Urge of the ‘Fighghting Tenth’

SUBMARINE MYSTERY

In October 2019, reports surfaced that the long-lost submarine ‘Urge’ had been discovered off Malta. Ross J Robertson examines its mysterious disappearance 80 years ago

BUILDINGS USED BY THE ROYAL NAVY'S TENTH SUBMARINE FLOTILLA AT MANOEL ISLAND, MARSAMXETT HARBOUR,

MALTA MARK BUNTING/ALAMY

ABOVE BRITISH U-CLASS SUBMARINE HMS ‘URGE’, SHORTLY AFTER ENTERING SERVICE IN DECEMBER 1940 OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH

With histories of the theatre dominated by surface actions, air power and the siege of Malta, it is almost befitting that the murky cat-and-mouse game played by the Royal Navy Submarine Service in the Mediterranean has been somewhat overshadowed. Nevertheless, the underwater war waged there by Britain’s submarines generated myriad successes as well as devastating losses.

But, in April 1942, a time when the fate of Malta was hanging in the balance, HMS Urge slipped away from her Manoel Island berth, bound for the relative safety of Alexandria. She never made it.

Auspicious beginning