The vessel and her crew were honoured and immortalized by the nephew of one of the lost sailors (Lt. Stephen E. Spring Rice, RNVR), English musician Thomas Dolby, in the August 1982 song "One of Our Submarines".

She was commissioned on 18 June 1942 at Holy Loch, then conducted training and diving tests in the River Clyde area.

After additional tests with torpedoes off Arrochar, the submarine then sailed for Lerwick, arriving on 17 July.

After passing through Holy Loch and Rothesay, the boat departed for Gibraltar on 12 August; after one week at sea, she was ordered to search for a German tanker, but suffered flooding in her auxiliary machinery, forcing her to abandon her patrol and continue to Gibraltar.

On 31 October, P48 departed Gibraltar for another patrol in the Mediterranean, with orders to conduct a special landing operation off Algiers, then proceed to Malta.

After being ordered to patrol off Bizerte, Tunisia, P48 sighted an enemy merchant ship and attacked it with three torpedoes, but missed.

Seconds later, the escorting Italian torpedo boat Ardente made sonar contact with a target, then attacked it with 48 depth charges.

A large oil patch 100–150 metres in diameter was observed in position 37°17′N 10°32′E / 37.283°N 10.533°E / 37.283; 10.533 and the crew of the torpedo boat claimed the submarine sunk.