Top
Home → Boats → Submarines → The 9th Foltilla → O20

O20 (Dutch)

Built By: Vickers (Barrow)
Build Group: Dutch O19
Fate: Scuttled by her own crew, about 25 miles east of Kota Baru, to prevent her capture by Japanese destroyers. The Commanding Officer and 6 others died, the remainder of the crew were saved by the Japanese destroyer Uranami and made prisoners of war.

Laid down as K XX after which at some point she was renamed O20. Along with her sister ship O19 were the first boats in the world to be equipped with a submarine snorkel that allowed the submarine to run its diesel engines while submerged. She was put into a squadron that consisted of two submarines: O20 and O15, and the sloop Van Kinsbergen.

On 10 May 1940 Germany attacked the Netherlands. On 7 December 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the US into the war. The Netherlands followed suit hours later. By early December 1941, O20 had been stationed at Singapore Submarine Base and was under the command of the British Eastern Fleet.

Related Pages
1940 - 1946: The 9th Foltilla

RN Submarine Database

Events

15-06-1936 Laid down
31-01-1939 Launched
28-08-1939 Commissioned
12-12-1941 Placed under the command of the British Commander in Chief Eastern Fleet and ordered to proceed to Singapore.
19-12-1941 Scuttled by her own crew, about 25 miles east of Kota Baru, to prevent her capture by Japanese destroyers. The Commanding Officer and 6 others died, the remainder of the crew were saved by the Japanese destroyer Uranami and made prisoners of war.

She had been damaged by depth charges from the Japanese destroyers Ayanami and Yugiri earlier that day. O20 then surfaced after dark but was spotted and engaged with gunfire by Uranami.
Add A Comment (click to open)

This form is for you to comment on, or add additional information to this page. Any questions will be deleted. If you wish to ask a question contact the Branch or the Webmaster using the Contact Us page or ask your question on our Facebook Page

Name E-Mail
Your email will not be shown, but is required
Anti Spam: Type the following code exactly as shown into the box below.

Mwhx    
Note: All submissions are subject to approval prior to appearing on the page. As a SPAM prevention measure, any comments containing links to other sites will be automatically discarded.

O13 (Dutch) O21 (Dutch)