HMS Usk was a British U class submarine

British U class submarine

The British U class submarines were a class of 49 small submarines built just before and during the Second World War...

, of the second group of that class, built by Vickers Armstrong

Vickers Armstrong

Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927...

, Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...

. She was laid down on 6 November 1939 and was commissioned on 11 October 1940.

Career and loss

Usk spent most of her short career operating in the Mediterranean. She sailed from 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...

to patrol off the north west coast of Sicily on 19 April 1941. Usk was later ordered to alter her position due to intense anti-submarine activity. What happened subsequently is not known but she was most likely mined in the vicinity of Cape Bon some time after 25 April 1941. She was reported overdue on 3 May 1941.