August 1942
| 10-15 | August | -Operation PEDESTAL (fourteen merchant vessels from Gibraltar with strong escort for Malta). Despite heavy losses, five ships of the PEDESTAL convoy reached Malta, and the island was saved from starvation. -Operation BELLOWS (HMS Furious with Spitfires for Malta). -Operation ASCENDANT (two merchant ships in ballast from Malta for Gibraltar). |
| 11 | August | The aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, covering the PEDESTAL convoy, was sunk by U-73. |
| 16-18 | August | Operation BARITONE (HMS Furious with Spitfires for Malta). |
| 22 | August | Brazil declared war on the Axis. |
Italian submarine patrols in the Mediterranean during August 1942
| Narvalo (2 August…) Pt.2 | Toti (…3 August) Pt.1 | Sciesa (…3 August) Pt.2 |
| Micca (…3 August) Pt.2 | Platino (…4 August) | Acciaio (…8 August) |
| Axum (…9 August) | Brin (1-18 August) | Zoea (2-6 August) Pt.1 |
| Toti (3-6 August) Pt.2 | Dagabur (4-12 August*) | Giada (4-12 August) |
| Uarsciek (4-17 August) | Menotti (4-5 August) | Wolframio (5-19 August) |
| Corridoni (5-8 August) Pt.1 | Granito (5-15 August) | Velella (5-9 August) |
| Scirè (6-10 August*) | Zoea (6-7 August) Pt.2ax | Bragadino (7-11 August) Pt.1 |
| Zoea (7-9 August) Pt.2a | Pisani (7-8 August) | Bandiera (7-8 August 1942) |
| Pisani (8-9 August) | Menotti (8-9 August) | Narvalo (10-13 August) Pt.1 |
| Zoea (11-12 August) Pt.2b | Bronzo (11-17 August) | Asteria (11-17 August) |
| Ascianghi (11-17 August) | Alagi (11-17 August) | Dessié (11-14 August) |
| Bragadino (11-15 August) Pt.2 | Avorio (11-17 August) | Dandolo (11-14 August) |
| Emo (11-17 August) | Otaria (11-15 August) | Cobalto (11-12 August*) |
| Axum (11-15 August) | Corridoni (11-15 August) Pt.2 | Bajamonti (11-14 August) |
| H.1 (11-14 August) | H.4 (11-14 August) | H.6 (12-14 August) |
| Rismondo (12-14 August) | Atropo (12-15 August) Pt.1 | Giada (13-14 August) |
| Narvalo (13-17 August) Pt.2 | Atropo (15-18 August) Pt.2 | Porfido (17-19 August) |
| Ascianghi (17-19 August) | Avorio (18-19 August) | Platino (18-19 August) |
| Bajamonti (18 August) | Bronzo (18-19 August) | Asteria (18-19 August) |
| H.6 (18 August) | H.4 (18 August) | H.1 (18 August) |
| Alagi (18 August) | Granito (18-19 August) | Menotti (18-19 August) |
| Pisani (18-19 August) | Sciesa (19-22 August) Pt.1 | Squalo (19-22 August |
| Bandiera (20-21 August 1942) | Menotti (20-21 August) | Micca (21-24 August) Pt.1 |
| H.2 (21-22 August) | Sciesa (22-26 August) Pt.2 | Corridoni (22-26 August) Pt.1 |
| Menotti (23 August) | Pisani (23-25 August) | Bragadino (24-27 August) Pt.1 |
| Micca (24-28 August) Pt.2 | Narvalo (26-29 August) Pt.1 | Porfido (27 August…) |
| Bragadino (27-30 August) Pt.2 | Narvalo (29-31 August) Pt.2 | Corridoni (30 August…) Pt.2 |
On the afternoon of 4 August, the submarine Porfido (T.V. Giovanni Lorenzotti) sailed from Susak (Yugoslavia) for Messina after conducting exercises in this area. She was now equipped with four G7e torpedoes in her forward tubes. The following morning, she was attacked by the submarine HMS Traveller (Lt M.B. St. John, RN), who launched two torpedoes and fired twenty-six rounds with her 4-inch (102mm) gun from about 3,000 yards. The Italian submarine was undamaged and escaped by diving. The following day, in heavy seas east of the Cape of Otranto, she slightly collided with an Italian minesweeper which had closed to within voice range and was holed in her no.4 bunker, losing some oil. She conducted a short defensive patrol in the Straits of Otranto and was probably the submarine attacked once again by HMS Traveller on the morning of 7 August. This time, the British submarine attempted to fire three torpedoes; only one left the tube, and the other two misfired. The target was missed again. If this was indeed Porfido, she did not observe the attack and reached Messina without further incident.
