HNoMS Ula
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Varne
BuilderVickers-Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down29 April 1942
Launched22 January 1943
Out of serviceApril 1943 transferred to Royal Norwegian Navy
Badge
Norway
NameHNoMS Ula
AcquiredApril 1943 transferred to Royal Norwegian Navy
Commissioned3 April 1943
FateScrapped, 1965 at Hamburg
General characteristics
Class and typeU-class submarine
Displacement
  • Surfaced :
  • 540 long tons (549 t) standard
  • 639 long tons (649 t) full load
  • Submerged :
  • 740 long tons (752 t)
Length60 m (196 ft 10 in)
Beam4.9 m (16 ft 1 in)
Draught4.62 m (15 ft 2 in)
Propulsion
Speed
  • 11.25 knots (20.84 km/h; 12.95 mph) surfaced
  • 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) submerged
Complement33
Armament

HNoMS Ula, previously HMS Varne, a British-built U-class submarine, and a member of the third group of that class to be built. She never actually served under the name Varne, being transferred before commissioning to the exiled Royal Norwegian Navy as HNoMS Ula (S300). In 1944 she sank a German U-boat during one of her patrols off Norway. She remained in Norwegian service and was scrapped in 1965.

Service history

Originally built for Royal Navy as Varne, it was planned that the Royal Dutch Navy should man her and name her Haai. The Dutch crew (mainly 34 from the decommissioned submarines KIX, KX and KXII) needed to be brought to the UK from Sydney via Cape Town. Their ship from Cape Town was the merchant vessel Abosso, which was unescorted and was attacked and sunk in the Atlantic, 48.30N 28.50W, by the German U Boat Type VIIc U-575 on the night of 29 October 1942.

Varne was transferred to the Royal Norwegian Navy as HNoMS Ula (P66) in 1943, remaining there for the remainder of her career. She carried out 14 patrols during World War II, operating as part of the 'Norwegian Section' of the 9th Submarine Flotilla at Dundee. On 19 April 1944, under CO Lt Valvatne RNoN, 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) south east of Løten on the western Boknafjorden, near Stavanger, Norway, the submarine fired a salvo of four torpedoes. The target was the German Type VIIc U-boat U-974 at about 1,200 metres (1,300 yd) range. One torpedo hit its target just behind the conning tower and the U-boat was blown in two and sunk, though eight crew survived.[1]

This was the most notable of Ula's victims during her 14 patrols. She sank several other targets, mostly merchant ships, during her war service, all of which was spent on the Norwegian patrol.[2]

Ula was the Allied submarine which sunk the most enemy tonnage in the Atlantic in the Second World War.[3]

Ula continued in Norwegian service until 1965, when she was broken up in Hamburg.

References

  1. ↑ British Submarines of World War II website Archived 27 May 2012 at archive.today
  2. ↑ U-boat.net website
  3. ↑ "Allied Submarine Attacks : search "ULA"". Archived from the original on 10 April 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
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