December 1942
| 1/2 | December | Force Q from Bone (three cruisers and two destroyers) intercepted and destroyed the Italian “H” convoy. |
| 2-5 | December | Convoy MW.14 (four merchant ships from Alexandria) arrived safely at Malta (operation PORTCULLIS). |
| 6-31 | December | Operation QUADRANGLE (four convoys to Malta). |
| 7 | December | British commandos attacked German shipping in Bordeaux (Operation FRANKTON). |
| 7/8 | December | Operation B.G.5 (human torpedo attack on Gibraltar shipping launched from Olterra). |
| 24 | December | Admiral Darlan was assassinated in Algiers. |
| 31 | December | Battle of the Barents Sea. A German squadron failed to destroy the JW.51B convoy. This brought the resignation of Grand-Admiral Raeder. Admiral Dönitz replaced him as Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy. |
Italian submarine patrols in the Mediterranean during December 1942
| Settimo (…1 December) | Narvalo (…2 December) Pt.2 | Nichelio (…4 December) |
| Dandolo (…5 December) | Asteria (…6 December) | Giada (…7 December) |
| Alagi (…10 December) | Onice (…14 December) | Otaria (1-3 December) Pt.1x |
| Settimo (1-4 December) Pt.2 | Diaspro (2-4 December) | Turchese (2-3 December) |
| Corallo (2-4 December) | Bronzo (2-11 December) | Wolframio (2-16 December) |
| Galatea (2-9 December) | Porfido (2-6 December*) | Ambra (4-15 December) |
| Settembrini (7-10 December) Pt.1 | Delfino (9-12 December) Pt.1 | Turchese (9-10 December)x |
| Settembrini (10-13 December) Pt.2 | Argento (10-23 December) | Corallo (10-13 December*) |
| Mocenigo (11-15 December) | Topazio (11-17 December) | Uarsciek (11-15 December*) |
| Nereide (12-28 December) | Menotti (12-16 December) Pt.1 | Delfino (12-15 December) Pt.2 |
| Diaspro (12-24 December) | Malachite (15-25 December) | Settimo (16-19 December) Pt.1 |
| Menotti (16-19 December) Pt.2 | Mocenigo (16-25 December) | Corridoni (18-22 December) Pt.1 |
| Settimo (19-23 December) Pt.2 | Settembrini (21-25 December) Pt.1 | Micca (21-24 December) Pt.1x |
| Giada (22-25 December) | Alagi (22-25 December) | Aradam (22 December…) |
| Otaria (23-27 December) Pt.1 | Corridoni (23-27 December) Pt.2 | Galatea (24 December…) |
| Micca (25-27 December) Pt.1 | Settembrini (25-28 December) Pt.2 | Ametista (26 December…) |
| Otaria (27-30 December) Pt.2 | Micca (28-31 December) Pt.2 | Jalea (28-31 December) |
| Bandiera (28-31 December0 | Giada (28 December…) | Dandolo (28 December…) |
| Argo (28 December…) | Alagi (28 December…) | Delfino (31 December…) Pt.1 |
During the night of 1/2 December, Force Q[1] from Bone intercepted an Italian convoy west of Galite Island and sank all four merchant ships and the destroyer Folgore. At dawn, as the British squadron was retiring, the destroyer HMS Quentin was sunk by German bombers. Noises were heard on the hydrophones of the submarine Alagi (T.V. Sergio Puccini) making her way to a patrol off Bon; a periscope observation revealed nothing. She was then re-directed to the area where HMS Quentin had been hit but again found nothing.
After midnight on 1 December, Giada (T.V. Gaspare Cavallina) was ten miles north of Cape Bougaroni when an aircraft dropped five flares. The submarine crash-dived and heard four bomb explosions and was later hunted by two vessels but managed to escape.
The following afternoon, Asteria (T.V. Dante Morrone), patrolling about twenty-seven miles north of Algiers, was also attacked by a Hudson of 500 Squadron and came out unscathed as she dived to 70-80 metres. The following morning, an Italian submarine was claimed sunk by Hudson ‘L’ from the same squadron. This was U-77 (OL Otto Hartmann), who escaped by diving to 100 metres. In the evening of 4 December, Asteria patrolling east of Bougie, attempted to attack a convoy but was rammed and depth charged by Corvette HMS Cadmus with convoy TE.7a. The submarine was damaged but escaped by diving to eighty metres.
