The Wreck of HMS Trooper: Lost WW2 Sub Rediscovered

HMS Trooper was born into the heart of conflict. Laid down in 1940 and launched in 1942, she was thrown into the heart of the Second World War and the Battle for the Mediterranean.

Her career was a short lived but eventful. In little over a year she sank an enemy submarine, the Italian Pietro Micca, as well as an Italian tanker. She also damaged two further ships and attacked an Italian fleet at harbor as part of Operation Principal, a crazy secret mission involving SBS operatives strapped to torpedoes.

On 26 September 1943 she set sail on her eighth patrol, and was last seen skirmishing with a schooner flotilla on 14 October. When she failed to check in three days later she was presumed lost, and nobody has ever heard of her since, until now.

According to a report in Live Science, a research team led by Greek underwater expert Kostas Thoctarides has found her wreck off the Aegean island of Donoussa. The area, which is known for storms and rough seas, had hampered search activities but the main problem was that previously everyone was looking in the wrong place.

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The wreck is somewhat further to the west than had been expected, close to where she had last been sighted. This mistake helps explain the error which fourteen earlier expeditions had made in trying to find her, all of which failed because they were all looking elsewhere.

However after reassessing the evidence from the 1940s Thoctarides followed up on a theory which suggested the sub may have been destroyed elsewhere, a hunch which eventually led to the discovery. Trooper was found after a detailed scan of the seafloor using sonar, lying at a depth of 250 meters.

The wreck is heavily damaged, broken into three parts, and this damage would seem to support the theory that Trooper was hit by a naval mine. Her conning hatch at the very top of the submarine is in the open position on the wreck, which would further support this as it suggests she was sailing on the surface at the time of the incident.

Captain Richard Wraith of the Royal Navy, the son of Trooper’s commanding officer Lt. John Wraith, expressed his gratitude at the find. “I have been aware for many years of the strenuous effort by the Greek research team to locate the wreck of the submarine and am now very pleased and excited that their endeavours have been rewarded,” he said. “I hope that any family members of those lost with my father may be able to use the definitive location of Trooper as a focal point to help lay to rest any memories of their loved ones.”

Header Image: The wreck of HMS Trooper. Source: Live Science / Kostas Thoctarides.