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HMT Islay (T172)

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Name
  
HMT Islay

Commissioned
  
17 June 1941

Name
  
Sainte Anne

Launched
  
10 April 1941

Laid down
  
18 November 1940

Fate
  
Sold October 1946

Construction started
  
18 November 1940

Length
  
50 m

HMT Islay (T172) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Fate
  
Disappeared 15 March 1950

Builders
  
Smiths Dock Company, South Bank, Middlesbrough

HMT Islay (T172) was a British Royal Navy Isles class armed trawler of the Second World War.

While under the command of C. H. L. Clarke RNR, on 28 June 1942, Islay picked up 19 survivors from the British merchant steamer Zealand which had been hit by two torpedoes from the German submarine U-97 in the Mediterranean Sea to the southwest of Haifa and had sunk with the loss of 14 crew members and gunners.

On 10 August 1942, Islay sank the Italian submarine Scirè in Haifa Bay while under the command of Lieutenant Commander John Ross of North Shields, Tyne and Wear, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions. Scirè was carrying 11 Decima Flottiglia MAS commandos, who were intending to attack shipping in Haifa harbour by means of human torpedoes. Royal Air Force aircraft and coastal artillery also were involved in the sinking, which had been facilitated by Ultra intelligence. Scirè had previously launched human torpedo attacks on British naval units in Gibraltar and Alexandria, Egypt.

In October 1946, the ship was sold into commercial service. Operating under the French flag as Sainte Anne, she disappeared without trace in the Mediterranean Sea after a last communication while off the Balearic Islands on 15 March 1950.

References

HMT Islay (T172) Wikipedia