Dundee International Submarine Memorial

Dundee in Scotland was the home port of the Royal Navy’s 2nd Submarine Flotilla between August and October 1939.

Dundee-based submarines patrolled the enemy-held coastline of mainland Europe, attacking enemy warships including the battle-cruiser Gneisenau,[1] and the cruiser Prinz Eugen,[1] and ventured far inside the Arctic Circle to help protect convoys carrying war supplies to the Soviet Union.

[3] The Free French Rubis laid minefields and torpedoed enemy shipping in both Norwegian coastal waters and the Bay of Biscay, while another Free French boat, Minerve, limped back to Dundee badly damaged and leaking after being sunk to the seabed by depth charges.

And, in support of the Norwegian resistance movement, agents, teams of saboteurs, weapons and supplies were landed under cover of darkness, often deep inside enemy-held fjords.

Six British, Dutch, Norwegian and Russian submarines were lost while on patrol from Dundee and two hundred and ninety six British, Dutch, Free French, Norwegian and Russian sailors and commandos lost their lives, few of whom have any known grave.