HMS Uproar (P31): Standing By for the Bismarck

Constructed at Barrow, Renamed Twice

HMS Uproar was built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Barrow-in-Furness, laid down on 30 April 1940, launched on 27 November 1940 and commissioned on 2 April 1941, originally simply designated P31. She was briefly renamed Ulleswater in February 1943 before finally settling on the name Uproar that April, a submarine that changed identity twice before finding the one she would keep.

A Small Part in a Famous Hunt

While still known as P31, Uproar received orders during the pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941 to take up a position west of Stadlandet in support of the interception effort, a small but genuine role in one of the most famous naval hunts of the entire war, even though detailed combat records from that specific deployment have not survived.

Malta and the Mediterranean

Based at Malta with the 10th Flotilla for most of the war, Uproar sustained damage during an air raid while in port but continued operating after repairs. She sank the Italian patrol vessel D-15, or Brindisi, the merchant ships Chietti and Marin Sanudo, and damaged German tankers, while also taking part in the Malta supply operations Harpoon and Vigorous in June 1942.

Among her sinkings was the small Italian passenger ship Andrea Sgarallino, which was carrying some 300 civilians, only four of whom survived, a difficult episode that reflects the harsh and often morally complicated realities of submarine warfare in waters where civilian and military traffic could be difficult to distinguish.

The End of Her Service

HMS Uproar survived the war and was placed in reserve at Portsmouth on 28 June 1945, before being sold for scrap in February 1946 and broken up at Inverkeithing, closing out the career of a submarine whose story began with a famous battleship hunt and ended, more quietly, on a Scottish scrapyard slipway.