Midget Submarine and why I have not published

This 4 man mini submarine named the “SPRAT”

sailed up the river Aire to Leeds between 1950 and 1960.

FINALLY RESOLVED IN 2020 – UPDATED 2025

The subject of a Midget Submarine coming up the river Aire has raised it`s head once more, is it true, this is what I found:-  and why I never published

Time to come clean

The Official Secrets Act

My first research on the subject follows an article in 1918 :-

Found on Methley village site 2018

Joe Green – Midget Submarine

•            By Bill Thackray

•            March 12, 2018

•            Comments Off on Joe Green – Midget Submarine

About 15 years ago (2002) the late Joe Green of this village asked me to undertake research into his claim that he witnessed the passage of a mini submarine on the river Aire somewhere in Methley .

I did make some in depth enquiries at the time but I was unable to confirm such a journey. Joe always furthered the subject when we met, I suspect to overcome the disbelief of his claim by some of his tap room cynics, but again, no luck with the enquiries. He was however, able to tell me that it was called the ‘Sprat’.

Enquiries did reveal that there had been some five such vessels tied up in Hull docks in the 1950’s but no report of any inland waterway journeys.

In September this year (2017) quite by chance in Normanton library I came across the attached photograph in a book covering local canals where it was reported that the vessel was en route from Wakefield to Leeds and navigated on the surface of the canal for clearance purposes. The book was unable to confirm the date.

At this stage a conversation with Vera Garland at the weekly Archives gathering enabled me to call Joe’s daughter Joan in Lofthouse and relate the find to her. Joan was able to add more to the story claiming that as a young girl she also saw the vessel along with her father and others from the village watching it negotiating Kippax Locks.

My research found

SECRET PROJECTS:    CODENAME —  OPERATION CUDGEL —

Navy planned to use Midget Submarines to plant Atomic Bombs in Russia

due to be kept SECRET until 2020 but released early under the Open Government Initiative

HMS Submarine “ Sprat “  belonged to the Stickleback class submarine

This is rare image of a midget submarine.

HMS Submarine Sprat taken on 21 June 1957

The Stickleback class submarines

Were midget submarines of the Royal Navy initially ordered as improved versions of the older XE class submarines. They were designed to allow British defences to practice defending against midget submarines since it was theorised that the Soviets had or could develop such craft.

HOWEVER – CODENAME —  OPERATION CUDGEL

The Royal Navy developed plans to use these craft to carry a 2 ton nuclear mine, into the approaches to the Soviet naval base at Kronstadt. It was based around the Red Beard weapon, the first British tactical nuclear weapon. Similar to devices that had been used in the 1939-1945 War on missions, including the crippling of the German battleship, Tirpitz.

A large Porpoise class submarine would carry the Mini Submarine to approximately 150 miles from it`s intended target and a crew of two would navigate the rest. The idea was to carry the nuclear bomb into an enemy port, where it would be designed to float and detonate on a long timer, up to a week later. The Mini Submarine specification stated it should be able to operate in very low temperatures, indicating that the principal targets would be the Arctic Ocean Ports of Russia such as  Murmansk and Archangel.

 It seemed to give the Navy a quick answer to the problem of how to get a slice of the huge budget that Britain was devoting to nuclear strategy in the Cold War. The Admiralty had watched the development of Britain’s nuclear deterrent with increasing alarm because the only method of delivery was by air, with the V-bomber force of the RAF.

There was obsessive secrecy surrounding Operation Cudgel. With messages passing within departments written by hand as not enough typists with top security clearance could be found. The driving force behind Operation Cudgel, Capt. P.J. Cowell, director of Undersurface Warfare.

The project was unsuccessful and came to a halt in July 1956

Problems with the design of the vessel, funding and issues finding and paying for the necessary nuclear material.

The report stated

Development of neither nuclear nor conventional weapons for X-craft is justified.

Present X-craft are to be retained and continue to operate.

No further X-craft will be built.

There were 4 boats, launched 1954–1955

•        X51 Stickleback, launched July 1954,

•        X52 Shrimp, launched October 1954

•        X53 Sprat, launched 30 December 1954

•        X54 Minnow, launched 5 May 1955

X53 Sprat

Launched: 30th December 1954.

On completion of contractors trials, was placed in reserve at Portsmouth. Employed, on occasion, to test the harbour defence systems of various ports in the United States of America. It was broken up in 1966 at Faslane, Scotland.

Builder: Vickers-Armstrong Ltd, Barrow-in-Furness. 

Ordered: 06.09.1951

Completed: 05.06.1955

Yard No: 1037

Dimensions

(in feet & inches): Length: 53 ft 9, Beam: 6 ft 3, Draught: 7 ft 6.

Displacement: Surface: 36 tons Submerged: 41 tons.

Propulsion: Surface: Single six cylinder Perkins diesel engine. Submerged: Single electric motor. Single propeller.

Speed: Surface: 7 knots Submerged: 6 knots. 

Endurance: 1,000 nautical miles at 8.5 knots (surfaced).

Armaments: Two 2-ton side cargoes, Limpet mines.

Complement: 5.

1957   – A search operation was carried out for midget submarine HMS                    SPRAT in Channel after failure to transmit surfaced signal

1958  – SPRAT midget submarine loaned to US Navy for trials.  

X51 Stickleback

Launched: July 1954.

In 1958 it was sold to the Royal Swedish Navy, for use in harbour defence exercises. Renamed Spigger (Stickleback). In 1976 it was returned to the United Kingdom. Now at the Imperial War Museum Duxford. (AT TIME OF RESEARCH)

X52 Shrimp

Launched: October 1954.

On completion of contractors trials, was placed in reserve in Portsmouth. It was broken up in 1966 by Metal Industries at Faslane, Scotland.

X54 Minnow

Launched: 5th May 1955.

On completion of contractors trials, she returned to the Barrow shipyard to carry out trials on an early version of a pump-jet propulsion system. The trial showing no appreciable improvement in performance, she was also placed in reserve. It was broken up in 1966 at Faslane, Scotland.

===================

All of the boats were periodically taken out of reserve, to participate in exercises. They were normally based at Portland, Dorset. The X51 Class were an improvement on the earlier classes of X-craft of World War II vintage.

In the early days of the “Cold War”, Britain then having no means of delivering a nuclear weapon into the U.S.S.R., it was thought that this type of boat could be used to lay nuclear mines in Warsaw Pact dockyards and harbours.

These midget submarines eventually fell victim to economic cuts, when Flag Officer submarines (F.O.S.M.) was required to reduce the number of “hulls” under his command.