Loss of Porfido
During the first hours of 6 December, Porfido (T.V. Giovanni Lorenzotti) was cruising some forty miles NNW of La Galite Island when she came across HMS Tigris (Lt Cdr G.R. Colvin, MID, RN). The British submarine was proceeding from Gibraltar for a patrol off Naples when, at 0143 hours, a submarine was seen approaching head-on. It was difficult to identify, and Colvin had been warned that he might encounter HMS P219 on return from patrol. The incoming submarine altered course, allowing the British commander to identify it as an enemy, and he ordered the firing of a salvo at 600 yards. Only two torpedoes were fired before the enemy submarine blew up, showering Tigris with debris, the larger weighing ten pounds. Only four survivors were picked up by the British submarine. Lorenzotti, four officers, and thirty-nine ratings were killed. The British submarine did not survive her victim for long. Less than three months later, she was lost with all hands off Naples, apparently sunk by the German submarine chaser UJ–2210.
During the night of 7/8 December, Wolframio (T.V. Giovanni Manunta) was asked to look for the crew of a German bomber that had been shot down, but the search was fruitless.
Operation B.G.5
During the same night, three maiali were launched from the tanker Olterra at Algeciras, their targets were the battleship HMS Nelson and the aircraft carriers HMS Furious and Formidable at anchor in Gibraltar. The attack failed; T.V. Licio Visintini and his companion Sg. Pal. Giovanni Magro were killed by depth charges. G.M. Girolamo Manisco and S.C. Pal. Dino Varini were captured before carrying out their mission. The last pair (S.T.V. Vittorio Cella and Sg. Pal. Salvatore Leone) could not complete the mission; Leone was believed to have drowned, and his body was never located, but Cella managed to return to Olterra.
At about this time, French Admiral Derrien accepted the disarming of French troops in Bizerte. There were several French submarines in this base, which were now taken over by the Regia Marina. These were:
Phoque (renamed FR.111)
Saphir (renamed FR.112)
Requin (renamed FR.113)
Espadon (renamed FR.114)
Dauphin (renamed FR.115)
Turquoise (renamed FR.116)
Circé (renamed FR.117)
Nautilus (not renamed)
In addition, the submarine Henri-Poincaré was also seized in Toulon. It has been suggested that she was renamed FR.118; however, there is no solid evidence to confirm it.
On the evening of 10 December, Bronzo (T.V. Cesare Buldrini) detected two cruisers of the Southampton class off Bone and fired a full salvo, claiming a hit, but it missed.
Operation N.A.1: The Attack on Algiers
During the night of 11/12 December, Ambra (T.V. Mario Arillo) brought a group of sixteen frogmen or Gamma men of the Decima Flottiglia MAS to attack Algiers (operation N.A.1). The following ships were damaged: British Empire Centaur (7,041 GRT, 1942), Harmattan (4,558 GRT, 1930) and Ocean Vanquisher (7,174 GRT, 1942), the first two had to be beached to prevent them from sinking. A fourth ship, the Norwegian Berto (1,493 GRT, 1918), was sunk. One frogman was captured by Empire Centaur, and the others reached the shore and were captured. The USS Thomas Stone was also reported as damaged in some publications; this is an error. This vessel was present but already beached in the anchorage after being crippled by a German torpedo bomber west of Algiers on 7 November and did not suffer further damage.
Loss of Corallo
On 13 December, about eleven miles north of Bougie, a submarine apparently fired three torpedoes at HMS Enchantress and HMCS Baddeck escorting convoy ET.5.P, narrowly missing the former. A few minutes later, it again fired two stern torpedoes without success at Enchantress, who rammed the submarine and dropped depth charges. The impact reduced the speed of the escort vessel from 15 to 8 knots but the submarine was believed to have been sunk. This was almost certainly Corallo (T.V. Guido Guidi); there were no survivors. Six officers and forty-five ratings perished.
