HMS Utmost 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 2 November 1939 and was commissioned on 17 August 1940. So far she has been the only ship 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...

 to bear the name Utmost.

Career

Utmost spent most of her career operating in the Mediterranean, where she sank the Italian merchants Capo Vita, Enrico Costa, and Frederico C., and the German tanker Languste and also damaged the Italian merchant Manfredo Camperio. Utmost also attacked a convoy of five German merchants and three Italian destroyers and torpedoed and sunk the German merchant Heraklea and torpedoed and damaged the Ruhr. An attack on another convoy made up of the German merchant Tilly L.M. Russ and the Italian merchant Cadamosto, escorted by the Italian torpedo boats Pallade and Polluce, was less successful. All torpedoes fired missed their targets.
Utmost went on to destroy the (already grounded and damaged) Italian merchant Marigola, and together with her sister, since transferred to the Poles, the ORP Sokół

ORP Sokół

One ship and three submarines of the Polish Navy have been named ORP Sokół :* Sokół, a tugboat launched in 1920 and disposed of in 1957....

, sank the Italian merchant Balilla. Utmost later unsuccessfully attacked the Italian merchants Fabio Filzi and Siculo, as well as the Italian auxiliary minelayer Barletta. She also torpedoed and damaged the Italian cruiser Trieste

Trento class cruiser

The Trento class was an Italian heavy cruiser design of the Regia Marina from the late 1920s. The three ships of the class were named after the three unredeemed cities taken from the Austro-Hungarian empire after the victory in World War I, Trento, Trieste, and Bolzano.The Trentos were the first...

.

Sinking

Utmost left 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...

 for a patrol in the Mediterranean in November 1942. On the 23rd she sank an enemy ship, but on 25 November 1942, during her return journey to Malta, she was located, attacked and sunk south west off Sicily by depth charges from the Italian torpedo boat Groppo.