HMS Tally-Ho (P317): Sinking a Cruiser and a Very Unlucky Submarine

Barrow-Built

HMS Tally-Ho was built by Vickers Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness and launched on 23 December 1942, a T-class submarine that under the command of Lieutenant Commander Leslie William Abel Bennington went on to serve extensively, and eventfully, in the Far East.

Sinking the Kuma

On 11 January 1944, Tally-Ho engaged the Japanese light cruiser Kuma and her escorting destroyer Uranami near Penang, firing seven torpedoes from 1,900 yards. Two struck the cruiser's starboard side aft, and Kuma sank stern-first, a remarkably significant success against a proper warship rather than the merchant vessels that made up most submarine targets.

An Unlucky Valentine's Day for UIT-23

Just over a month later, on 14 February 1944, Tally-Ho encountered another submarine roughly 80 miles south of Penang: UIT-23, originally the Italian submarine Reginaldo Giuliani and transferred to German command after Italy's surrender, now sailing to France under Oberleutnant Werner Striegler with a cargo of tin and quinine and a mixed German and Italian crew aboard.

Both boats were surfaced when they spotted each other and charged towards one another; only Tally-Ho's shots found their mark, and UIT-23 sank quickly with the loss of 26 men, though 14 survivors were picked up by Axis seaplanes and taken to Penang.

Surviving a Ramming

Ten days later, on 24 February 1944, Tally-Ho herself came under serious attack, surviving a ramming by a Japanese torpedo boat that caused serious damage to her port ballast tanks, a close call that she nonetheless weathered, reaching Trincomalee for repairs on 29 February.

A Long Peacetime Career

Tally-Ho survived the war and went on to a substantial postwar career, taking part in the 1953 Coronation Fleet Review and conducting notable transatlantic underwater voyages, before finally being sold to Thos. W. Ward and scrapped at Briton Ferry in Wales on 10 February 1967, a fitting long retirement for a boat whose wartime record had been dramatic.