Lost British Submarine HMS Urge Found-- Part 4: A Real Pain to the Italian Navy

On her way to the Mediterranean, the Urge  sank the Italian tanker Franco Martelli and damaged the Italian passenger ship Aquitania  and merchant ship Marigola.  On December 14, the Urge torpedoed and damaged the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto during operations around the First battle of Sitre.  In the same attack, the Italian battleship Littorio narrowly avoided the Urge's torpedoes.

One of the crew of the Urge at this battle was Lt.  Godfrey Place who would later was one of the leaders in Operation Source, the attack on the German battleship Tirpitz.  On 1 April 1942, the Urge torpedoed and sank the Italian  light cruiser Giovanni delle Banda Nere.

The Urge was also one of the first submarines to land commandos by canoe (or folding kayak).  The submarine also had quite a few unsuccessful attacks on Italian ships because of  torpedo gyro problems.  There were other missed opportunities as well.

On April 27, 1942, the Urge was ordered to leave Malta and this is when the ship disappeared until it was found just recently.

--GreGen