H-31 submarine

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aukepalmhof
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H-31 submarine

Post by aukepalmhof » Tue Sep 03, 2013 9:01 pm

The submarine showed on the stamp has on the conning tower the No H 31 she is one of the British H class.
Built as a submarine under yard No 531 by Vickers Armstrong Ltd., Barrow-in-Furness for the Royal Navy.
19 April 1917 laid down.
21 February 1919 launched as the HMS H 31, one of the H class.
Displacement 430 ton surfaced, 518 ton submerged, dim. 52.12 x 4.67m.
Powered by one diesel engine 480 hp, two electro motors, 620 hp. speed 11.5 knots surface, 9 knots submerged.
Range by a speed of 7.5 knots, 2,985 mile surface and submerged by a speed of 2 knots, 130 mile.
Armament 4 – 21 inch bow torpedo tubes and carried 8 torpedoes.
Crew 22.
21 February 1919 commissioned.

When World War II broke out she was still in service.
During the war she took part in the operation to keep the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in Brest, France.
16 December 1941 she left Portsmouth for a war patrol in the Bay of Biscay about 250 miles north of Cape Finisterre under command of Captain Frank Bridger Gibbs.
24 December was her reporting time, but noting was heard.
26 December was she reported missing, cause of loss unknown. She was lost with all hands.

Guinea-Bissau 2012 3000 FCFA sg?, scott? (The submarine in the middle of the sheet not identified so far, the submarine below is the S173 which belong to the German submarine U-24.)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_H31
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