HMS Tigris (N63): A Decorated Career Cut Short Off Capri

Built at Chatham

HMS Tigris was built at Chatham Dockyard, launched in October 1939 and commissioned on 20 June 1940, a T-class submarine that would serve first under Commander Howard Bone in the Bay of Biscay and later, under Lieutenant Commander George Robson Colvin, in the Mediterranean.

The Bay of Biscay and Beyond

From July 1940, Tigris completed seven patrols in the Bay of Biscay, sinking the French fishing vessel Charles Edmond, the merchant ship Jacobsen and the German naval tanker Thorn, and attacking, though missing, the German U-boat U-58. She also carried out special operations inserting SOE agents, before moving to the North Sea near Scandinavia in 1941.

Two Submarines and a Decoration

Redeployed to the Mediterranean from late 1942, Tigris added two more submarines to her tally: the Italian submarine Michele Bianchi, torpedoed on 5 July 1941 some 150 nautical miles off the Gironde estuary, and the Italian submarine Porfido, sunk in December 1942, a success that earned her commander, George Colvin, the Distinguished Service Order.

In January 1943 she also sank the Italian merchant ship Citta di Genova, which was carrying Greek hostages, a properly difficult and morally fraught target even in the context of submarine warfare.

Lost Without a Trace

HMS Tigris departed Malta on 18 February 1943 to patrol south-west of Naples and was last sighted at 07:30 on 24 February, 39 miles from Capri.

She is believed to have been sunk on 27 February 1943 by the German auxiliary submarine chaser UJ 2210 south-east of Capri, which hunted her with three separate depth-charge runs before a fourth and final pattern of fifteen charges found their mark, and was declared overdue on 10 March 1943 with the loss of her entire crew of 59, a heavy loss for a boat whose service record had been distinguished right up to her final, unwitnessed patrol.