HMS Taku (N38): A Mediterranean Wrecking Ball

Birkenhead-Built

HMS Taku was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead, laid down on 18 November 1937, launched on 20 May 1939 and commissioned on 3 October 1940, a T-class submarine that went on to serve across three very different theatres of the war.

An Awkward Start

Taku's early service included a notably alarming moment when she mistakenly fired torpedoes at the British destroyer HMS Ashanti, fortunately missing, before going on to damage the German torpedo boat Möwe and, on 2 November 1940, torpedo the German tanker Gedania in the Bay of Biscay.

A Mediterranean Rampage

Reassigned to the Mediterranean in 1941, Taku enjoyed a highly productive run, sinking the Italian transports Cagliari, Silvio Scaroni and Caldea, the tankers Arca and Delfin, the German munitions transport Tilly L. M.

Russ at Benghazi, and further Italian and Greek vessels including the motor schooner Vincenzo P., a truly substantial tally that made her one of the more effective British boats operating in the theatre that year.

Striking a Mine Off Scandinavia

Later redeployed off Scandinavia in 1944, Taku sank the German merchantmen Rheinhausen and Hans Bornhofen and severely damaged the freighter Harm Fritzen, before striking a mine herself in April 1944 and sustaining damage, a close call that she nonetheless survived.

She completed fifteen war patrols in total before being decommissioned into reserve in July 1945, and was sold for scrap in November 1946, broken up in South Wales.