| Navy | The Royal Navy |
| Type | Submarine |
| Class | U |
| Pennant | P 34 |
| Built by | Vickers Armstrong (Barrow-in-Furness, U.K.) |
| Ordered | |
| Laid down | 19 Jun 1940 |
| Launched | 11 Feb 1941 |
| Commissioned | 29 Jul 1941 |
| End service | |
| Loss position | |
| History | Sold to be broken up for scrap on 23 December 1949. Scrapped at Port Glasgow in February 1950. Commanding Officers: Lt. Desmond Samuel Royst Martin, RN Lt. William Henry Kett, RNR Lt. Peter Dove Courtenay Bennett, RN Lt. Alan Flockhart Esson, RNR Lt. Roger Creswell Bucknall, RN |
Commands listed for HMS Ultimatum (P 34)
Please note that we're still working on this section.
| Commander | From | To | ||
| 1 | Lt. Peter Robert Helfrich Harrison, DSC, RN | 12 Jun 1941 | 12 Nov 1942 | |
| 2 | Lt. Desmond Samuel Royst Martin, RN | 12 Nov 1942 | Dec 1942 | |
| 3 | Lt. William Henry Kett, RNR | Jan 1943 | ??? | |
| 4 | Lt. Peter Dove Courtenay Bennett, RN | 5 Feb 1945 | 11 Jun 1945 | |
| 5 | Lt. Alan Flockhart Esson, RNR | 11 Jun 1945 | 4 Sep 1945 | |
| 6 | Lt. Roger Cresswell Bucknall, RN | 4 Sep 1945 | Oct 1945 ? | |
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Noteable events involving Ultimatum include:
25 Jan 1942
HMS P 34 (Lt. P.R.H. Harrison, DSC, RN) torpedoes and sinks the Italian passenger ship Dalmatia L. (3352 GRT) south-west of Capo dell'Armi in position 37º45'N, 15º30'E. (see map)
23 Feb 1942
HMS P 34 (Lt. P.R.H. Harrison, DSC, RN) fires 4 torpedoes against the Italian merchants Ravello (6142 GRT) and Unione (6070 GRT) about 80 nautical miles east of Tripoli, Libya in position 32º48'N, 14º50'E. All torpedoes fired missed their targets. (see map)
14 Mar 1942
HMS P 34 (Lt. P.R.H. Harrison, DSC, RN) torpedoes and sinks the Italian submarine Ammiraglio Millo (offsite link) in the Ionian Sea off Punta (Cape) Stilo, Calabria, Italy in position 38º27'N, 16º37'E. (see map)
24 Jun 1942
HMS P 34 (Lt. P.R.H. Harrison, DSC, RN) makes a torpedo attack on the German submarine U-77 south of Crete in position 34º20'N, 24º09'E. All torpedoes fired however missed their target. (see map)
7 Sep 1942
HMS P 34 (Lt. P.R.H. Harrison, DSC, RN) fires four torpedoes against the Italian merchant Luciano Manara (6060 GRT) in the central Mediterranean about 45 nautical miles south-west of Schiza Island, Greece in position 36º17'N, 21º03'E. All torpedoes fired missed their target.
(see map)
30 Oct 1943
On this day HMS Ultimatum (Lt. W.H. Kett, DSC, RNR) attacked a German U-boat the Mediterranean southeast of Toulon, France, in position 43º04'N, 05º57'E. This attack was against U-73 but it inflicted no damage. HMS Ultimatum is often credited to have sunk U-431 in this attack. However U-431 was sunk with all hands on 21 October 1943 in the Mediterranean off Algiers in position 37º23'N, 00º35'E, by depth charges from a British Wellington aircraft (Sqdn. 179/Z). U-431's fate was revised in November 1987 by the Foreign Documents Section of the British Ministry of Defence.
(see map)
5 Apr 1944
HMS Ultimatum (Lt. W.H. Kett, DSC, RNR) sinks a German sailing vessel with gunfire off Suda Bay, Crete, Greece.
2 May 1944
HMS Ultimatum (Lt. W.H. Kett, DSC, RNR) shells the harour of Kalamata, Greece. Two sailing vessels were sunk, five were destroyed on the slips and one was damaged.
3 Jul 1944
HMS Ultimatum (Lt. W.H. Kett, DSC, RNR) fires two torpedoes at the German auxilary patrol vessel Uj 6073 / Nimeth Allah off Toulon, southern France. The torpedoes however miss their target.
At 0059 hours Ultimatum sighted a white light flashing morse bearing 340º. Five minutes later two darkened ships were made out steaming on a course of 200º distance 2000 yards. As the vessels were at close range and were signalling, Lt. Kett thought he might be sighted. He turned his submarine stern on to watch events unfold.
At 0109 hours the vessels were identified as a destroyer and a UJ boat, and as they showed no sign of taking action against Ultimatum Lt. Kett altered course to attack.
At 0114 hours four torpedoes were fired. 40 seconds later one torpedo was seen to hit causing a column of water rise 50 feet into the air completely enveloping the target (this actually was not a hit, the torpedo exploded prematurely). Six seconds later a second torpedo was heard to explode but this was not observed as the submarine was now diving towards 150 feet.
27 Jul 1944
HMS Ultimatum (Lt. W.H. Kett, DSC, RNR) fires four torpedoes against a group of small German vessels. The German barge F 811 is hit and sunk of the coast of southern France in position 43º03'N, 05º34'E. (see map)