August 1941
General Events
| 1-4 | August | Operation STYLE continued (passage of Force X to Malta, bombardment of Sardinia by Force H). |
| 13-14 | August | The Italian submarine base at Augusta was bombed by five Swordfish. |
| 24 | August | Operation MINCEMEAT (minelaying off Leghorn by HMS Manxman). |
| 25 | August | British and Soviet forces invaded Persia. |
Mediterranean
Italian submarine patrols in the Mediterranean during August 1941
| Uarsciek (…1 August) | Sirena (…1 August) | Tembien (…2 August) |
| Squalo (…3 August) | Manara (…5 August) | Bandiera (…5 August) |
| H.4 (…5 August) | Settimo (…5 August) | Alagi (…5 August) |
| Diaspro (…6 August) | Serpente (…6 August) | Delfino (…6 August) |
| Delfino (…8 August) | H.1 (1-5 August) | Colonna (1-4 August) |
| Zaffiro (2-5 August) | C.B.2 (3-4 August) | C.B.3 (3-4 August) |
| H.8 (3-4 August) | Ondina (4-17 August) | H.2 (5-6 August) |
| Zoea (6-10 August) Pt.1 | H.2 (7-8 August) | H.4 (7-9 August) |
| H.1 (7-9 August) | Aradam (7-9 August) | Alagi (8-9 August) |
| Corridoni (8-12 August) Pt.1 | Veniero (8-22 August) | Manara (10-22 August) |
| Zoea (10-13 August) Pt.2 | H.2 (10-11 August) | Atropo (12-16 August) Pt.1 |
| Corridoni (12-17 August) Pt.2 | Dagabur (13-15 August) | Tricheco (13-15 August) |
| H.4 (13-14 August) | H.1 (13-14 August) | Atropo (17-20 August) Pt.2 |
| H.8 (17-18 August) | Nereide (18-20 August) | H.2 (18-19 August) |
| H.2 (19-20 August) | Alagi (22-29 August) | Serpente (22-27 August) |
| Aradam (22-27 August) | Bandiera (22 August…) | Tricheco (23-27 August) |
| Zaffiro (23-27 August) | Topazio (23-27 August) | H.1 (23-27 August) |
| Colonna (23-26 August) | H.4 (23-27 August) | Squalo (23 August…) |
| Onice (24 August…) | Nereide (24 August…) | Ascianghi (24-31 August) |
| Diaspro (24-27 August) | H.2 (25-26 August) | H.8 (25-26 August) |
| H.8 (26-27 August) | Sirena (30 August…) |
Before midnight on 1 August, Delfino (C.C. Alberto Avogrado di Cerrione) was patrolling some twenty miles northwest of Ras Azzaz (Libya) when she was located by Sunderland ‘U’ (L.2166) of 230 Squadron from Aboukir. Piloted by Flight Lieutenant Engert Brand, the aircraft attacked from the moon side, dropping six depth charges, but the submarine managed to shoot it down with her four Breda machine guns. Four survivors, including Brand, were picked up by the submarine; the remaining eight were drowned. About half an hour later, the destroyers HMS Jervis, Jackal, Kingston, and HMAS Nizam arrived on the scene and began an anti-submarine search, but Delfino escaped the net.
This incident had indirect consequences, which might have been fatal to HMS Torbay and her redoubtable commander Tony Miers. During the night of 6/7 August, an Albacore of 826 Squadron was searching the area where the Italian submarine was reported and came across a surface U-boat believed to be of the Argo class. The aircraft dropped its torpedo, but the weapon was probably defective as the track disappeared after a run of about 100 yards. The ‘U-boat’ was Torbay, and the British submarine had observed a biplane aircraft circling around, whereby she took no chance and dived. Miers was not aware of the attack that he had been subjected to.
Having learned that an enemy force had sailed from Gibraltar on 30 July for an eastward destination, Supermarina ordered the submarines Colonna, H.1, and H.4 to take defensive positions in the Gulf of Genoa to avoid a repetition of the Genoa raid of February 1941. In addition, Alagi and Dessié were ordered to positions north of Cape Bougaroni (Algeria). Manara and Bandiera from Trapani took up positions east of Pantelleria, Settimo and Tembien from Augusta were respectively ordered to take positions southeast and west of Malta.
In fact, Force H[1] sailed from Gibraltar on 30 July to cover Force X’s passage to Malta (Operation STYLE) and raid the Alghero airfield (Sardinia).
