At around midnight on July 19, 1941, HMS Umpire, a British submarine, was on the surface heading past the Norfolk coast, when she encountered an Allied convoy sailing in the opposite direction.

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To escape the attention of German E-boats, none of the vessels were showing any lights and in the darkness disaster struck.

While around 14 miles off Blakeney, one of the convoy's escorts, an armed trawler called Peter Hendriks, ran into the bows of the submarine, which sank in less than a minute.

Seventeen of the sailors on board were saved - most as a result of an incredible escape from the hull of the stricken vessel once it was lying on the seabed of the Sheringham Shoal.

But 16 lost their lives, including a 25-year-old sailor whose body later washed up on the beach at Mundesley.

The Peter Hendriks, which was built in Germany before the war, was later renamed Lord Rivers (Image: Submitted)

He was buried in the village churchyard, his grave the only local reminder to this long-forgotten tragedy.

Now, however, the Submariners Association has launched a campaign for a permanent memorial in the county in honour of those who died.

Peter Houston, from the association's Norfolk branch, said: "They are the forgotten few. Nobody knows about this tragedy and we thought it should be recognised."

Mr Houston, who served for 19 years on five different nuclear submarines, has been tending the Mundesley grave of Sub Lt Stephen Godden, the sailor from Reigate, Surrey, whose body washed ashore, ever since the Association altered the Norfolk branch to its location.

He added: “We started talking about it at the Norfolk branch a few years ago and decided we should do something."

Godden's is the only grave of those who died in the wreck (Image: Google)

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