The British Pacific and East Indies Fleets

History

Built by Vickers Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, she was ordered on December 5th 1941, and her keel was laid down as yard no. 866 on February 17th 1943. She was launched on November 29th 1943.

On completion she departed her builder's yard for Holy Loch, on the west coast of Scotland to begin a period of trials and training. She was commissioned as HMS VIRTUE February 29th 1944, at Holy Loch, Lt. R.D. Cairns, DSC, RN in command.

Allocated to the Mediterranean Fleet

Having completed her work-up HMS VIRTUE was allocated to the 10th Submarine Flotilla based at Malta during the closing stages of the Allied campaign in the Mediterranean, completing four war patrols in the Aegean Sea.

She made her first combat sortie towards the end of July 1944, operating in the Eastern Mediterranean. Her first three encounters with the emery were torpedo attacks, however on all three occasions the target was missed; on July 26th she fired four torpedoes at the German sailing vessel DOXA (504 GRT) off Suda Bay, Crete. Three days later she attacked a German sailing vessel with torpedoes and gunfire 13 nautical miles south-south-west of Milos, but failed the sink the vessel. On the 30th she fired a torpedo against the German merchantman DRESDEN (120 GRT) east of Ananes Island, with no result.

The next three engagements were all surface actions employing her gun, these resulted in 6 enemy vessels sunk; on August 16th she sank three sailing vessels with gunfire and ramming, nine miles south of Milos. On the 19th another sailing vessel was sunk south of Milos, and on the 21st she sank two sailing vessels off Cape Spatha, Crete.

VIRTUE’s run of bad luck with torpedo attacks continued into September, on the 12th three torpedoes were fired an auxiliary patrol vessel north-west of Psathoura Island, Greece. All torpedoes missed their target. The next day the performance was repeated when another three torpedoes missed the German auxiliary net layer PIRAEUS (670 GRT) in the Skiathos Channel, Greece.

On her final patrol in the Aegean Sea no torpedo engagements were made, but 4 vessels were sunk by gun fire. On October 9th she attacked and sank sank the Greek sailing vessel AGHIOS MATTHAIOS (35 GRT) west of Cape Stavros, Crete in position 35°25'N, 24°57'E. The following day, while operating off Crete, she sank the Greek sailing vessels SOPHIA (150 GRT) in position 35°31'N, 25°12'E and the AGHIA ANNA (50 GRT) in position 35°32'N, 25°03'E. Her final action in the Aegean was on the 11th when she sank a water carrier and two smaller vessels with gunfire off Cape Dhia, Crete.

Allocated to the British Pacific Fleet

In November 1944 VIRTUE was allocated for service in the Pacific and sailed on November 20th in company with her sister boat H.M. Submarine VIVID for passage to Bombay on the first leg of their deployment. They arrived at Bombay on December 12th. Both Submarines were to participate in A/S exercises for the next two months.

VIRTUE departed Bombay for Colombo on February 17th 1945 en route to Fremantle, Western Australia arriving on March 16th. She now came under operational control of the US 7th Fleet Task Force 71 for operations in the Pacific. It was intended that she would operate out of Subic Bay, the Philippines. She reached Melbourne on April 5th continuing on to Sydney arriving there on April 16th.

A week later she began a series of exercises off Sydney; on the 22nd she conducted attack exercises in company with sister boats HMS VORACIOUS and HMS VOX during which the cruiser HMS NEWCASTLE acted as the target. Over the next month she participated in a number of A/S exercises off the New South Wales coast including one with the destroyer HMS QUADRANT on May 6th

HMS VIRTUE departed Sydney for Brisbane on May 19th 1945, she was escorted by the General-Purpose Vessels HMAS LIMOSA and HMAS TRINGA. only one day out of port TRINGA developed engine trouble and was taken in tow by VIRTUE and course set for Newcastle, N.S.W. During this manoeuvre the tow line parted several times, once becoming entangled with VIRTUE's starboard propeller. Two days later she resumed her passage to Brisbane in company with HMAS LIMOSA. Upon her arrival on the 25th she was immediately placed in drydock to make repairs to her starboard propeller; she was undocked and sailed from Brisbane the next day. She was now on passage to Manus, in the Admiralty Islands escorted by the minesweeper HMAS FREMANTLE, arriving there on June 3rd.

