HMS P615 was a Royal Navy submarine of the P611 (Turkish) class during the Second World War. She was originally being built for the Turkish Navy as Uluc Ali Reis, but was requisitioned by the Royal Navy while under construction and commissioned as HMS P615 on 3 April 1942.
Construction
- Builder: Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness
- Laid down: 30 October 1939
- Launched: 1 November 1940
- Commissioned: 3 April 1942
- Original Turkish name: Uluc Ali Reis
Service
After trials and training in British waters, P615 escorted Convoy PQ17 on part of its Arctic route in 1942. She was later sent to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where she was employed in anti-submarine warfare training and escort duties.
An interesting footnote is that P615 appeared in the wartime British submarine film "We Dive at Dawn".
Loss
On 18 April 1943, while sailing from Freetown toward Takoradi under escort of the minesweeper HMS MMS-107, P615 was sighted by the German submarine U-123, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Horst von Schroeter. After several unsuccessful attacks, U-123 fired a spread of torpedoes; one struck P615 on the starboard side. The submarine exploded and sank almost immediately about 100 nautical miles southwest of Freetown at 06°49'N, 13°09'W.
Casualties
- 44 officers and men lost
- No survivors
Notable Facts
- Built for Turkey but never delivered.
- Served with the Royal Navy as part of the wartime expansion of the submarine fleet.
- Lost to a German U-boat rather than to aircraft or surface vessels, a relatively uncommon fate for a Royal Navy submarine.
Fate: Torpedoed and sunk by U-123 on 18 April 1943 with the loss of all 44 crew members.
