P 36
| Built By: | Vickers (Barrow) |
| Build Group: | U2 |
| Fate: | During an air raid on Malta on 1st April 1942 Submarine P36, which was alongside the Submarine Base at Manoel Island, was hit by a bomb, which breached the pressure hull. The submarine sank but there were no casualties as the crew were all ashore in shelters. The wreck of Submarine P36 was raised in August 1958 and sunk in deep water off Malta. |
Commanders
| 1941: | Lieutenant | Harry Noel Edmonds | DSC |
1942: 10th Flotilla. Malta.
March 1942, Patrol off Taranto.
Lieutenant Harry Noel Edmonds DSC RN was the Commanding Officer. He lost his life when HMS Olympus was sunk.
Events
| 02-09-1940 | Laid Down |
| 28-04-1941 | Launched |
| 24-09-1941 | Completed |
| 26-11-1941 | While on patrol in the Bay of Biscay HMS P 36 attacks a German submarine with torpedoes south-west of Belle-Ile island. All torpedoes missed. |
| 13-02-1942 | HMS P 36 fires four torpedoes against the Italian heavy cruisers Gorizia and Trento in the Ionian Sea about 90 nautical miles east of Capo Spartivento, Calabria, Italy. All torpedoes missed. |
| 15-02-1942 | HMS P 36 torpedoes and damages the Italian destroyer Carabiniere off Taranto. |
| 22-03-1942 | Carried out an attack on Italian Navy units which had put to sea from Taranto. |
| 01-04-1942 | HMS P36 was lying alongside a jetty at Silema creek in Malta When the Luftwaffe attacked the harbour. A large bomb landed sufficiently near the submarine to hole her and she began to sink. Despite desperate efforts to save her she rolled over and sank. |
| 07-08-1958 | In July 1958 work on salving the P.36 commenced. She was raised to the surface on 7th August 1958 and two weeks later towed out to sea to be sunk for the second and final time. |
Comments
Comment by: carol clare on August 2, 2017
My father was chief engineer on P36 and was one of the men left in charge whilst she was in Silema creek in April 1942. He has written about her sinking in his memoirs, a copy of which is in the Submarine museum in Gosport. His name was Kenneth Harcourt England, and his book is "All at Sea", memoirs of a naval man written in 1993.
My father died in 2002 always proud to have been a submariner. He was one of eight who were left behind in Malta when Olympus took the crews of 36 and 37 on board to get them back to Gibraltar, as you know this boat hit a mine and was sunk with nearly all hands, and his disappointment at not getting the trip was tempered by the fact that he was saved and he was one of the lucky % of submariners who survived the war.
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