RN Subs

O22 (Dutch)

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The submarine was laid down as K XXII at the Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde, Vlissingen. During construction she was renamed O22.

Following the German invasion of O22 was hastily commissioned, still incomplete, and sailed for England on 12 May together with her sister O21 and the tugboat B.V. 37, to be finally completed at the Navy yard in Rosyth.

During the war she operated in the North Sea and made five patrols. During her last patrol O22 was lost with her entire crew, 42 Dutch and 3 British sailors.

The logbook of German submarine U28 provides the following information:

In a timespan of 30 seconds heard two heavy explosions very near to the boat. Most likely we were attacked by a submarine. The torpedoes must have passed behind the boat and most likely exploded at the end of their run or on hitting the bottom.

If this was indeed a torpedo attack by a submarine, and given the double explosion this seems very likely, the attacker can only have been O22. No other Allied submarine was operating in this area and no other Allied submarine reported this attack. Also the position where the wreck of O22 was found in 1993 is only a few miles from where the incident was reported.

Therefore, it very likely that O22 was still operational on the evening of 13 November 1940. It is even possible that something went wrong during this attack and that this resulted in the loss of O22.

The wreck of HrMs O22 was located in about 180 meters of water by a survey vessel of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in position 57°55'N, 05°31'E.

There is no visible damage to the wreck that is upright on the seabed. To this day the exact cause of the loss of O22 is unknown. On 2 November 1996 a ceremony at the wreck site was held to commemorate the loss.

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