Like all post-H20 British H-class submarines, H49 had a displacement of 423LT at the surface and 510LT while submerged.[1] It had a total length of 171feet,[2] a beam of 15feet, and a draught of 12m (39feet). It contained diesel engines providing a total power of and two electric motors each providing .[3] The use of its electric motors made the submarine travel at 11kn. It would normally carry 16.4LT of fuel and had a maximum capacity of 18LT.[4]
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of 13kn and a submerged speed of 10.5kn. Post-H20 British H-class submarines had ranges of 2985nmi at speeds of 7.5kn when surfaced.[1] [3] H49 was fitted with an anti-aircraft gun and four 21inches torpedo tubes. Its torpedo tubes were fitted to the bows and the submarine was loaded with eight 21-inch torpedoes.[1] It is a Holland 602 type submarine but was designed to meet Royal Navy specifications. Its complement was twenty-two crew members.[1]
H49 was laid down at William Beardmore and Company's Dalmuir shipyard on 21 January 1918, was launched on 15 July 1919 and completed on 25 October 1919.[5]
Following commissioning, H49 joined the submarine training school at Portland.[6] She remained part of this establishment in December 1920.[7]
In March 1937 the submarine navigated the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal in the company of the submarine . The trip had been arranged by Lieutenant A.F Collett, the 1st Lieutenant of H33.[8] She was reduced to reserve at Portsmouth on 16 December 1938.[9]
H49 survived until the Second World War, when she was assigned with other H-class submarines to a training flotilla at Harwich. Following the fall of France in June 1940, these training submarines undertook operational patrols in the North Sea as an anti-invasion precaution. On 16 September 1940, H49 commanded by Lieutenant M A Langley, fired four torpedoes at a large enemy coastal convoy and sank a 2,189-ton ship; Langley was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for this action. On 1 October, the submarine fired four torpedoes at a six-ship convoy, but without success.[10]
On the afternoon of 18 October, under the command of Lieutenant R E Coltart DSC,[10] H49 was on her "billet" (prescribed patrol area) off the Dutch coast, when the unusual decision was taken to surface in daylight, probably presuming that the poor visibility would prevent their being sighted. However, they had not detected a nearby group of five German armed trawlers or Vorpostenboote of the 11th Anti-Submarine Flotilla, who attacked immediately.[11] Despite diving at once, H49 was sunk by depth charges from the German patrol craft UJ111, UJ116 and UJ118, commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Wolfgang Kaden aboard UJ116, off Texel, the Netherlands. There was only one survivor, Leading Stoker George William Oliver from Hartlepool. He was rescued by German trawlers and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war at Marlag M.[12] [13] Following the loss of H49, operational patrols by the other H-class submarines were suspended, and the flotilla moved to Rosyth in December 1940 to resume training duties.[14]
In the mid-1980s amateur divers who had violated H49s war grave status were prosecuted by the Dutch government.[15] Following research by Dennis Feary, the son of one of H49s lost crew members, he arranged for a memorial plaque to the submarine to be placed in St Mary's Church, Shotley in 2019, and a display dedicated to the sinking at the Aeronautical and War Museum on Texel Island.[16]