The torpedoing of HMS Argonaut
During the first hours of 14 December, Topazio (T.V. Mario Patané), patrolling south of Malta, fired three torpedoes at British cruisers and destroyers, but none hit the mark
The most important success of the month belonged to Mocenigo (T.V. Alberto Longhi) when she encountered a squadron of four cruisers and destroyers at dawn on 14 December and attacked it with a full salvo. The light cruiser HMS Argonaut (5,450 tons) was hit in the bow and the stern; she was badly damaged but survived the attack. One officer and two ratings were killed. At the time, the attack was believed to have come from a torpedo bomber, and the submarine was not hunted. Argonaut was escorted to Algiers by HMS Eskimo and HMS Quality. Mocenigo’s luck held as she was missed by three torpedoes from HMS P219 (later renamed Seraph) on the evening of 24 December. One torpedo missed her by only 2-3 metres. She fired back with a stern torpedo but was unsuccessful. Two explosions were heard by the Italian submarine (also by Alagi in the vicinity); these were likely torpedoes hitting the sea bed. Mocenigo made a signal reporting this encounter which was intercepted and deciphered at the other end of the Mediterranean. C.O.I.S. Alexandria informed Captain S.8 in Algiers, correctly interpreting the position given by Mocenigo, and the warning was relayed to P219; this was too late.
Loss of Uarsciek
In the early hours of 15 December, about 40 miles south of Malta, Uarsciek (T.V. Gaetano Arezzo della Targia) discovered a cruiser with three destroyers, two of them were HMS Petard and HHMS Vassilissa Olga. At 0305 hours, the submarine, in turn, was seen by HMS Petard, but there was hesitation aboard the destroyer as it was possibly the submarine HMS P35, known to be in the area. Uarsciek did not answer Petard‘s challenge and dived, attempting to steer away. She then fired two stern torpedoes without success. There was no longer any doubt, and Petard began to drop depth charges. However, they were set at shallow depths and caused no damage. This attack was followed up by Vassilissa Olga with six more depth charges, and this time, the damage was considerable. After vainly attempting to escape by going deep—some survivors claimed that they reached a depth of 170 metres—Uarsciek was forced to the surface and immediately came under fire. Ten rounds of 4-inch (102mm) were fired by Petard, scoring four direct hits, and the submarine was abandoned. The British destroyer tried to come alongside but accidentally rammed her. Della Targia had been killed during the gun action. The Italian submarine was finally boarded and taken in tow but finally sank at 1133 hours the same day. A number of documents were recovered, including the SM45S Codice Operativo Sommergibili.
On the evening of 19 December, Corridoni (T.V. Armando Rosso) was on a supply mission to Tripoli when she was diverted to search for a German aircraft shot down east of Malta. Visibility was bad, and no survivors were found.
Galatea (T.V. Carlo Gladstone Cruciani) had just left Cagliari on passage to Augusta when, on 20 December, she was sighted by HMS P228 (later renamed Splendid, Lt I.L. Mackay McGeogh RN) who could only fire her last torpedo. The Italian submarine was missed.
Before midnight on 22 December, about fifty miles north of Cape Serrat, Argento (C.V. Renato Frascolla) discovered an unknown submarine that made garbled signals. Believing that Corallo was probably in the vicinity and being unaware that she had been lost a few days before, Frascolla refrained from attack. The submarine was HMS Saracen (Lt M.G.R. Lumby, DSC, RN), trying unsuccessfully to gain an attacking position.
Atlantic
Italian submarine patrols in the Atlantic during December 1942
| Da Vinci (…6 December) | Finzi (…22 December)x | Tazzoli (…) |
| Cagni (…) | Cappellini (26 December…) |
On 7 December, British Royal Marine commandos of the Special Boat Section attacked German shipping in Bordeaux on 7 December (Operation FRANKTON). They had paddled their way up the Gironde in folbots (kayaks) having been launched by the submarine HMS Tuna. Their objectives were the German blockade runners carrying rubber from the Far East. Italian submarines were not targeted. Four blockade runners and a Sperrbrecher were badly damaged. With the exception of two, the commandos were captured and shot following Hitler’s Kommandobefehl.
On the 20th of the month, Captain Romolo Polacchini, head of Betasom, was promoted to Rear-Admiral and was replaced by the controversial Captain Enzo Grossi.
