HNLMS O 22

Design and description

The O 21-class submarines were slightly smaller versions of the preceding since they lacked that class's minelaying capability. The boats had a length of overall, a beam of and a draft of. They displaced on the surface and submerged. The submarines had a crew of 60 officers and enlisted men.
For surface running, the boats were powered by two Sulzer diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the boats had a range of at and at 9 knots submerged. The submarines had a diving depth of.
The O 21 class was armed with eight torpedo tubes. Four of these were in the bow and two tubes were in the stern. The other pair were on an external rotating mount amidships. A reload was provided for each internal torpedo tube. They were also armed with two Bofors AA guns; these were on single watertight mounts that retracted into the conning tower when submerged.

Construction and career

O 22 was ordered on 19 June 1937 and laid down on 20 November at the shipyard of Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde in Vlissingen. The boat was launched on 20 January 1940. Following the German invasion of 10 May, O 22 was hastily commissioned that afternoon, still incomplete, and sailed for England together with her sister and the tugboat B.V. 37, to be finally completed at Rosyth Dockyard.
During the war she operated in the North Sea and made five patrols. During her last patrol in November O 22 was lost with her entire crew, 42 Dutch and 3 British sailors. Her wreck was discovered in 1993 by a ship of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. On 2 November 1996 a ceremony at the wreck site was held to commemorate the loss.