With the destruction of the Italian Fleet at Taranto by the surprise attack of two dozen SWORDFISH planes, the Royal Navy could move about the Mediterranean with a bit more confidence.

On the 17th November the cruiser HMS NEWCASTLE sets out for Malta with 200 Royal Air Force personnel and important spare parts, and arrives there on the 19th November. Then again, on the 26th, five British cruisers transport another 4,000 British troops from Alexandria to Piraeus.

HMS REGULUS was serving in Hong Kong at the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. She arrived on the Mediterranean scene early in August 1940 commanded by LCDR F. B. Currie. She sailed from Alexandria on November 18th and ordered to the Adriatic, and she was to patrol south of latitude 42 degrees north. She was listed as overdue and presumed lost on 6"' December. HMS REGULUS is thought to have been mined in the Straits of Otranto - she was the twenty fourth British submarine to be lost in the war and the eighth in the Mediterranean.

The loss of HMS REGULUS and RMS RAINBOW underline the glaring need for submarines of the fight type for the Mediterranean waters. The bigger boats were unhandy - any submarine is sluggish when submerged, but the larger boats were more so than the "S" or "U" Class submarines. As soon as commitments permitted in home waters, these small boats were transferred to the sunnier skies & warmer seas of the Mediterranean

With the loss of twenty four submarines in 1940, the year became the most costly in men and submarines in the history of the British Submarine Service. The curtain on this disastrous year was lowered in December with the loss of HMS TRITON. She became the twenty fifth submarine to be lost in the war and the ninth in the Mediterranean. By the time HMS TRITON was ordered to the Mediterranean, she had already gained North Sea battle honours in the hands of LCDR Pizey. In due course, command of HMS TRITON passed to Lt. G. C. I. St. B. S. Watkins.

The loss of HMS TRITON is open to speculation. Lt. Watkins put to sea from Malta on the 29 November for a patrol in the lower Adriatic and Straits of Otranto between 40N. and 42N. At 0540 hours on 6th December, an SOS from the Italian merchant OLYMPIA was intercepted. OLYMPIA was steaming for Brindisi and gave her position as 41-06N x 18.39F, thus making her the probable victim of HMS TRITON. The OLYMPIA's escorts, the torpedoboats ALTAIR and ANDROMEDA, and the 13'* MAS Squadron, carried out an anti-submarine hunt, but there was nothing to suggest that this was successful.

Two other possibilities; remain for the loss of HMS TRITON mining and an attack by the torpedoboat CLIO under Lt (later RADM) Pasquale Gilberto reports having attacked a submarine in the area patrolled by TRITON on 18th December. It must be said that Gilberto's attack was unlikely to have been against HMS TRITON as Lt. Guy Watkins should have cleared the area by December 13th to arrive Malta on the 17th. During the patrol of HMS TRITON, two signals relating to convuy movements were passed to her. No signals were received or expected from HMS TRITON during the course of her patrol. It would appear that HMS TRITON was sunk on or after the 6th December.

HARRY's NOTE - One of our sources shows that HMS TRITON was sunk by naval action. The accurate answer probably will never be known.

Although HMS TRITON had only been some three months aw from the U.K., she was due for a refit after this patrol. On the 18 December, the British Admiralty announced that HMS TRITON was overdue and presumed lost.

On 10 December, the OKW sent their well trained Fliegerkorps X to stiffen the Italian Regia Aeronautica in Southern Italy and Sicily. This was to have profound effect later in increasing Axis air superiority over the narrow waters between Sicily and Tunisia. To the dangers from Italian high level bombing was now added the deadly dive bombing from German STUKAs. Then on the 11th, Operation FELIX, the conquest of Gibraltar, is played down by OKW directive after an attempt to persuade Spain to enter the war has failed.

Within a week or so of the loss of HMS TRITON, the year 1940 came to an end. Greek submarines are employed against Italian supply traffic to Albania. The PAPANICOLIS, commanded by Lt Iatrides, unsuccessful-ly, attacks an Italian convoy on December 22nd , but on the 24th torpedoes and sinks a merchant vessel of 3,952 tons. Then on the 29th, December, PROTEUS. commanded by LCDR Hazikostantis, sinks the 11,452 ton merchant ship SARDEGNA which was carrying 200 soldiers on board, but in a counter attack the Greek submarine was rammed and sunk by the destroyer escort ANTARES. Of the 200 soldiers on board the transport - only two or three- men were lost. There would have been no casualties had they not jumped into the water instead of waiting to be taken off the SARDEGNA.

More of this great history of the Royal Navy's Submarine Service will appear in KTB #143 next month. If anyone would like to do the research and writing on submarine- services of other countries, we encourage you to do so and send it here for publication.