Fresh from Mariscuolasom (Submarine Training School), T.V. Renato Ferrini took Serpente from Naples to patrol west of La Galite Island (Tunisia). Shortly after midnight on 2 August, in the moonlight, he saw an unknown submarine on the opposite course. His lack of experience prevented him from reacting in time to make an attack, and the fleeting opportunity was gone. This was almost certainly HMS Talisman (Lt Cdr M. Willmott, RN), on passage from Gibraltar to Malta and Alexandria, where she was to join the First Flotilla. The British submarine failed to detect Serpente. The Italian submarine was then informed of an enemy convoy near Cape Blanc but did not make contact.
Loss of Tembien
On 2 August, Tembien (T.V. Guido Gozzi) ran into Force X, on its way to Malta. The Force included the light cruisers HMS Hermione and Arethusa, the minelayer Manxman, and the destroyers HMS Lightning and Sikh. In the Sicilian narrows (in 36°21’ N, 12°40’ E), the navigating officer of Hermione spotted the submarine apparently stopped on the port bow at a distance of three and a half cables. At once, he ordered the turn to port on a collision course. The range had closed to two cables when the submarine was seen to submerge, but part of it was still visible when the cruiser rammed her at 28 knots. HMS Lightning and Sikh were detached to search for survivors but without success. The cruiser was only slightly damaged, taking twenty tons of water. The submarine disappeared with all her crew of five officers and thirty-eight ratings. Bandiera (T.V. Carlo Forni), patrolling east of Pantelleria, was informed the following day of the presence of a damaged light cruiser (probably Hermione) and was ordered to intercept but saw nothing. Force X reached Malta a few hours later, disembarked men and stores, and sailed later in the afternoon to rejoin Force H. Despite a deployment of MAS boats in the Sicilian Channel, none made contact, and the British force returned to Gibraltar with only HMS Ark Royal having suffered damage when a Swordfish crashed on her deck.
During the night of 5/6 August, five Swordfish of the Malta-based 830 Squadron bombed the submarine base at Augusta and claimed four submarines, a small vessel, and twenty-four seaplanes sunk. In fact, the only victim was a civilian sailing vessel. There were no casualties. Another raid during the night of 13/14 August failed to accomplish anything.
Bardia had now been recaptured by Axis Forces, and the large submarine Zoea (T.V. Alberto Campanella) was used to bring urgent supplies. On 8 August, south of Crete, she was sighted by a bomber and attacked with four anti-submarine bombs. This was Blenheim ‘X’ (Z.6421) of 203 Squadron piloted by Flight Lieutenant Corbould. The submarine stayed on the surface to fight it out; the nearest bomb missed it by twenty metres. The aircraft was claimed to be shot down; however, this was not the case. Zoea was the first submarine to reach Bardia and unloaded her cargo during the early hours of 10 August before returning to Taranto. But her troubles were not over. On the next day, she was attacked on three occasions by aircraft, which strafed her. Zoea replied every time with her machine guns, one of her gunners was seriously wounded during the last attack, but she escaped significant damage. The last aircraft had clearly been identified as German. After the submarine had exchanged recognition signals, the plane flew away.
On 12 August, Corridoni (T.V. Ugo Gentili) arrived at Bardia, bringing more supplies. She was located earlier by two Maryland bombers, but they were unable to attack due to a strong fighter defence. After dusk, the harbour came under air attack from a Blenheim and five Albacores (three of them from 826 Squadron). The submarine was near-missed, one bomb falling only twenty metres away, and the aircraft claimed her as damaged as they reported that a patch of oil was seen, but Corridoni emerged from this unscathed. During her brief stay in this harbour, General Rommel visited the submarine.
On 13 August, off Ras Mustafa (Tunisia), Manara (T.V. Innocenzo Ragusa) intercepted the French Ville de Bastia (1,336 GRT, built 1920) on passage from Tunis to Sfax. The vessel did not stop before eight warning shots were fired. The French protested the incident; however, the fault lay with Marine Alger, which had informed Italian authorities that her destination was Marseille.
During the night of 13/14 August, six Swordfish from 830 Squadron (based in Malta) attempted to attack the submarine base at Augusta. They failed to find the target. The following morning, Dagabur (T.V. Domenico Romano) sailed from Augusta to patrol southeast of Malta, where a submarine was sighted on a westerly course. Romano refrained from attack as he was uncertain of her identity. This was HMS Osiris (Lt Cdr T.T. Euman, RN) on a storing trip to Malta, and she had also seen the Italian submarine. The British submarine dived immediately as she was not in a favourable position for an attack.
