Bearing the Adelaide stamp of the South Australian Publicity Censor, May 1, 1944,this official photograph shows a British submarine flotilla alongside a parent ship in Holy Loch,Scotland, where nuclear Polaris missile armed submarines would later be based . The tattered caption states the submarine second from the right is HMS Upright, famous as the only submarine in the world to torpedo and sink a floating dry dock and bring down an enemy aircraft. However, Wikipedia, running the same photograph, presents a different story, saying Upright is second from the left , which appears to be correct going on its silhouette in another photograph . Built by Vickers Armstrong, the submarine was commissioned in September 1940 and went into action in the Mediterranean, at times under heavy depth charge attack in waters off Tunisia and Libya , accounting for a torpedo boat, merchant vessels, the light Italian cruiser Armando Diaz and the dry dock which was under tow. Upright was scrapped in 1946. The troubled Collins Class submarines were built in Adelaide and PM Julia Gillard recently announced 12 new submarines, costing $36billion ,will be built there . Whether these would be fully designed here or from an overseas design has yet to be decided . Opposition economic spokesman Joe Hockey said a Coalition government would look at buying cheaper subs overseas if they were available. (Photo, taken 1941, is from Little Darwin Ephemera Collection .)