In the first hours of 12 December, Tazzoli (C.C. Carlo Fecia di Cossato) came across the British Empire Hawk (5,032 GRT, built 1919). Despite three hits out of seven torpedoes fired, she failed to sink. Fecia di Cossato then used both his deck guns to finish her off. She was on passage from New York to Alexandria via Trinidad and Capetown. Thirty-one survivors were picked up by the British Cape Breton. The other twenty took thirteen days to reach the Brazilian coast; there were no victims. The same evening, Tazzoli dispatched the Dutch Ombilin (5,658 GRT, built 1916) with two stern torpedoes. The ship was on passage from Montreal to Capetown via Trinidad. The eighty-one crew members and passengers survived. The submarine captured her captain and engineer officer. Following this attack, she loaded the external torpedoes she carried, a practice borrowed from German submarines. On the evening of 17 December, she fired a torpedo at an unknown vessel. It behaved erratically and missed. Two more torpedoes were fired at the same vessel the next morning without achieving any result.
On the 21st, Finzi (T.V. Angelo Amendolia) was being led to Le Verdon by a Sperrbrecher when the latter detonated a mine and was damaged. The submarine reached her destination without further incident.
The same evening, Tazzoli sank the British Queen City (4,814 GRT, built 1924) with a combination of torpedoes and gunfire. There were no casualties; one crew member was taken prisoner, and the forty-four survivors reached the Brazilian coast. On the morning of 25 December, the American Dona Aurora (5,011 GRT, built 1939) was sent to the bottom with a torpedo hit. Seven men were killed, and the Italian submarine took three prisoners. Fifty-three survivors were picked up by the British Testbank and another nine by the USS Humboldt.
This was the last sinking of this successful submarine and her famous commander.[2] Following this patrol, C.C. Giuseppe Caito took over command of Tazzoli and carried out a transport mission to Singapore but disappeared in May 1943. Fecia di Cossato returned to Italy and would later take command of the torpedo boat Aliseo.
On 27 December, C.V. Enzo Grossi, former commander of Barbarigo, replaced Captain Polacchini (now promoted to Admiral) as head of Betasom. Grossi remained in command until April 1944, when he was recalled to Italy as Betasom was effectively dissolved. Briefly jailed after the war for his fidelity to the Duce and stripped of his Medaglia d’Oro, Grossi finally immigrated to Argentina in 1948.
Three days later, Cappellini (T.V. Marco Revedin) was on her way for a patrol near the Cape Verde Islands when, northwest of La Coruña, she detected an aircraft with her Metox and dived. This was the first instance of an Italian submarine using this apparatus.
[1] Force Q: the light cruisers HMS Aurora, Sirius, and Argonaut and the destroyers HMS Quentin and Quiberon.
The Italian “H” convoy consisted of the tanker Aventino, the transports Puccini, KT 1, and Aspromonte and was escorted by the destroyers Da Recco, Folgore, Camicia Nera, and the torpedo boats Clio and Procione.
[2] Carlo Fecia di Cossato, in command of Enrico Tazzoli, had sunk 86,535 tons of shipping, but the submarine under the command of C.C. Vittore Racanelli had also accounted for another 10,115 tons for a total of 96,650 tons. The top submarine was Leonardo da Vinci under C.C. Ferdinando Calda (8,030 tons), C.C. Luigi Longanesi Cattani (24,319 tons), and T.V. Gianfranco Gazzana Priaroggia (85,082 tons) for a total of with 117,431 tons. Longanesi Cattani had a total of 31,560 tons, having added to his score when, in command of Benedetto Brin, he successfully attacked a convoy in the Atlantic. C.C. Athos Fraternale of Morosini was one of the top Italian submariners with 32,436 tons. Morosini had a total of 37,763 tons, as T.V. Francesco D’Alessandro contributed another 5,327 tons. Luigi Torelli was also one of the top Italian submarines, with 42,871 tons split between C.F. Primo Longobardo (17,489 tons) and T.V. Antonio De Giacomo (25,382 tons). By contrast, the top Italian submariners of the Mediterranean were T.V. Renato Ferrini of Axum with his triple torpedoing during the PEDESTAL convoy battle and 21,554 tons of shipping sunk or damaged, and T.V. Sergio Puccini of Alagi with 17,173 tons.