A similar encounter occurred the following day when Corridoni, returning to Taranto, encountered HMS Torbay west of Crete. Both submarines dived but lost contact when they attempted to attack each other.
HMS Thorbryn, a Norwegian-built whaler escorting convoy LC.12, was sunk by German Stukas east of Tobruk on 19 August. The Italians recovered precious documents from her wreck, including maps showing the swept channels to Alexandria (the Great Pass, Boghaz Pass, and the Marabut Pass) and defensive minefields. These would be instrumental in their successful attack by human torpedoes in December 1941.[2]
During the night of 21/22 August, Force H[3] departed from Gibraltar to cover the fast minelayer Manxman for Operation MINCEMEAT. After midnight, Supermarina asked Maricosom to place a submarine south of 37°30’ N, between 05° and 06° E, and another on the 38th parallel. A third submarine was to be positioned west of La Galite. In the afternoon, the battleships Littorio and Vittorio Veneto, escorted by six destroyers, sailed from Taranto and crossed the Messina Strait northward to meet the threat. They were reinforced by the heavy cruisers Trieste, Trento, Bolzano, Gorizia from Messina, and more destroyers. Bolzano was torpedoed by HMS Triumph on her return trip.
On 24 August, Manxman, disguised as a French destroyer of the Tigre class, managed to reach the waters off Leghorn undetected and laid a minefield. Force H was operating in support just south of Minorca.
H.1 (T.V. Francesco Pedrotti), H.4 (T.V. Gaetano Iaccarino), Colonna (C.C. Bruno Pilli), and Onice (C.C. Loris Albanese) sailed from La Spezia for a defensive patrol. Onice was some fifty miles northwest of Leghorn and would see nothing. Serpente (T.V. Renato Ferrini) and Alagi (T.V. Giulio Contreas) were patrolling north of Bougie, too far off track to have any chance of interception. At the same time, Aradam (T.V. Oscar Gran) was west of La Galite, Bandiera (T.V. Carlo Forni) off Ras Mustafa, Squalo (T.V. Lodovico Grion) off Cape Bon. Topazio (C.C. Emilio Berengan), Tricheco (T.V. Carlo Gandolfo), and Zaffiro (C.C. Giovanni Lombardi) were positioned between Malta and Pantelleria. There were now twelve Italian submarines deployed in the Western Mediterranean.
On 26 August, Aradam (T.V. Oscar Gran), patrolling northwest of La Galite Island, attacked a vessel at short range. The torpedo was set at a depth of two metres, but missed what appears to have been a large sailing vessel.
In the first hours of 27 August, Bandiera observed a large freighter off Ras Mustafa and launched a pair of torpedoes but without success. This was Deucalion (9,919 GRT, built 1940) on passage from Malta to Gibraltar, but the attack was not seen. The submarine opened fire on the freighter, which initially mistook the firing to be from shore batteries, while her escort, HMS Farndale, failed to realise that a submarine was involved. Bandiera hit her target on the paravane gear with one round causing only minor damage. The British crew believed that their ship had detonated a mine. In return, the Italian submarine came under fire from the freighter. One near-miss temporarily blinded her gun crew, forcing her to break off the attack and submerge. Squalo was about 5,000 metres away but could not close to attack. This submarine would be attacked by an aircraft the following afternoon and escape damage. Alagi was also ordered to attack this freighter but failed to make contact. On 28 August, she was informed that an Italian bomber had been shot down; a search for her survivors yielded only the body of T.V. Antonio Forni, the naval observer of the aircraft. Deucalion’s luck would run out the following year during the battle of the Pedestal convoy.
Adua (T.V. Luigi Riccardi) was on passage from Pola to Cagliari, where she was supposed to join VII Grupsom. On 28 August, as she was approaching Capo dell’Armi, she was detected by HMS Unbeaten (Lt E.A. Woodward, RN), who fired four torpedoes from about 3,000 yards at an Italian submarine described as of the Balilla class, but they all missed. We must assume that they were very wide of the mark or the Italian lookouts were not attentive. The Italian submarine continued her route, blissfully unaware of the danger she had escaped.
Equally fortunate was Emo (C.C. Giuseppe Roselli Lorenzini) as she avoided two torpedoes fired by the Dutch submarine O.21 (Luitenant ter Zee 1ste klasse Johannes Frans van Dulm) in the early hours of 31 August. The lookouts observed the attack this time and reported a torpedo track crossing their wake 1,000 meters astern. Van Dulm had apparently seriously underestimated the speed of the Italian submarine.
