Girish Mahajan (Editor)

HMS Taurus (P399)

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Name
  
HMS Taurus

Commissioned
  
3 November 1942

Commissioned
  
4 June 1948

Launched
  
27 June 1942

Builder
  
Vickers-Armstrongs

Laid down
  
30 September 1941

Name
  
HNLMS Dolfijn

Construction started
  
30 September 1941

Length
  
84 m

HMS Taurus (P399) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Fate
  
Transferred to the Royal Netherlands Navy on 4 June 1948

HMS Taurus was a Second World War T-class submarine, built by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow.

Contents

As HMS Taurus

The submarine was laid down on 30 September 1941, and launched on 27 June 1942. Taurus was commissioned on 3 November 1942 with the pennant number P399. She served in the Mediterranean and the Pacific Far East during the Second World War. Whilst serving in the Mediterranean, she sank the small French merchant Clairette, the Spanish merchant Bartolo, the Italian merchant Derna, the French tug Ghrib and two barges, the Portuguese Santa Irene , the small Italian tanker Alcione C., the Italian sailing vessel Luigi, twenty eight Greek sailing vessels, and the small Greek ship Romano. She also damaged a further two sailing ships and the Greek merchant Konstantinos Louloudis.

She was transferred to the Far East to operate against the Japanese, where she sank the Japanese submarine I-34, two Japanese tugboats and a barge and the Japanese salvage vessel Hokuan I-Go. She also laid a number of mines, which damaged the Japanese submarine I-37 and sunk the Japanese transport ship Kasumi Maru.

Having survived the war, Taurus was transferred to the Royal Netherlands Navy on 4 June 1948 and commissioned into service the same day. She was renamed Dolfijn.

As HNLMS Dolfijn

Dolfijn had a relatively quiet career, making a number of cruises before being decommissioned on 7 November 1953 and transferred back to the Royal Navy.

As HMS Taurus again

Dolfijn was recommissioned into the Royal Navy on 8 December 1953 and her name returned to the original HMS Taurus. She served for another seven years before being sold to be broken up for scrap in April 1960.

Publications

  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. 
  • Hutchinson, Robert (2001). Jane's Submarines: War Beneath the Waves from 1776 to the Present Day. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-710558-8. OCLC 53783010. 
  • References

    HMS Taurus (P399) Wikipedia