- Career
- References
- References
{{other ships|HMS Taku}}{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}{{Use British English|date=March 2017}}{{Infobox ship image| Ship image=HMS Taku.jpg | Ship caption=HMS Taku in Malta harbour in January 1943
}}{{Infobox ship career | Hide header= | Ship country=United Kingdom | United Kingdom|naval}} | Ship name= | Ship namesake= | Ship owner= | Ship operator= | Ship registry= | Ship route= | Ship ordered= | Ship awarded= | Ship builder=Cammell Laird & Co Limited, Birkenhead | Ship original cost= | Ship yard number= | Ship way number= | Ship laid down=18 November 1937 | Ship launched=20 May 1939 | Ship sponsor= | Ship christened= | Ship completed= | Ship acquired= | Ship commissioned=3 January 1940 | Ship recommissioned= | Ship decommissioned= | Ship maiden voyage= | Ship in service= | Ship out of service= | Ship renamed= | Ship reclassified= | Ship refit= | Ship struck= | Ship reinstated= | Ship homeport= | Ship identification= | Ship motto= | Ship nickname= | Ship honours= | Ship honors= | Ship captured= | Ship fate=Sold to be broken up for scrap in November 1946 | Ship status= | Ship notes= | Ship badge=
}}{{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header= | Header caption= | Ship class=British T class submarine | Ship type= | Ship tonnage= | Ship displacement=*1,090 tons surfaced | Ship tons burthen= | 275|ft|m|abbr=on}} | 26|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} | Ship height= | 12|ft|9|in|m|abbr=on}} forward- {{convert|14|ft|7|in|m|abbr=on}} aft
| Ship draft= | Ship depth= | Ship hold depth= | Ship decks= | Ship deck clearance= | Ship ramps= | Ship ice class= | Ship power= | Ship propulsion=*Two shafts- Twin diesel engines 2,500 hp (1.86 MW) each
- Twin electric motors 1,450 hp (1.08 MW) each
| Ship sail plan= | Ship speed=*15.25 knots (28.7 km/h) surfaced- nine knots (20 km/h) submerged
| Ship range=4,500 nautical miles at 11 knots (8,330 km at 20 km/h) surfaced | Ship endurance= | 300|ft|m|abbr=on}} max | Ship boats= | Ship capacity= | Ship troops= | Ship complement=59 | Ship crew= | Ship time to activate= | Ship sensors= | Ship EW= | Ship armament=- Six internal forward-facing 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
- Four external forward-facing torpedo tubes
- Six reload torpedoes
- One QF {{convert|4|inch|mm|adj=on|0}} deck gun
| Ship armour= | Ship armor= | Ship aircraft= | Ship aircraft facilities= | Ship notes=
}} | HMS Taku was a British T class submarine built by Cammell Laird, Birkenhead. She was laid down on 18 November 1937 and was commissioned on 3 October 1940. CareerTaku served in home waters and the Mediterranean. In April 1940, she mistook HMS Ashanti for a German destroyer and fired several torpedoes at her. All the torpedoes missed. In an attack on a German convoy in May, she damaged the German torpedo boat {{ship|German torpedo boat|Möwe||2}}, and in November, launched a failed attack on the German tanker Gedania. Assigned to the Mediterranean in 1941, she scored numerous kills, including the Italian merchantmen Cagliari and Silvio Scaroni, the Italian passenger/cargo ship Caldea, the German munitions transport Tilly L. M. Russ, the Italian auxiliary minesweeper Vincenso P., the Italian tankers Arca and Delfin, and the Greek sailing vessels Niki, Lora and a small vessel which was unidentified. She also attacked, but failed to hit the German merchant ship Menes and the Italian tanker Cerere. Reassigned to operate off the Scandinavian coast in 1944, Taku sank the German merchantmen Rheinhausen and Hans Bornhofen, and badly damaged the German freighter Harm Fritzen. In March she attacked a convoy, but missed her target, the ex-Norwegian Kriegsmarine transport Moshill.[1] Taku struck a mine in April 1944, and was damaged. After the end of the war, she was sold for scrap in November 1946 and broken up in South Wales.[2]References1. ^{{cite web |last=Lawson |first =Siri Holm |url=http://warsailors.com/homefleet/shipsm.html#moshill |title=M/S Moshill |accessdate=23 December 2009 |work=Warsailors.com |publisher= |date= }}
2. ^HMS Taku, Uboat.net
References- {{cite book|last=Akermann|first=Paul|title=Encyclopaedia of British Submarines 1901–1955|edition=reprint of the 1989|year=2002|publisher=Periscope Publishing|location=Penzance, Cornwall|isbn=1-904381-05-7}}
- {{cite book|last=Bagnasco |first=Erminio |title=Submarines of World War Two |year=1977 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |location=Annapolis, Maryland |isbn=0-87021-962-6}}
- {{Colledge}}
- {{cite book|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946|editor1-last=Chesneau|editor1-first=Roger|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=Greenwich, UK|year=1980|isbn=0-85177-146-7}}
- {{cite book|last=Kemp|first=Paul J.|title=The T-class Submarine: The Classic British Design|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=1990|isbn=1-55750-826-7}}
- {{cite book|last=McCartney|first=Innes|location=Oxford, UK|title=British Submarines 1939–1945|series=New Vanguard|volume=129|year=2006|publisher=Osprey|isbn=1-84603-007-2}}
{{T class submarine}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Taku (N38)}}{{UK-mil-submarine-stub}} 4 : British T-class submarines of the Royal Navy|Ships built in Merseyside|1939 ships|World War II submarines of the United Kingdom |