| Built By: | Vickers (Barrow) |
| Build Group: | T 3 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 8th August 1971 at Briton Ferry. |
| 1944: | Commander | Ronald Hugh Dewhurst | DSO |
| 1944: | Lieutenant Commander | Edward Talbot Stanley | DSO DSC |
| 1945: | Lieutenant | William Hedley Kett (RNR) | DSC |
| 1953: | Lieutenant Commander | Paul Murray-Jones | MID |
One of the 'T' class chosen for streamlining and improved performance
| 09-03-1943 | Laid Down |
| 07-06-1944 | Launched |
| 08-10-1944 | Completed |
| 15-06-1945 | HMS Taciturn sinks a Japanese air warning picket hulk and the Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser Cha 105 with gunfire in the Madoera Strait to the north of Surabaya, Java, Netherlands East Indies. |
| 17-06-1945 | HMS Taciturn sinks a Japanese sailing vessel north of Surabaya, Java, Netherlands East Indies. |
| 01-08-1945 | HMS Thorough and HMS Taciturn attack Japanese shipping and shore targets off northern Bali. Taciturn sinks two Japanese sailing vessels with gunfire. |
| Official | ||
| Admiralty Approved | 19th Jan, 1945 | |
| Motto | Deeds not words. | |
| Symbology | Silent or unwilling to speak. The Great Sphinx at Gaza has been silent for thousands of years. | |
| Design Notes | A gold Sphinx sejant queue-a-la-guise on a blue background. | |
| Length overall | 273 ft 6 inch |
| Beam | 26 ft 6 inch |
| Depth | 14 ft 3 inch |
| Displacement | 1422 tons (surface) |
| 1571 tons (submerged) | |
| Diving Depth | (i) 300 ft |
| Speed | Surface 15.25 knots (design) |
| Surface 15.25 knots (service) | |
| Submerged 9 knots (design) | |
| Submerged 8.75 knots (service) | |
| No. of shafts | 2 |
| Endurance | Surface: 7500 miles at 15.25 knots (design) |
| (ii) Surface: 8000 miles at 10 knots (service) | |
| Submerged: 80 miles at 4 knots (design) | |
| Submerged: 80 miles at 4 knots (service) | |
| Armament | 8 x 21 inch bow tubes (2 external) |
| 2 x 21 inch amidship tubes | |
| (17 torpedoes carried) | |
| 1 x 4 inch gun | |
| 1 x 20mm Oerlikon cannon | |
| 3 x 0.303 inch machine-guns | |
| Complement | (peacetime) 5 Officers and 51 Ratings |
| (wartime) 6 Officers and 56 Ratings | |
| Notes | (i) This was increased to 350 feet in the all-welded boats. |
| (ii) T Class submarines serving in the Far East were modified to carry extra fuel, which increased endurance to 11 000 miles at 10 knots. |
| Class: | 1935 - 1970: T Class |
| Built By: | Devonport Dockyard |
| Build Group: | T 3 |
| Fate: | |
| Scrapped on 14th September 1962 at Inverkeithing. | |
When it was first published in 1953, opinions were sharply divided between those who deplored the apparent extolling of a vicious form of warfare, and this who found in Heinz Schaeffer s account a revealing picture of the German Navys training and methods.
U-Boat 977 was the German submarine that escaped to Argentina at the end of World War Two. This epic journey started from Bergen in Norway, where in April 1945 it was temporarily based, and took three and a half months to complete. Because of the continuing Allied naval activity the commander decided to make the first part of the journey underwater.
Before surfacing near the west coast of Africa U-977 had spent a remarkable sixty-six days submerged. Heinz Schaeffer, the commander of U-977 wrote a full account of his career that culminated in this last command. It depicts the gruelling aspects of a submariner s life aboard a vessel that was subjected to harsh conditions of the sea and oceans.