Atlantic
Italian submarine patrols in the Atlantic during August 1941
| Malaspina (…5 August) | Barbarigo (…11 August) | Bagnaloni (…12 August) |
| Marconi (…29 August) | Tazzoli (…) | Calvi (…) |
| Finzi (3 August…) | Cappellini (15 August…) | Velella (16 August)x |
| Mocenigo (16-28 August)[4] | Velella (17-29 August)[5] | Emo (20 August…)[6] |
| Brin (20 August…)[7] | Otaria (21-27 August)x | Da Vinci (30 August…) |
On 6 August, Bagnolini (C.C. Giulio Chialamberto) was patrolling some 330 miles west of Gibraltar when she was bombed and strafed by Catalina ‘B’ (W.8424) of 202 Squadron piloted by Pilot Officer I.F. Edgar. The first bomb was dropped and missed the submarine by 100 metres. She remained on the surface, replying with her anti-aircraft armament. On a second run, the aircraft released a depth charge which fell fifty metres away without causing damage. The submarine took a course of 270° to put as much distance from Gibraltar as possible. On a third run, another depth charge detonated near the bow, causing some spilling of acid from her batteries, a fuel leak, and other damages; one gunner was slightly wounded. The aircraft was only hit in a float, and the other aircraft could not be summoned to the scene. The submarine finally dived and escaped. She was forced to abort her patrol and return to Bordeaux.
On 10 August, southwest of Abidjan, Tazzoli (C.C. Carlo Fecia di Cossato) attacked a convoy consisting of two tankers and a freighter escorted by two gunboats, firing two torpedoes at a gunboat and two more at the freighter without scoring a hit. The attack appears to have been unobserved. Two nights later, another attack on a tanker reported as Sangara (5,445 GRT, built 1939) was no more successful. She finally sank the Norwegian tanker Sildra (7,313 GRT, built 1927) but expended six torpedoes in the process as the heavy seas prevented her from using her guns. All forty members of the Norwegian ship would later be rescued. The Italian submarine had sailed with a total of nineteen torpedoes as the supply problem appeared to have been, at least temporarily, under control. The three extra torpedoes were carried in canisters on deck.
In the meantime, Marconi (T.V. Mario Paolo Pollina) was patrolling southwest of Lisbon. On 11 August, she attacked two Jervis-class destroyers with two torpedoes. These were HMAS Nestor and HMS Encounter. The Australian destroyer spotted a torpedo track and counter-attacked with twelve depth charges, but the other failed to make contact. The Italian submarine escaped unscathed.
Veniero (T.V. Elio Zappetta) was returning to Italy when, during the night of 12/13 August, she encountered a northbound convoy approximately 220 miles west of Lisbon. Without a doubt, this was convoy HG.70, which had sailed from Gibraltar on 9 August. The submarine attempted to attack it but was chased off by a destroyer. At daybreak, the submarine was caught on the surface by Catalina ‘A’ (W8410) of 202 Squadron, piloted by Squadron Leader G.P. Harger. Veniero was strafed and replied with her anti-aircraft armament, firing 300 rounds. The submarine was hit but suffered minor damage and dived. The aircraft dropped two depth charges; however, they failed to explode. A third apparently missed the submarine but caused some damage, although none too serious. A short time later, the same Catalina attacked U-93 without result. On 14 August, Marconi attacked the Yugoslav Sud (2,520 GRT, built 1901) with gunfire. She was a straggler from this convoy; a torpedo was fired but missed under. The vessel was beginning to settle slowly when U-126 (KL Ernst Bauer) arrived on the scene and, to Pollina’s irritation, opened fire on his victim, thereby claiming a share in the sinking.
On 18 August, convoy HG.71 left Gibraltar for the United Kingdom. Despite the patrol line established by the submarines Finzi, Marconi, and Cappellini, it escaped detection.
[1] Force H: The battleship Nelson, the battlecruiser Renown, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, and the destroyers Faulknor (D.8), Foresight, Fury, Forester, Foxhound, Cossack, Maori, Nestor, Encounter and Eridge.
[2] Cf. Storia di un baleniera by Claudio Rizza and Platon Alexiades in Rivista Marittima (December 2021 issue).
[3] Force H: the battleship Nelson, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, and the light cruiser Hermione, screened by the destroyers Nestor, Fury, Forester, Encounter, and Foresight.
[4] Returned to the Mediterranean.
[5] Returned to the Mediterranean.
[6] Returned to the Mediterranean.
[7] Returned to the Mediterranean.