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Taku (N 38)

Built By: Cammell Laird (Mersey)
Build Group: T 1
Fate: Heavily damaged by a mine in April 1944 and was retired from service.

Scrapped in November 1946 at Llanelly.

Taku (N 38)

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Commanders
1939: Lieutenant Commander   Walter Selby Hall
1940: Lieutenant Commander   Voltelin James Howard Van der Byl
1940: Lieutenant   John Frederick Beaufoy Brown
1940: Lieutenant   Hugh Bentley Turner
1941: Lieutenant Commander   Jack Gethin Hopkins
1941: Lieutenant Commander   Peter Joseph Howell Bartlett
1941: Lieutenant   David Roger Oakeley Mott DSC
1941: Lieutenant Commander   Edward Christian Frederic Nicolay DSO
1942: Lieutenant   Arthur John Wright Pitt MID
1943: Lieutenant   Edmund Charles Croswell DSC
1943: Lieutenant   Arthur John Wright Pitt MID
1944: Lieutenant   George Edward Hunt DSO DSC MID
1944: Acting Lieutenant   Percy Samuel Parmenter (RNR)
1945: Lieutenant Commander   Jeremy Nash DSC MID
1945: Lieutenant   John Peter Angell DSC
1945: Lieutenant   William Hedley Kett (RNR) DSC
1945: Temporary Acting Lieutenant   John Leslie Stevens (SANFV)

1940 - 2nd Flotilla.HMS Forth, Rosyth.
1941: Home Station.
1941-1943: Mediterranean.
1944: Home Station.

Sank or wrecked three vessels off Skudensnes, February 1943, a total of 14,000 tons.

Credit: Dr Peter Schofield
Presented by The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to Spalding Urban District to Commemorate the Adoption of HMS Taku During Warship Week March 14th 1942.

Adoption

By Dr Peter Schofield

In a presentation held ad Held at Spalding RNA Club and on behalf of the Admiralty, Rear Admiral Buckley of HMS Royal Arthur, presented an adoption plaque to the town and one to the rural district. In exchange, the town and district presented to Taku a plaque mounted on oak, bearing the town's crest. It was inscribed 'To Commemorate the adoption of HMS Taku by the citizens of the urban and rural district of Spalding Warship Week March 1942'.

Spalding raised £352,899 during their Warship Week 7-14 March 1942.

Submarine Adoptions

Roll of Honour

1
Stuart, Geoffrey Claude Edwards
Born: 27th Feb, 1921.
Died: 14th Apr, 1944.
Aged: 23
From: Newbury, Berkshire
Lieutenant
The First Lieutenant of Submarine HMS Taku was the son of James Arthur Penrhyn Stuart (Imperial Indian Police) and Norah Stuart.

He served in Submarines from October 1941 in Dolphin, Parthian, P555 (IL), Storm (IL) and Taku (IL) from 28th January 1944 to 14th April 1944.

He is reported to have died in an accident at Cold Ash, Newbury, Berkshire whilst on leave. He was the husband of Isobel Stuart (nee Newbold) of Birch Tree Cottage, Cold Ash who died in the same accident.

Events

18-11-1937  Laid Down
20-05-1939  Launched
03-01-1940  Completed
17-04-1940  While searching for 5 German destroyers reported to be in her area HMS Taku fires 4 torpedoes against the British destroyer HMS Ashanti. Luckily all torpedoes missed their target.
08-05-1940  HMS Taku attacks a German convoy with ten torpedoes and torpedoes and damages a German torpedo boat east of Denmark. After the attack Taku was depth charged for 10 hours.
02-11-1940  HMS Taku hit the the German tanker Gedania in the Bay of Biscay about 35 nautical miles south-west of Belle-Isle island with a dud torpedo.
06-05-1941  HMS Taku torpedoes and sinks the Italian merchant Cagliari in the Tyrrhenian Sea about 20 nautical miles north-north-west of Stromboli Island, Italy.
11-06-1941  HMS Taku torpedoes and sinks the German munitions transport Tilly L.M. Russ at Bengasi, Libya.
12-06-1941  HMS Taku torpedoes and sinks the Italian merchant Silvio Scaroniin the Gulf of Syrte 70 nautical miles off Benghazi, Libya.
13-07-1941  HMS Taku torpedoes and sinks the Italian passenger/cargo ship Caldea 10 nautical miles off the Bengasi lighthouse, Libya.
15-07-1941  HMS Taku sinks the Italian auxiliary minesweeper Vincenso P. about 25 nautical miles south-east of Auegia, Libya.
15-08-1942  HMS Taku attacks the German merchant Menes with 4 torpedoes about 90 nautical miles north-east of Benghazi, Libya. All 4 torpedoes missed their target.
24-10-1942  HMS Taku sinks a small Greek sailing vessel with gunfire west of Kos, Greece
25-10-1942  HMS Taku attacks the Italian tanker Arca off Chios, Greece. The torpedoes missed their target.
26-10-1942  HMS Taku torpedoes and sinks the Italian tanker Arca south-west of Chios, Greece.
27-10-1942  HMS Taku sinks the Greek sailing vessel Lora with gunfire off Lemnos, Greece.
31-10-1942  HMS Taku fires four torpedoes against the Italian tanker Cerere about 10 nautical miles south of Cape Sounio, Greece. All torpedoes fired missed their target.
14-12-1942  HMS Taku torpedoes and sinks the Italian tanker Delfin in the Aegean Sea about 5 nautical miles north of Macrosini island, Greece
22-12-1942  HMS Taku sinks the Greek sailing vessel Nikiwith gunfire in the Potidea Channel.
07-02-1944  HMS Taku torpedoes and sinks the German merchant Rheinhausen about 20 nautical miles north of Stavanger, Norway.
12-02-1944  HMS Taku torpedoes and heavily damages the German merchant Harm Fritzen off Stavanger, Norway.
13-02-1944  HMS Taku torpedoes and sinks the German merchant Hans Bornhofen in the Boknafjorden, 8 nautical miles south of Skudeneshavn, Norway.
24-03-1944  HMS Taku fires 5 torpedoes against the German merchant Moshill in a German convoy about 25 nautical miles west of Namsos, Norway, but missed.

Official
T 1 Specification
Comments

Comment by: David James on March 15th, 2019

My father, Horace Walter James, served as a Warrant Engineer Officer on Taku during the latter part of WW2. He told me that, whilst on the submarine, Taku led other submarines into the Skagerrak to attack enemy shipping.

Whilst negotiating one of the minefields in the area, one of the hydroplanes snagged a mine mooring wire which they later thought must have been in close proximity to and caught one of the detonation horns. The resulting explosion apparently put one propeller shaft out of action and bent the other one.

This, according to my father, occurred in April 1944. All this was confirmed by a friend whilst we were both at the Royal Naval Engineering College at Manadon, Plymouth, his father was navigating the second submarine (a small world). I don't know how long it took for the submarine to be returned to an operational state but my father remained on Taku for the rest of WW2.

Courtesy of my father, I do have a section of the voice pipe, crumpled by the explosion, mounted on the detonation plate of a 4in shell. Inscription "Mined Your Own Business - Skagerrak April 1944".

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