis took part in Operation Source, towing the midget submarine X9 towards Alten Fjord in Norway; X9 had been assigned to attack the battlecruiser Scharnhorst, one of three targets in the operation alongside Tirpitz and the Lutzow. The tow parted on 16 September, and X9's crew were lost, a heavy blow before the main operation had even properly begun.

In February 1944, tragedy struck again when Syrtis, turning to rescue a watch officer who had been washed overboard, collided with the midget submarine X22 during exercises, sinking her with the loss of her entire crew, a difficult chapter for a boat that had already suffered so much loss in support of operations she was never able to see through to their conclusion herself.

Convoy Escort and a Final Success

Between her special operations work, Syrtis carried out more conventional duties, including escorting the Russia-bound convoys JW 55 and RA 55 in December 1943 and January 1944, and attacking German shipping off Bodo and Stadlandet in February 1944. On 22 March 1944 she sank the small Norwegian merchant vessel Narvik by gunfire, her only confirmed success against enemy shipping.

Lost Without a Trace

HMS Syrtis departed Lerwick on 16 March 1944 for her seventh patrol and was never seen again after 22 March. The most probable explanation is that she struck a German minefield near Bodo, though enemy shore batteries have also been suggested as a possible cause, closing out the story of a submarine that had already given so much in support of others before her own loss went unwitnessed and unexplained.