January 1941

General Events

6	January	Bardia was occupied by British forces.
6-10	January	EXCESS convoy from Gibraltar to Malta.
10	January	Near Malta, the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious was under heavy air attack from German and Italian bombers and seriously damaged.
12	January	The British Army captured Tobruk and held it until June 1942.
19	January	British forces attacked Italian Eritrea.
22	January	Tobruk surrenders to British forces.

Mediterranean

Italian submarine patrols in the Mediterranean during January 1941

Settembrini (…1 January)	Jalea (…5 January)	Turchese (…10 January)
Ambra (…11 January)	Tembien (1-12 January)	Jantina (1-7 January)
Zoea (3-7 January) Pt.2	Delfino (3-11 January)	Corridoni (6-17 January)
H.8 (6-7 January)	Bandiera (7-13 January)	Santarosa (7-13 January)
Axum (7-14 January)	Aradam (7-12 January)	Beilul (7-13 January)
Galatea (8-17 January)	Settimo (9-13 January)	Speri (11-22 January)
Menotti (11-20 January)	Narvalo (13-21 January)	Neghelli (14-19? January*)
Serpente (14-28 January)	Settimo (19-30 January)	Dessié (19 January…)
Millelire (20-30 January)	Ondina (20-21 January)	Corallo (21 January)
Jalea (21-31 January)	Diaspro (21-22 January)	Uarsciek (23-24 January)
Ondina (23-27 January)	Sirena (23-24 January)	Sirena (25-30 January)
Uarsciek (25-26 January)	Salpa (26-27 January)	Malachite (26-27 January)
Anfitrite (27 January…)	Topazio (28-29 January)	Turchese (30 January…)
Colonna (30 January…)	Uarsciek (31 January…)	Salpa (31 January…)

The British Army continued its offensive in the Western Desert.

Besieged on three sides, Bardia was bombarded on 3 January by the battleships Warspite, Barham and Valiant, the monitor Terror and other warships (Operation M.C.5). Despite the heavy shelling, the coastal battery on the south cliff (two twin 120 mm guns) was not silenced and kept an accurate firing up to 18,000 metres when the naval force retired, causing some damage by near-misses to Warspite and Barham. The submarine Dagabur (T.V. Eugenio Gatti) had sailed from Augusta to patrol off Bardia but arrived in the area only the following night when the Mediterranean Fleet had left the scene. After midnight on 8 January 1941, Tembien (T.V. Guido Gozzi) had relieved Dagabur off Bardia, which had now been evacuated by Italian Forces. She attacked an unidentified large transport with three pairs of torpedoes but failed to secure a hit. This was one of the rare occasions when an Italian submarine emptied her tubes. Gozzi would be admonished by Admiral Falangola for having failed to use his gun.

The following night, Beilul (C.C. Paolo Vagliasindi), patrolling in the Kaso Straits, attacked one of two merchant ships in a convoy of five escorted by three destroyers. This was the A.S.10 convoy which sailed from Piraeus for Alexandria and Port Said. Four torpedoes were fired, and two ships claimed sunk. The result was not confirmed, despite a German Intelligence report by a V-Mann (Vertrauensmann or man of confidence/spy) that a steamer had been sunk with the loss of 312 lives and another damaged. Vagliasindi would return to base after this attack, deploring that he had no reserve torpedoes for his bow tubes.

On 6 January, the EXCESS convoy had sailed from Gibraltar. It consisted of the transports Clan MacDonald, Clan Cumming, Empire Song for Piraeus, and Essex for Malta. escorted by the light cruiser Bonaventure and four destroyers of the 13th Flotilla. The following morning Force H¹ followed in their wake to act as a covering force and would be reinforced on the 9th by the light cruisers Gloucester and Southampton and the destroyer Ilex out from Malta. The submarines Triumph and Upholder also took up stations to cover the passage of the convoy.

Admiral Cunningham sailed from Alexandria on the 7th with the Mediterranean Fleet². His task was to cover the passage of convoys MW.5½ from Alexandria to Malta, ME.5½from Malta to Alexandria, ME.6 from Malta to Alexandria and Port Said, and the EXCESS convoy from Malta to Piraeus (operation MC.4).

At dawn on 9 January, Aradam (C.C. Giuseppe Bianchini) was cruising north of Tunis when she reported being bombed and then hunted by three vessels. She escaped to a depth of 115 metres. The attack was unconfirmed by British sources.

The next day, it was Santorre Santarosa’s (T.V. Pietro Abate) turn to claim of having been depth charged by unknown vessels west of Malta and escaping down to 100 metres. This was probably HMS Ilex which declared attacking a submarine at approximately this time in the same area. During the night of 10/11 January, still in the same area, Santorre Santarosa came within sight of an unknown submarine but refrained from attack as it could have been Bandiera who was in the adjacent area, Santarosa was under strict orders not to attack submarines. In fact, this was HMS Triumph who had similar misgivings and mistook the Italian submarine for HMS Upholder.

