HMS Stubborn was an S-class submarine

British S class submarine (1931)

The S-class submarines of the Royal Navy were originally designed and built during the modernisation of the submarine force in the early 1930s to meet the need for smaller boats to patrol the restricted waters of the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea replacing the British H class submarines...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, and part of the Third Group built of that class. She was built by Cammell Laird and launched on 11 November 1942. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Stubborn.

Career

Stubborn spent the war in home waters, operating off the Scandinavian coast, and in the Pacific Far East.

Home waters

While on patrol in the Bay of Biscay, she fired torpedoes at a group of three German submarines (U-180

Unterseeboot 180

German submarine U-180 was a Type IXD1 transport U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine which served in World War II.Her keel was laid down on 25 February 1941 at AG Weser yard in Bremen, and was launched on 10 December 1941. Stripped of torpedo armament the Type IXD1's were designated as transport...

, U-518

Unterseeboot 518

German submarine U-518 was a Type IXC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine built for service during World War II.She saw considerable early success during World War II from her launch in 11 February 1942 until she was sunk on 22 April 1945....

, U-530

Unterseeboot 530

German submarine U-530 was a Type IXC/40 U-boat of the German Navy during World War II.U-530 was commissioned on 14 October 1942, and served with 4th U-boat Flotilla for training, then 10th U-boat Flotilla from 1 March 1943 to 30 September 1944, and 33rd U-boat Flotilla from 1 October 1944 to 8...

) escorted by two destroyers. The torpedoes however missed their targets and the attack was not observed by the Germans. The two escorts were identified by Stubborn as Narvik-class destroyers

Narvik class destroyer

The Zerstörer 1936A-class destroyers, or Narvik-class destroyers as they were known to the Allies, were a class of German destroyers of the Second World War...

. The German submarines were returning from patrol and were bound for Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

.

Stubborn also made an unsuccessful attack on a German convoy off the Follafjord, west of Namsos, Norway, and on 11 February 1944, she sank the German merchant Makki Faulbaum and torpedoed and damaged the German merchant Felix D. some 25 miles north-west of Namsos, Norway. She later made an unsuccessful attack on a German convoy of five ships off the Folda Fjord, Norway. Stubborn fired six torpedoes but none found their target. Stubborn was heavily damaged by the German escort ships and had to be towed home, with her crew acting as human "balance weights" to maintain the submarine on an even keel when her after hydroplanes were jammed "hard-a-dive".

Pacific Far East

Stubborn was transferred, arriving in mid 1945, but had a distinguished career there before the war ended. She sank the Japanese patrol vessel Patrol Boat No.2 (the former destroyer ) in the Java Sea

Java Sea

The Java Sea is a large shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf. It was formed as sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age. The Java Sea lies between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south; Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east...

. The survivors were shot in the water. She went on to sink a Japanese sailing vessel and an unidentified small Japanese vessel.

Post war

Stubborn survived the Second World War and was sunk on 30 April 1946 as an ASDIC target off Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

.