During an air raid on Tobruk on 6 August, Zoea (T.V. Rino Erler), who had just unloaded stores, was near-missed by a bomb that fell only a few metres from her conning tower on the starboard side. A pontoon loaded with ammunition exploded after suffering a direct hit some 200 metres from the submarine. Her executive officer decided to take the submarine to sea as T.V. Erler was ashore. The submarine had suffered some damage, which was not immediately recognised. As Zoea manoeuvred around obstructions, she ran aground on a shoal and suffered more damage and was finally freed after a tug came to her assistance.
Operation S.L.1 and loss of Scirè
From the beginning of the month, British forces were on special alert. Through Ultra intercepts, it was known that Sciré was being sent to Leros. British Intelligence knew this submarine was connected to special operations, and unusual air reconnaissance activity over Haifa had been reported. What was not known was that this time, the attack would be carried by gamma men and not human torpedoes. Eight gamma men were selected: 2°Capo Infermiere Aurelio Morgan, 2°Capo I.E.F. Eugenio Del Ben, Sergente Nocchiere Delfo Caprili, Serg. Cann. P.M. Sauro Mengoni, Sc. Cann. P.S. Emilio Fioravanti, Fucchista O. Guido Fontebuoni, Fucchista O. Luca Ricciardi and Segnalatore Paolo Baroncelli. They were supervised by Capitano Comm. Egil Chersi, assisted by S.C. Palombaro Rodolfo Beuch.
On 10 August, the attempt by the Decima Flottiglia MAS to attack Haifa (operation S.L.1) failed when Scirè (C.C. Bruno Zelik) was detected semi-submerged off Tyre (north of Haifa) during the morning and attacked by Walrus (W2789) of 700 Squadron (Sub/Lt R.A.J. Lea) with two 250-lb depth charges set at 25 feet. In the afternoon, the anti-submarine trawler HMT Islay, patrolling off Haifa, attacked the submarine and sank her with depth charges. The crew of five officers, forty-four ratings and eleven passengers from the assault team perished. The bodies of two divers washed ashore a few days later, Captain Egil Chersi, who was to be the leader of the attack, and 2o Capo IEF [Petty Officer] Eugenio Del Ben. It was not clear if they escaped from the sunken submarine or attempted to carry out the attack and were killed by the depth charge explosions. HMS Croome and Tetcott later depth-charged the wreck for good measure. These two warships were flush from their victory over U-372 sunk on 4 August. About two weeks following the sinking of the submarine, her wreck was examined by British divers, and the three cylinders containing the maiali were found empty. This would lead to speculation that human torpedoes were successfully launched when the submarine was only carrying Gamma men. Why Scirè proceeded on the surface so close to Haifa during daylight hours remains a mystery.
The Battle of PEDESTAL convoy
Italian submarines were concentrated against the PEDESTAL convoy, which sailed from Gibraltar to bring relief to Malta. This was a large-scale effort to save the embattled island: fifteen merchant ships with no less than two battleships, four aircraft carriers, seven light cruisers, and thirty-two destroyers provided as close escort or covering force.[1] The submarines Alagi, Ascianghi, Asteria, Avorio, Axum, Brin, Bronzo, Dandolo, Dessié, Emo, Granito, Otaria, Uarsciek, and Wolframio were deployed in the western Mediterranean, and Bajamonti, Rismondo, H.1, H.4 and H.6 were deployed defensively west of Genoa.
Nine Beaufighters on their way to attack Sardinian airfields reported three submarines sailing from Cagliari that evening (five had sailed in late afternoon). The bombers were not deterred from their objective and refrained from attacking them. One of the submarines was Avorio, who recorded nine unidentified aircraft but did not bother to submerge.
Only three German submarines could join them; their contribution was short but significant. However, U-331 (KL Freiherr Hans-Diedrich von Tiesenhausen) was bombed by Hudson ‘A’ of 233 Squadron as she was approximately 90 miles north of Algiers and had to turn back. At 1315 hours on 11 August, U-73 (KL Helmut Rosenbaum) sank the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle with four torpedo hits. On the evening of 13 August, another attack from the same U-boat against British destroyers failed. The other U-boats, U-205 and U-331, failed to deliver attacks.
