1954 - 1958: Stickleback Class
The Stickleback class submarines were midget submarines of the Royal Navy initially ordered as improved versions of the older XE class submarines.
The Royal Navy may have intended to use these craft to carry a 2 ton nuclear mine (based around the Red Beard weapon) into the approaches to the Soviet naval base at Kronstadt. The project was unsuccessful as there were problems finding and paying for the necessary fissile material.
Related Pages
| Bill Morrison | Read |
| Bill's prime Cause Celebre has resulted in his being included in the Guinness Book of Records as having made the deepest unaided ascent from a sunken submarine. He has other claims worthy of recognition, he was among those officers and men who trained many of the crews who joined the Twelfth Submarine Flotilla during WW2. This Flotilla consisted of X Craft and Two Man Chariots. It was based at Port Bannantyne on the Isle of Bute. The HQ was known as HMS Varbel. | |
| 1942 - 1946: X Class | Read |
| Boat Database | |
| 1943 - 1946: XT Class | Read |
| Boat Database | |
| Building X Craft Submarines | Read |
| My first glimpse of a Midget Submarine was about August 1942 when my then foreman in the Submarine Dock sent me to have my photograph taken to form a special pass to enter a secure area set in the North Shop (formerly the Gun Shop and now the Nuclear Build Shop) to work on a special project. I had no idea what the project was and doubted whether anyone else in working in my area did either. | |
| Midget Submarines Canal Zone | Read |
| The skipper cleared lower deck. 'Right men, this is the position we are in. We have got to get two X Craft plus the Depot Ship through the Canal, negotiating obstacles and hidden dangers to achieve our objective of flying the White Ensign in the centre of Janner Land.' | |
| Navy planned Midget Submarine to plant Atomic Bombs in Russia | Read |
| The Royal Navy planned to build midget submarines capable of planting a nuclear weapon inside Russian harbours, documents newly released at the Public record Office have revealed. Designs were drawn up for the so-called X-craft, which was a development on similar devices that had been used in the 1939-1945 War on missions, including the crippling of the German battleship, Tirpitz. | |
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