Rainbow-class submarine

Rainbow-class submarine
Class overview
Operators:	Royal Navy
Preceded by:	Parthian class
Succeeded by:	S class
In commission:	1930—1946
Planned:	6
Completed:	4
Cancelled:	2
Lost:	3
Retired:	1
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,763 long tons (1,791 t) surfaced 2,030 long tons (2,060 t) submerged
Length:	287 ft (87 m)
Beam:	30 ft (9.1 m)
Draught:	16 ft (4.9 m)
Propulsion:	Diesel-electric 2 × Admiralty diesel engines, 4,640 hp 2 × electric motors, 1,635 hp 2 shafts
Speed:	17.5 knots (20.1 mph; 32.4 km/h) surfaced 8.6 kn (9.9 mph; 15.9 km/h) submerged
Complement:	53
Armament:	• 8 × 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes (6 bow, 2 stern) with 14 reloads • 1 × 4.7 in QF Mark IX deck gun After 1942 : • 2 × 20 mm machine guns • Equipped to lay mines through torpedo tubes

The Rainbow class submarine or R class was a class of four submarines built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. They were designed as long range patrol submarines for the Far East and were essentially repeats of the preceding Parthian class submarines with minor modifications. Six ships were planned but two boats, HMS Royalist and HMS Rupert were cancelled for economic reasons.

Ships

Name	Builder	Launched	Fate
HMS Rainbow	Chatham Dockyard	14 May 1930	Sunk in collision with the Italian Merchant ship Antonietta Costa on 4 October 1940
HMS Regent	Vickers, Barrow in Furness	11 June 1930	Sunk 18 April 1943 by mines near Barletta, Puglia, Italy
HMS Regulus	Vickers, Barrow in Furness	11 June 1930	Sunk by mines 6 December 1940 near Taranto, Italy
HMS Rover	Vickers, Barrow in Furness	11 June 1930	Scrapped 1946

It is often stated that HMS Rainbow was sunk by the Italian submarine Enrico Toti but the submarine sunk by Enrico Toti was HMS Triad.

Online References

• Rainbow class on Uboat.net
• Rainbow class on battleships-cruisers.co.uk