In conjunction with Operation PEDESTAL, two merchant ships in ballast sailed after dark on the 10th from Malta for Gibraltar escorted by the destroyers Matchless and Badsworth (Operation ASCENDANT, the two ships, Orari and Troilus, were the survivors of the HARPOON convoy). Before midnight on the 11th, they were sighted off Cape Bon by MAS-552 and MAS-553. The two motorboats were unsure if the ships were a French or an Italian convoy and desisted from attack. A few minutes later, it was the turn of the destroyer Malocello, on a minelaying mission in the Sicilian Channel, to come across them. They briefly exchanged gunfire, and the British ships escaped in the darkness. Though the alarm was given, the submarines could not intercept them, and the two blockade runners slipped through the net.
In the meantime, at dawn on 11 August, Uarsciek (T.V. Gaetano Arezzo Della Targia), patrolling about forty-five miles south of Ibiza, fired a salvo of three torpedoes at an aircraft carrier of the Saratoga class (later believed to have been HMS Furious). These were vessels of Force R, Fleet oil tankers Brown Ranger (3,417 GRT, built 1941) and Dingledale (8,145 GRT, built 1941) with HM tugs Jaunty and Salvonia screened by the corvettes Jonquil, Coltsfoot, Geranium and Spirea (also from Operation PEDESTAL). The attack was unsuccessful as two torpedoes breaking surface were observed from Coltsfoot and the vessels took avoiding action.
Loss of Dagabur
At 2254 hours on 11 August, Dagabur (T.V. Renato Pecori), patrolling about sixty-five miles northeast of Algiers, was detected by the radar from HMS Wolverine screening HMS Furious with HMS Keppel and HMS Malcolm. The aircraft carrier had just flown off thirty-nine Spitfires to Malta (Operation BELLOWS) and was returning to Gibraltar. Contact was obtained at 5,000 yards. The destroyer turned toward the submarine and rammed her at 26 knots. Dagabur sank with all hands; five officers and forty ratings perished.
On the morning of 12 August, Giada (T.V. Gaspare Cavallina) was attacked near Gibraltar by Hudson ‘R’ (V9092) from 233 Squadron (Sgt D.H. Jenkins) and straddled by four depth charges as she crash-dived. They exploded after the submarine had barely reached a depth of nine metres, causing some damage. The submarine went down to a depth of 140 metres, before Cavallina ordered her to surface. The gun crew managed to repulse further attacks with machine gun fire and lighter weapons. The same afternoon, she was again attacked by Hudson ‘C’ (T9459), piloted by Pilot Officer R.N.R. Getteman from the same squadron. This time, she was damaged; one of her gunners was killed and others were wounded. HMS Wolverine was sent to investigate but failed to intercept her. She took refuge in Valencia (Spain) but later rejoined her base.
The same day at noon, Granito (T.V. Leo Sposito) was patrolling north of Bizerte, when she reported being depth-charged by two unknown destroyers and escaped by going down to 96 metres.
Loss of Cobalto
On 12 August, Cobalto (T.V. Raffaele Amicarelli), patrolling north of Bizerta, had sighted the aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable, part of Force F, but was in turn detected by HMS Pathfinder’s Asdic at 1616 hours and attacked with two patterns of depth charges. She tried to escape by going down to a depth of 180 metres. Water was pouring into her stern section, so she surfaced with a heavy list and was sighted at 1649 hours by HMS Ithuriel. The submarine’s gun could not be manned, and the stern tubes were damaged. HMS Ithuriel opened fire and tried to ram her but only managed a glancing blow. A party of four British seamen attempted to get inside to recover documents, but the submarine sank and they barely escaped with their lives. One officer and one rating had been killed; four officers (including Amicarelli) and thirty-eight ratings were picked up.
Two hours later, Emo (T.V. Giuseppe Franco) near La Galite Island, fired a full salvo at the destroyer HMS Tartar, mistaken for a cruiser, but they were wide of the mark. HMS Tartar and Lookout hunted the submarine. Emo escaped by going down to 145 metres, and heard 120 depth charges. This attack came from the starboard side while Cobalto was being sunk on the port wing.
