View source for HMS Usurper

{{short description|Submarine of the Royal Navy}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2017}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=
|Ship caption=
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=United Kingdom
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}}
|Ship badge=
|Ship name={{HMS|Usurper|P56|6}}
|Ship ordered= 
|Ship awarded=
|Ship builder=[[Vickers-Armstrongs]], [[Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne|High Walker]]
|Ship laid down= 18 September 1941
|Ship launched= 24 September 1942
|Ship christened=
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned= 2 February 1943
|Ship recommissioned=
|Ship decommissioned=
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship renamed= 
|Ship reclassified=
|Ship refit=
|Ship captured=
|Ship struck=
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship fate=Sunk 3 October 1943
|Ship homeport=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship class=[[British U class submarine|U-class]] [[submarine]]
|Ship displacement=*Surfaced – 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load
*Submerged – 730 tons
|Ship length=58.22 m (191 feet)
|Ship beam=4.90 m (16 ft 1 in)
|Ship draught=4.62 m (15 ft 2 in)
|Ship draft=
|Ship propulsion=*2 shaft diesel-electric
*2 Paxman Ricardo diesel generators + electric motors
*615 / 825 hp
|Ship speed=*11.25 knots max surfaced
*10 knots max submerged
|Ship range=
|Ship endurance=
|Ship test depth=
|Ship boats=
|Ship capacity=
|Ship complement=27–31
|Ship time to activate=
|Ship sensors=
|Ship EW=
|Ship armament=*4 bow internal [[British 21 inch torpedo|21 inch (533 mm)]] torpedo tubes – 8–10 torpedoes
*1 [[QF 3 inch 20 cwt|{{convert|3|in|mm|adj=on}}]] gun
|Ship armour=
|Ship armor=
|Ship aircraft=
|Ship motto=
|Ship nickname=
|Ship honours=
|Ship notes=
}}
|}

'''HMS ''Usurper'' (P56)''' was a [[Royal Navy]] [[British U class submarine|U-class]] [[submarine]] built by [[Vickers-Armstrongs]] at [[Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne|High Walker]]. So far, she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name ''Usurper''.

==Career==
''Usurper'' had a short-lived career with the Royal Navy. During her work-up patrol off the Norwegian coast, she made a torpedo attack on the German submarine U-467. The target was not hit. On being assigned to operate in the [[Mediterranean]], she sank the French ship ''Château Yquem''.

==Sinking==
{{stack|[[File:Portraits of Submarine Captains and Their First Lieutenants. 6 February 1943, Holy Loch. A14396.jpg|thumb|upright|Lt D. R. O. Mott DSC RN, Commanding Officer of HMS ''Usurper'', Holy Loch, 6 February 1943 (IWM A14396)]]}}
''Usurper'' had left [[Algiers]] on 24 September 1943 to patrol off La Spezia. On 3 October 1943 she was ordered to move to the Gulf of Genoa, after which there was no further contact. She was overdue at Algiers on 12 October 1943. The German anti-submarine vessel UJ-2208/''Alfred'' reported attacking a submarine in the Gulf of Genoa on 3 October 1943 and it is believed that this may have been ''Usurper''. During the war, ''Usurper'' was adopted by the town of [[Stroud]] as part of ''[[Warship Week]]''. The plaque from this adoption is held by the [[National Museum of the Royal Navy]] in Portsmouth.<ref>[http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_Warshipweeks.htm Warship Weeks: Adopting Naval Vessels in World War Two | Royal Naval Museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207131810/http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_Warshipweeks.htm |date=7 February 2012}}</ref>

==Citations==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite web |url= http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3561.html |title= HMS ''Usurper'' (P 56) |work= uboat.net}}
* {{cite web |url= http://home.cogeco.ca/~gchalcraft/sm/page30.html |title= Ursula to Utmost |work= British submarines of World War II |url-status= dead |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20070711045648/http://home.cogeco.ca/~gchalcraft/sm/page30.html |archivedate= 11 July 2007 |df= dmy-all}}
* {{cite web |url= http://www.rnsubmus.co.uk/general/losses.htm |title= Submarine losses 1904 to present day |work= RN Submarine Museum, Gosport |access-date= 15 July 2007 |archive-date= 8 August 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070808171910/http://www.rnsubmus.co.uk/general/losses.htm |url-status= dead}}
* {{Cite Colledge2006}}
* {{cite book |last= Hutchinson |first= Robert |title= Jane's Submarines: War Beneath the Waves from 1776 to the Present Day |url= https://archive.org/details/janessubmarinesw0000hutc |url-access= registration |year= 2001 |place= [[London]] |publisher= [[HarperCollins]] |isbn= 978-0-00-710558-8 |oclc= 53783010}}

{{British U class submarine}}
{{October 1943 shipwrecks}}

{{coord missing|Mediterranean}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Usurper (P56)}}
[[Category:British U-class submarines]]
[[Category:Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness]]
[[Category:1942 ships]]
[[Category:World War II submarines of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in October 1943]]
[[Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea]]
[[Category:Ships built by Vickers Armstrong]]
[[Category:Submarines sunk by German warships]]