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On This Day - July 20

1915E11E11 moved into the Gulf of Izmir and during the night the submarine's first officer, Lt Guy D'Oyly-Hughes, swam ashore and blew up a section of the Constantinople to Baghdad railway line, a feat for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
1915E11Stoker Henry Mayne was accidentally lost over board in the Mediterranean about 150 miles from Malta. E11's First Lieutenant, Lieutenant Guy D'Oyly-Hughes, jumped in to save him but Mayne was lost. D'Oyly-Hughes was awarded the Silver Medal of the Royal Humane Society in 1915 for his efforts to save Mayne.

1918E34Lost with all hands. The submarine had sailed from Harwich on the morning of 14th July 1918 with orders to lay a minefield off Vlieland and was reported lost on the 20th July 1918. No reason has been discovered for her loss, but it is possible that she was mined. There were no survivors.
1919M4Launched
1940Parthian (N75)HMS Parthian landed an agent on Crete
1940P612Launched
1941Union (N56)HMS Union sailed from Malta at 0100 on 14 July 1941. On 20 July 1941 she was sunk by the Italian torpedo boat Circe 25 miles SW of Pantelleria Island in the Strait of Sicily. Union was reported overdue on 22 July 1941
1943Safari (P211)HMS Safari torpedoes and sinks the Italian pilot vessel F 50/Silvio Onorato between Bastia and Maddalena.
1943Spirit (P245)Launched
1943Vampire (P72)Launched
1944Unswerving (P63)HMS Unswerving fires three torpedoes at the German transport Pelikan and it's escort the German torpedo boat TA 19 off Suda Bay, Crete. The torpedoes miss.
1944Vengeful (P86)Launched
1945Thule (P325)HMS Thule sinks a Japanese coaster with gunfire of the north coast of Java, Netherlands East Indies.
1950Sidon (P259)Sidon towed the midget submarine "XE8" from Plymouth to Portsmouth.
1960PolarisIn first launch of Polaris missile, USS George Washington successfully fires 2 operational Polaris missiles while submerged off Florida

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