The Royal Navy's submarine force was small relative to its wartime commitments. Submariners received five of the Royal Navy's fourteen Victoria Crosses in the First World War, and that record of courage and risk became part of the service's inherited identity. Britain again entered the Second World War with roughly sixty boats, while the wartime figures given here include 76 losses and about 171 boats in service by August 1945. German and American submarine campaigns dominate popular memory and can obscure the British record. Royal Navy submarines fought from Norway through the Mediterranean to the Far East, so their global contribution often appears as a series of isolated actions.
Notable Point · 8:40-13:30
A small force operating in every theatre
Britain began both world wars with roughly sixty submarines, yet the service expanded, absorbed heavy losses, and fought from Norway and the Mediterranean to the Far East.