Royal Canadian Navy anti-submarine warfare (ASW) training submarines HMS P.514, HMS P552, HMS P.554, and HNLMS O 15

Royal Canadian Navy (RCN)

Anti-submarine Warfare (ASW) training submarines, 1939–1945,

HMS P.514, HMS P.552, HMS P.554, HNLMS O 15

(ussubvetsofworldwarii Photo)

HMS P.514, shown here as USS R-19.  She was transferred to the Royal Navy on 9 March 1942 at New London.  HMS P514 was sunk by accident in western Atlantic while she was on passage around the coast of Newfoundland from Argentia to St Johns, on 20 June 1942. HMS P514, commanded by Lt. Walter Augustus Phillimore, RN, in company with Lt.Cdr. Richard Michael Eames Pain, RN (not in command but was taking passage) left Argentia bound for St Johns.  At 0300 hours on the 21st the Canadian minesweeper HMCS Georgian, under the command of A/Lt.Cdr. A.G. Stanley, RCNR, was waiting to provide escort for a convoy bound for Sydney.  HMCS Georgian, unaware that any friendly submarines were in the area, assumed that the dark shape of HMS P514 crossing her bow, was an enemy vessel.  HMCS Georgian rammed the mystery submarine amidships and reported it sunk in position 46°33N, 53°39W.  A rescue mission was immediately sent out but no survivors were found.  A Board of Enquiry into the accident accepted that the Commanding Officer of HMCS Georgian had acted correctly as there had been no reply from the submarine to his identification challenge.

The R-class submarines were a class of USN submarines active from 1918 until 1945.  With the first of the class laid down following the the US entry into the First World War, they were built rapidly.  Although R-15 through R-20 were completed July–October 1918, they did not serve overseas, and the bulk of the class were not completed until after the Armistice.

HMS P514 was armed with 21-inch (533-mm) torpedo tubes and a 3-inch (76-mm)/50 calibre deck gun.  Three (R-3, R-17, and R-19) were transferred to the RN as HMS P.511, HMS P.512 and HMS P.514.

(Bill Abercrombie Photo)

HMCS Drummondville (J253) (Bangor-class), with possibly HMS P.514 and another RN sub alongside in Halifax, NS, ca 1941.  HMS P.514 and the Dutch submarine O-15 were used for anti-submarine training by the RCN.  P514 was lost on 20 June 1942, so this photo was taken before then.

(ussubvetsofworldwarii Photo)

HMS P.514, shown here as USS R-19.

(ussubvetsofworldwarii Photo)

R-15 (SS-92) on the left, R-12 (SS-89) in the middle and R-19 (SS-96).

USS S-1 and USS S-22 were transferred to the RN in 1942.  USS S-1 was re-named HMS P.552 and USS S-22 was re-named HMS P.554,  both of which operated out of Halifax for anti-submarine training.

(USN Photo)

HMS P.552 shown here as USN S-1.

USS S-1 (SS-105) was the lead boat of the S class of submarines of the USN.  She was transferred to Britain under the Lend-Lease program, on 20 April 1942.  S-1 served the RN as HMS P.552 as a training vessel for ASW.  In poor condition, she was often in repair and she was declared unseaworthy in January 1944.  She was returned to the USN on 16 October 1944, where she was stripped of vital parts and machinery, and her hull was sold for local scrapping on 20 July 1945 and she was scrapped at Durban on 14 September 1944.

(USN Photo)

HMS P.554, formerly USS S-22, (SS-127), in Placentia Sound, Newfoundland, April 1943. Note harbor defense net in the background.

HMS P.554 shown here as USS S-22.  (USN Photo)

USS S-22 (SS-127) was launched on 15 July 1920.   She was transferred to the UK on 19 June 1942 and commisioned as HMS P.554.  She was returned to the United States Navy at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 11 July 1944, S-22 was subsequently used as a sonar target at New London and in tests at the U.S. Naval Experimental Facility, Minas Basin, Nova Scotia,  She was sold for scrapping on 16 November 1945 to the North American Smelting Company in Philadelphia.

HNLMS O 15

HNLMS O 15 in the harbour of IJmuiden, Netherlands, 13 June 1945.  (Ministerie van Defensie Photo)

O 15 was an O 12-class submarine of Her Netherlands Majesty's Navy that saw service during the Second World War.  It was the only submarine of the O 12 class built by Wilton-Fijenoord of Rotterdam.  When the war broke out O 15 was stationed in Curaçao.  It helped in training the RCN in anti-submarine warfare from Halifax, as well as testing the CSC (Canadian Sea Control) type radar, before It returned to Europe in Sep 1942.  O 15 was based in Dundee, Scotland, from where it patrolled the coast of Norway and accompanied convoys to Archangelsk.  The sub survived the war and was taken out of active duty just after the Japanese surrender.  It was demolished in 1946.

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