As an experienced commander Schaeffer took part in many of the decisive U-boat operations in the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean. In the final months of the war, and in common with most surviving U-boat commanders, Schaeffer and his crew came under constant attacks from Allied aircraft and surface ships. The final part of U-Boat 977 is Schaeffer s account of the journey to Argentina and lays to rest some of the more fanciful sorties that followed its arrival.
11 pages added or updated in the last 3 month
Please help to maintain this site by reporting any Errors, Broken Links, Information or Site Issues on this page using this button
If you find this site useful, please consider supporting my work with a small Donation.
Please Note: Donations made using this option go directly to the site owner and not to the Submariners Association.
Thankyou for your support.
| Official | ||
| Admiralty Approved | 19th Jan, 1945 | |
| Motto | Deeds not words. | |
| Symbology | Silent or unwilling to speak. The Great Sphinx at Gaza has been silent for thousands of years. | |
| Design Notes | A gold Sphinx sejant queue-a-la-guise on a blue background. | |
| Length overall | 273 ft 6 inch |
| Beam | 26 ft 6 inch |
| Depth | 14 ft 3 inch |
| Displacement | 1422 tons (surface) |
| 1571 tons (submerged) | |
| Diving Depth | (i) 300 ft |
| Speed | Surface 15.25 knots (design) |
| Surface 15.25 knots (service) | |
| Submerged 9 knots (design) | |
| Submerged 8.75 knots (service) | |
| No. of shafts | 2 |
| Endurance | Surface: 7500 miles at 15.25 knots (design) |
| (ii) Surface: 8000 miles at 10 knots (service) | |
| Submerged: 80 miles at 4 knots (design) | |
| Submerged: 80 miles at 4 knots (service) | |
| Armament | 8 x 21 inch bow tubes (2 external) |
| 2 x 21 inch amidship tubes | |
| (17 torpedoes carried) | |
| 1 x 4 inch gun | |
| 1 x 20mm Oerlikon cannon | |
| 3 x 0.303 inch machine-guns | |
| Complement | (peacetime) 5 Officers and 51 Ratings |
| (wartime) 6 Officers and 56 Ratings | |
| Notes | (i) This was increased to 350 feet in the all-welded boats. |
| (ii) T Class submarines serving in the Far East were modified to carry extra fuel, which increased endurance to 11 000 miles at 10 knots. |
| Class: | 1935 - 1970: T Class |
| Built By: | Devonport Dockyard |
| Build Group: | T 3 |
| Fate: | |
| Scrapped on 14th September 1962 at Inverkeithing. | |
When it was first published in 1953, opinions were sharply divided between those who deplored the apparent extolling of a vicious form of warfare, and this who found in Heinz Schaeffer s account a revealing picture of the German Navys training and methods.
U-Boat 977 was the German submarine that escaped to Argentina at the end of World War Two. This epic journey started from Bergen in Norway, where in April 1945 it was temporarily based, and took three and a half months to complete. Because of the continuing Allied naval activity the commander decided to make the first part of the journey underwater.
Before surfacing near the west coast of Africa U-977 had spent a remarkable sixty-six days submerged. Heinz Schaeffer, the commander of U-977 wrote a full account of his career that culminated in this last command. It depicts the gruelling aspects of a submariner s life aboard a vessel that was subjected to harsh conditions of the sea and oceans.
As an experienced commander Schaeffer took part in many of the decisive U-boat operations in the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean. In the final months of the war, and in common with most surviving U-boat commanders, Schaeffer and his crew came under constant attacks from Allied aircraft and surface ships. The final part of U-Boat 977 is Schaeffer s account of the journey to Argentina and lays to rest some of the more fanciful sorties that followed its arrival.
11 pages added or updated in the last 3 month
Please help to maintain this site by reporting any Errors, Broken Links, Information or Site Issues on this page using this button
If you find this site useful, please consider supporting my work with a small Donation.
Please Note: Donations made using this option go directly to the site owner and not to the Submariners Association.
Thankyou for your support.

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