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Oswald before the Second World War
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Oswald
Ordered	2 December 1926
Builder	Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow
Laid down	30 May 1927
Launched	19 June 1928
Commissioned	1 May 1929
Identification	Pennant number: N58
Fate	Sunk, 1 August 1940
General characteristics
Class and type	Odin-class submarine
Displacement	1,781 long tons (1,810 t) (surfaced) 2,030 long tons (2,060 t) (submerged)
Length	283 ft 6 in (86.4 m)
Beam	30 ft (9.1 m)
Draught	16 ft 1 in (4.9 m)
Installed power	4,600 bhp (3,400 kW) (diesel) 350 hp (260 kW) (electric motor)
Propulsion	Diesel-electric 2 × Vickers diesel engines 2 × electric motors 2 screws
Speed	17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph) (surfaced) 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) (submerged)
Range	8,400 nmi (15,600 km; 9,700 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) (surfaced) 70 nmi (130 km; 81 mi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) (submerged)
Test depth	300 ft (91 m)
Complement	53–55 officers and ratings
Armament	8 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (6 bow, 2 stern) with 16 reloads 1 × QF 4-inch (102 mm) Mk XII deck gun 2 × Lewis machine guns

HMS Oswald was an Odin-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during the 1920s.

Construction and career

She was laid down by Vickers-Armstrongs at Barrow-in-Furness on 30 May 1927, launched on 19 June 1928 and commissioned on 1 May 1929.

Loss

Oswald left Alexandria, Egypt, for a patrol east of Sicily on 19 July 1940. On 30 July, she spotted a convoy of several merchant ships. Her attack on the convoy was not successful and she was spotted by the convoy's escorting destroyers. Subsequently, on 1 August Oswald was rammed and sunk by the Italian destroyer Ugolino Vivaldi while on patrol south of Calabria; 52 crewmen were rescued by Italian warships and 3 were lost.

Citations

1. "HMS Oswald". Uboat.net. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
2. Lenton, p. 44
3. Heden, p. 229

Bibliography

• Heden, Karl E. (2006). Sunken Ships, World War Two. Branden Books. ISBN 978-0-8283-2118-1.
• Lenton, H. T. (1972). British Submarines. Navies of the Second World War. London: MacDonald. ISBN 978-0-356-03612-0.

Odin-class submarines
Royal Navy	Oberon group O1 / Oberon Oxley group Otway Oxley Odin group Odin Olympus Orpheus Osiris Oswald Otus
Royal Australian Navy	Otway Oxley
Chilean Navy Capitan O'Brien class	Almirante Simpson Capitan O'Brien Capitan Thompson
Preceded by: L class Followed by: Parthian class
List of submarines of the Royal Navy List of submarine classes of the Royal Navy

v t e Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in August 1940
Shipwrecks	1 Aug: HMS Oswald, HMS Spearfish 3 Aug: U-25 7 Aug: Mohamed Ali El-Kebir 8 Aug: Ajax, Empire Crusader, Ouse 10 Aug: HMS Transylvania 15 Aug: Elli 19 Aug: HMS Corfu 20 Aug: U-51 21 Aug: Anglo Saxon 22 Aug: Iride 23 Aug: HMS Hostile 24 Aug: USS Peacock, HMS Penzance 25 Aug: Stakesby 28 Aug: HMS Dunvegan Castle 29 Aug: I-67 30 Aug: Mill Hill 31 Aug: HMS Esk, Har Zion Unknown date: J. W. Clise
Other incidents	11 Aug: Ceramic, Testbank 18 Aug: Von der Groeben 23 Aug: Düsseldorf 26 Aug: I-58 31 Aug: HMS Express, Volendam
1939 1940 1941 July 1940 September 1940

• 1927 ships
• Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness
• Odin-class submarines of the Royal Navy
• World War II submarines of the United Kingdom
• Maritime incidents in August 1940
• World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
• Lost submarines of the United Kingdom
• Submarines sunk by Italian warships