HMS OLYMUPUS MALTA -120 meters

Malta was of huge strategic importance during World War II.

Between 1940 and 1942, the British Navy fought a German and Italian blockade to keep the island supplied with food rations, war supplies and fuel. By November 1942, the Allies had triumphed and this victory is credited with paving the way for eventual Allied success in North Africa.

HMS Olympus was an Odin-class submarine, a class originally designed for the Royal Australian Navy to cope with long distance patrolling in Pacific waters and was well armed, 8 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (6 bow, 2 stern) 1 × 4-inch deck gun & 2 × .303 inch AA machine guns .

 Olympus was built to the same design for the Royal Navy. She served from 1931-1939 on the China Station and 1939-1940 out of Colombo. In 1940 she was redeployed to the Mediterranean. She was damaged on 7 July 1940 when bombed by Italian aircraft while in dock in Malta. Repairs and refit were completed on 29 November 1940. On 9 November 1941 Olympus attacked the Italian merchant ship Mauro Croce (1,049 GRT) with torpedoes and gunfire in the Gulf of Genoa. The target escaped without damage. 

In the photo inset you can see manuel island in the back ground of Olympus, it is believed the boat loading supplies is to be the last existing ship x-lighter 127 which was hit in a raid shortly after this photo was taken and lays under the hospital in the top left of the photo in depth between 6 – 19 meters.

HMS Olympus struck a mine in the early hours of 8 May, 1942 shortly after she left Malta Harbour under the cover of darkness. Nearly 90 men perished in what was one of the worst naval disasters of the war. Only nine of the vessel's 98 crew members survived after swimming seven miles back to shore in cold water. The exact spot where the 283ft-long submarine sank in the Mediterranean Sea remained a mystery for 70 years. Although a team of divers from the United Kingdom and Malta had claimed discovery of the wreck in 2008, its identity was not confirmed until a team from the Aurora Trust was able to re-locate the wreck in 2011 and capture images with a ROV later in the year. The wreck sits upright in 115m of water and is largely intact.