At some stage her orders for Subic Bay were changed, she remained at Manus participating in various exercises with vessels of the BPF commencing on June 8th when she conducted A/S exercises in company with the destroyers HMS TERPSICHORE and HMS TENACIOUS. During the remainder of June she took part in six more exercises, with the minesweeper HMAS GAWLER on the 9th, the frigate HMAS GASCOYNE on the 18, 19 & 20th, the destroyers HMS TROUBRIDGE on the 25th and TENACIOUS on the 29th. She sailed from Manus on June 30th to return to Sydney, she was escorted by the minesweeper HMAS TOOWOOMBA. She arrived in Sydney on July 13th. It is unclear why HMS VIRTUE was called back to Sydney; on August 3rd Lieutenant. I. G. Raikes, DSC, RN relieved Lieutenant. R. D. Cairns (appointed as actiing Lieutenant Commander on return to Australia) as commanding officer.

She next put to sea on August 10th for the first of a number of A/S exercises; with the minesweeper HMAS WOLLONGONG on the 10th, the destroyer HMS TUSCAN on the 11th and the cruiser HMS SWIFTSURE and destroyer HMS KEMPENFELT on the 12th. She was in Sydney harbour when the Japanese surrender was announced on August 15th 1945.

Post War history

On release from Task Force71 operations in the Pacific she appears to have operated as part of the British 4th submarine flotilla (VIRTUE, VORACIOUS, VOX, TAPIR, TAURUS, TOTEM and TURPIN) attached to the submarine depot ship ADAMANT based at Freemantle. She is next recorded as making good will visits to various ports north of Sydney; she arrived ae Newcastle, New South Wales on August 31st for a five day visit during which time the boat was open to the public and a party of three officers and 17 ratings marched from King's Wharf to the City Hall to attend a civic reception. She departed Newcastle on September 4th for Brisbane, arriving on the 7th. At Brisbane she was secured alongside at R.N. Repair Base HMS FURNEAUX, New Wharf and open to the public on the 7, 8 & 9th; from Brisbane she sailed 800 miles north to Townsville, Queensland and was moored alongside at HMAS MAGNETIC where she was visited by RAN personnel and Townsville locals. Her whereabouts after leaving Townsville are not known.

&Lieutenant Raikes left the boat on October 1st but there is no record of who took over as commanding officer. She next appears in Sydney in January 1946.

At 1500 hours on January 23rd 1946 HM Submarine VIRTUE, in company with VORACIOUS, and VOX sailed from Sydney bound for Fremantle where they were expected to arrive on February 2nd. Due to mechanical problems they had to put into Melbourne late on the evening of January 29th and were to spend the next four weeks alongside Nelson Pier, Williamstown while repairs were made. The three submarines departed from Melbourne on February 26th.

They arrived at Fremantle on March 6th; VIRTUE anchored in Gage Roads near the Submarine Depot Ship ADMAMNT, VORACIOUS and VOX secured in No. 1 Berth North Wharf. At 0845 on March 29th the three V Class submarines sailed from Fremantle for Trincomalee via Singapore. It is unclear when they arrived at Trincomalee

Disposal

It had already been decided that VIRTUE was surplus to requirements and would not be retained in the reserve fleet; she arrived at Cochin, India to be broken up for scrap on May 9th 1946.

HMS VIRTUE alongside at HMAS MAGNETIC, Townsville, Queensland. Date unknown. Photos courtesy of Julia Nancarrow; her mother, Marie Elizabeth Andrews. WRAN 1369, served at HMAS MAGNETIC from 25 August 1944 until 6 November 1945. She is pictured centre of the group of three WRANs perched on the conning tower. Left: details as above. Right: L-R VOX, VORACIOUS and VIRTUE, moored at Nelson Pier, Williamstown, February 3rd 1946. This image suggests that VIRTUE (nearest the pier with periscopes raised) was open to the public. Image: State Library Victoria - H91.250/1161 Green, Allan C. 1878-1954 photographer.

 

Last modified: 23 February 2023

Primary information sources

Additional sources:

uboat.net entry for H.M. Submarine VIRTUE

Trove: The National Library of Australia on-line database
Articles from digitised Australian newspapers relating to ship movements and activities accessed March 2020