A bit further east, Avorio (T.V. Mario Priggione) came upon what was believed to be three American battleships and was chased away by two destroyers. The submarine reported being hunted, but she may have thought that the depth-charging of Dandolo was directed at her. Shortly after, it was the turn of Dandolo (T.V. Alberto Campanella) to observe a naval squadron consisting of two battleships, an aircraft carrier, a cruiser, and five destroyers steering 90 degrees. The submarine was forced down by a destroyer, which dropped depth charges, causing some damage to her periscope. She escaped by going down to 120 metres.
At 1938 hours, the first success may have been achieved by Dessié (T.V. Renato Scandola) firing four torpedoes at the PEDESTAL convoy from about 1,800 metres. She claimed two hits. But this was unconfirmed, although one may have hit Deucalion (hit earlier by German bombers) and another perhaps hit Brisbane Star (11,076 GRT, built 1937), who was reported torpedoed by aircraft at 2058 hours.
Axum’s triple success
But the best was still to come; a few minutes later, Axum (T.V. Renato Ferrini) fired a salvo of four torpedoes at the convoy. This was one of the most outstanding torpedo attacks of the war as three ships were hit: the light cruisers Nigeria (8,000 tons) and Cairo (4,290 tons) and the American tanker Ohio (9,264 GRT, built 1940). Cairo was sunk (twenty-three killed) and the other two badly damaged; Nigeria had fifty-four killed or missing, but Ohio nevertheless managed to crawl to Malta, where some of her precious cargo of fuel was salvaged.
Ten minutes later, it was Alagi’s turn (T.V. Sergio Puccini) to fire a full salvo, and she claimed two hits. The light cruiser Kenya was damaged by a hit in the bow and had to return to Gibraltar, escorted by four destroyers. It does not appear that a freighter was also hit. The destroyers HMS Ashanti, HMS Derwent, and HMS Penn hunted the submarine, but the fluid situation prevented them from persevering, and the submarine escaped.
Before midnight, Bronzo (T.V. Cesare Buldrini) concluded the most successful day for Italian submarines in the Mediterranean by hitting a large tanker after the first two torpedoes missed. This was probably Clan Ferguson (7,347 GRT, built 1938) reported on fire and crawling at 3 knots when she was sunk.
The next day at dusk, German JU-88 bombers, which had been relatively ineffective in attacking British submarines, had the misfortune of attacking the submarine Dessié. She was damaged; one rating was killed, the commanding officer, T.V. Renato Scandola, three officers, and three other ranks were wounded. She was forced to return to base.
At dawn on 14 August, Granito (T.V. Leo Sposito) fired all her six torpedoes at three enemy warships (one of them HMS Ashanti). None found a target.
After midnight on 16 August, HMS Furious sailed again from Gibraltar for Operation BARITONE.[2] Early in the morning of the 17th, thirty-two Spitfires were flown off to Malta without interference, and twenty-nine reached their destination.
On 18 August, Avorio was barely out of Cagliari for a patrol off the Tunisian coast when an unknown submarine was detected. Priggione, unsure if it was friend or foe, decided not to attack. This was almost certainly HMS Safari (Cdr. Ben Bryant, DSC), and she had not detected the Italian submarine. At daybreak, Avorio observed a tanker believed to be Perseo on passage from Tunisia to Cagliari. She made repeated visual signals, but the vessel escaped at full speed. Avorio finally closed at 4,500 metres and transmitted a warning in clear that she had sighted a submarine. The vessel did not respond and appeared to be arming her stern gun. At 0647 hours, Priggione gave up and returned to his original course. Three hours later, Perseo was torpedoed by HMS Safari. Granito (T.V. Alberto Gorini) had also sailed at dawn from Cagliari and observed the torpedo explosion from a distance.
The same evening, Safari spotted Bronzo and fired six torpedoes (armed with magnetic pistols) from 4.000 yards. The Italian submarine was returning from a brief patrol off the Tunisian coast. The torpedoes missed. One exploded prematurely; T.V. Buldrini believed he had heard a torpedo hit.
Italian submarine patrols in the Black Sea during August 1942
| C.B.6 (31 August…) | C.B.1 (31 August…) |
Midget submarines sailed from Costanza to Yalta but had to turn back because of heavy weather. Toward the end of the month, they were moved to Sulina.
