HMS H5 was a British H-class submarine of the Royal Navy during the First World War. Built by Vickers in Montreal, she was laid down on 11 January 1915, launched on 1 April 1915, and commissioned on 10 June 1915.
Specifications
- Class: H-class submarine
- Displacement: 364 tons surfaced; 434 tons submerged
- Length: 150 ft 3 in (45.8 m)
- Speed: 13 knots surfaced; 10-11 knots submerged
- Crew: 22 men originally, rising to 26 by 1918
- Armament: Four 18-inch bow torpedo tubes with up to eight torpedoes; also fitted with a 6‑pounder Hotchkiss gun.
HMS H5 served mainly in the North Sea, Irish Sea, and Western Approaches hunting German U-boats.
Sinking of SM U-51
H5's greatest success came on 14 July 1916, when she intercepted and torpedoed the German submarine SM U-51 as it departed the Ems estuary. U-51 sank with the loss of 34 crew members, while only four survived.
This was a significant achievement because anti-submarine warfare by submarines against other submarines was still relatively rare during the First World War.
Tragic Loss
H5's end was one of the Royal Navy's most tragic submarine accidents.
On 2 March 1918, while operating off Caernarfon Bay in North Wales, she surfaced near the British merchant ship SS Rutherglen. The merchant vessel mistook H5 for a German U-boat and deliberately rammed her.
H5 sank with the loss of all hands, including Lieutenant Earle Wayne Freed Childs of the United States Navy, who was aboard as an observer and became the first American submariner to lose his life in the First World War.
According to later accounts, cries from men in the water were heard, but the merchant ship did not stop because of the perceived U-boat threat in the area and wartime instructions not to linger.
Wreck and Memorial
The wreck of HMS H5 lies off the Welsh coast and is protected under the Protection of Military Remains Act as a military grave. A memorial plaque to the 26 men lost was dedicated at Holyhead in 2010.
HMS H5 remains one of the Royal Navy's most poignant submarine losses of World War I.
