HMS Springer

HMS Springer
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Springer
Builder	Cammell Laird & Co Limited, Birkenhead
Laid down	8 May 1944
Launched	14 May 1945
Commissioned	2 August 1945
Fate	Sold to Israeli Navy on 9 October 1958
Badge
Israel
Name	INS Tanin
Acquired	9 October 1958
Honors and awards	Six-Day War Ribbon
Fate	Listed for disposal, 1972
General characteristics
Class & type	S-class submarine
Displacement	814-872 tons surfaced 990 tons submerged
Length	217 ft (66 m)
Beam	23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
Draught	11 ft (3.4 m)
Speed	14.75 knots surfaced 8 knots submerged
Complement	48 officers and men
Armament	6 × forward 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, one aft 13 torpedoes one three-inch (76 mm) gun (QF 4-inch on later boats) one 20 mm cannon three .303-calibre machine gun

HMS Springer was an S-class submarine of the Royal Navy, and part of the Third Group built of that class. She was built by Cammell Laird and launched on 14 May 1945. So far, she has been the only boat of the Royal Navy to bear the name Springer.

Built as the Second World War was drawing to a close, she did not see much action.^[1] In 1953, she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.^[2]

The Springer was sold to the Israeli Navy in 1958 and renamed Tanin (Hebrew: תנין; Crocodile or Tannin).

Tanin was the only Israeli Submarine that was servicable at the outbreak of the Six-Day War, with the T Class submarine INS Leviathan on her delivery cruise,^[3][4] and took part in the war by launching naval commandos to attack the port of Alexandria. She then tried to torpedo an Egyptian sloop but was severely damaged by a depth charge counterattack. One source states that this was the reason that she was decommissioned after the war.^[5] The next day, the submarine returned to the port of Alexandria to pick the commandos up and extract them from Egypt.^[4] Her commander was awarded the Medal of Courage for his actions at the port of Alexandria.^[6] She received spare parts from her sister ship Rahav, formerly HMS Sanguine, when Rahav was retired in 1968. Tanin was listed for disposal in 1972.

A Gal-class submarine named Tanin served the Israeli Navy from 1977 to 2002, and the Dolphin-class submarine INS Tanin was delivered in May 2012.

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (3rd Rev ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.