Italian submarine patrols in the Atlantic during August 1942
| Morosini (…13?August*) | Finzi (…17 August) | Giuliani (…) |
| Tazzoli (…) | Cappellini (21 August…) | Barbarigo (29 August…) |
After midnight on 2 August, Tazzoli (C.C. Carlo Fecia di Cossato) disposed of the Greek Kastor[3] (5,497 GRT, built 1921) with two torpedo hits. She carried 8,000 tons of general cargo from Bombay to St. John (New Brunswick) via Capetown and Trinidad. One was killed, and three were missing; the Master and thirty crew members were picked up by USS Surprise (PG-63) and landed at Port of Spain (Trinidad) on 3 August. An aircraft that had witnessed the scene reported the ship as the Dutch Castor. The confusion of her identity persisted as Fecia di Cossato was told by the survivors that they were Dutch. All this appears to have been a misunderstanding. Launching an attack the following night, Tazzoli missed a steamer with four torpedoes fired from the bow, as two had erratic courses. On the morning of 6 August, she finished off the derelict Norwegian Havsten (6,161 GRT, built 1930), hit by a torpedo from U-160 on 3 August and now abandoned, but not before she wasted five torpedoes.
In the mid-Atlantic, Giuliani (C.C. Giovanni Bruno) sank the British Medon (5,915 GRT, built 1923) on 10 August. The crew of sixty-four took to five lifeboats. Five different vessels picked them up: the Norwegian Tamerlane, the Panamian Rosemont, the Portuguese Luso, and the British Reedpool and Millie Masher. Three days later, the submarine sent to the bottom the American steamer California (5,376 GRT, built 1920). There were thirty-eight survivors equally divided into two lifeboats; one was rescued by the British City of Capetown and the other by the Norwegian Talisman, but one man died of exposure. Finally, she sank the British Sylvia de Larrinaga (5,218 GRT, built 1925) on the 14th of the month. Twenty-six men survived, and forty-three were missing.
Loss of Morosini
Morosini (T.V. Francesco D’Alessandro) did not return from a patrol in the Western Hemisphere. At 0100 hours on 8 August, she sent a signal announcing her arrival at Le Verdon at dawn on the 10th but failed to answer messages on the 9th and the 10th.
She was sunk on or after 8 August for reasons unknown. Eight officers and fifty ratings were lost. There was no indication that she was sunk by aircraft. Air attacks from this period had been attributed to other submarines. She may have been lost through accident or may have run into a minefield laid by the Free French submarine Rubis on 7 July 1942.
On 21 August, the submarine Cappellini, docked in Bordeaux, was near-missed by bombs during an air raid but escaped damage.
[1] PEDESTAL convoy (W.S.21): Almeria Lykes (US), Brisbane Star, Clan Ferguson, Deucalion, Dorset, Empire Hope, Fort Chalmers, Glenhorchy, Melbourne Star, Ohio (US), Rochester Castle, Santa Elisa (US), Wairangi and Waimarama screened by Force X.
Force X: light cruisers Nigeria (CS.10), Manchester, Kenya, Cairo, destroyers Ashanti (D.6), Somali, Intrepid, Icarus, Foresight, Fury, Derwent, Bramham, Bicester, Ledbury, Pathfinder and Penn.
Force Z (covering force): aircraft carriers Victorious (R.A.A.), Indomitable, Eagle, Furious, battleships Nelson (flagship Vice-Admiral E.N. Syfret), Rodney, light cruisers Charybdis, Phoebe, Sirius, and destroyers Laforey (D.19), Eskimo, Tartar, Quentin, Lightning, Lookout, Antelope, Ithuriel, Vansittart, Wilton, Wishart, Wrestler, Zetland.
Joined at 1400/11: Keppel (s.o.) Venomous Wolverine and Vidette, while Malcolm, and Amazon were detached to assist HMS Eagle (torpedoed at 1315/11).
The three forces combined were known as Force F.
In addition, the aircraft carrier Furious, escorted by Lookout and Lightning, was detached at 1215/11 to fly off aircraft reinforcement for Malta (Operation BELLOWS).
Force R: oilers Brown Ranger and Dingledale, tugs Jaunty and Salvonia, corvettes Jonquil (s.o.), Geranium, Spirae, Coltsfoot, and destroyer Westcott (joined later).
[2] Operation BARITONE: aircraft carrier Furious, light cruiser Charybdis and twelve destroyers (Laforey, Lookout, Lightning, Antelope, Wishart, Derwent, Keppel, Malcolm, Bicester, Eskimo, Somali and Venomous).
[3] Mario Rossetto wrote a book on this sinking (L’affondamento della nave fantasma, Mursia, Milan, 2010) but does not seem to have had access to all the files concerned.