That same night, while patrolling 100 miles east of Malta, Settimo (C.C. Mario Spano) observed two cruisers of the Liverpool class and fired three torpedoes. Although she claimed two hits, this was not verified, and the targets may have been just destroyers as they turned back and depth-charged their attacker.

The main threat to the EXCESS convoy would not come from Italian submarines but from Fliegerkorps X. This Luftwaffe Group, specializing in anti-shipping operations, had recently arrived in Sicily and challenged the Royal Navy in the Central Mediterranean. On 10 January, German dive-bombers pummelled the aircraft carrier Illustrious with six bomb hits, and only her armoured deck saved her from sinking. She managed to limp into Malta harbour where her ordeal was not over, but she reached Alexandria later in the month. On the 11th it was the turn of the light cruiser Southampton to be sunk by air attack, while her sister ship Gloucester was damaged.

Loss of Neghelli

At 1430 hours on 18 January, a Greek coast watcher reported a submarine near Cape Sunion. It was possibly Neghelli (C.C. Carlo Ferracuti), but the mystery would never be solved as she did not return from patrol. At about noon on 19 January, the British Clan Cumming (7,264 GRT, built 1938) was hit forward by a torpedo. She was proceeding with convoy AS.12 (three freighters) from Piraeus to Port Said, escorted by the anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Calcutta and the destroyers HMS Greyhound, Janus, and Mohawk. The culprit was almost certainly Neghelli, and she would be heard no more. Greyhound carried out three depth charge attacks but could not ascertain results. It is quite possible that Neghelli was sunk by them, or she may have been mined later. Five officers and forty-one ratings were lost.

On the last day of the month, the British tanker Desmoulea was torpedoed off the north coast of Crete. Initially, it was believed that the culprit was a submarine. It was the Leros-based torpedo boat Lupo that had taken advantage of low visibility to raid Greek waters. The tanker remained afloat and was beached in Suda Bay.

Atlantic

Italian submarine patrols in the Atlantic during January 1941

Emo (…2 January)	Veniero (…2 January)	Bagnolini (…5 January)
Nani (…7? January*)	Tazzoli (…14 January)	Glauco (…16 January)
Cappellini (…20 January)	Da Vinci (…20 January)	Malaspina (5 January…)
Torelli (9 January…)	Marcello (11-23 January)	Marconi (16 January…)
Baracca (18 January…)	Morosini (22 January…)	Cappellini (23-30 January)
Otaria (24 January…)	Dandolo (24 January…)

Loss of Nani

Nani (C.C. Gioacchino Polizzi) had sailed on 20 December for an Atlantic patrol between 54° and 55° N. Her departure was delayed because of an intensive anti-submarine search (undoubtedly due to the sinking of Tarantini). There was also an intense air search after the German heavy cruiser Hipper was engaged by HMS Berwick west of Gibraltar on Christmas day. Some sources have claimed that Nani was sunk by the corvette HMS Anemone (who left convoy OB.269 to join convoy HX.99) on 7 January. But the position of the action was much further north than her patrol area, so this was unlikely. Her loss remains a mystery. Seven officers and forty-nine ratings perished. An accidental loss cannot be ruled out. We know that some Italian submarines suffered damage when they hleft their hatch open in bad weather, as this was needed to run their diesel engines. Could this have caused the loss of the submarine?

Twenty-seven Italian submarines had entered the Atlantic to join Betasom. Nani was the third to have been lost. Four new submarines of the Ammiraglio class were to supplement the force but only one would eventually do so (Ammiraglio Cagni) as three of them would be diverted for transport duties.

At dusk on 1 January, Bagnolini (C.C. Franco Tosoni Pittoni) was patrolling west of Ireland when an aircraft was sighted and flew over but refrained from attack. This was possibly a Beaufort of 217 Squadron. The submarine submerged after firing machine gun rounds to keep it at bay. The bomber pilot reported that the submarine had made the correct recognition signal, which had prevented him from carrying out the attack. About two hours later, the submarine was detected by a vessel believed to be an auxiliary cruiser using ‘Hasting’ [sic, Asdic]. Bagnolini went down to eighty-five metres as four depth charges exploded in close proximity, causing damage. She avoided destruction by going down to 130 metres. She finally emerged close to two enemy units and fired two torpedoes at one of them. This was the armed trawler Northern Pride (part of convoy SL.59) which was missed despite a claim to have been hit. The trawler was later joined in the hunt by the old destroyers Scimitar and Skate. Bagnolini managed to escape but was forced to abandon her patrol.

At dusk on 3 January, about 300 miles from the Gironde, Bagnolini was attacked there by Beaufort ‘G’ of 217 Squadron (RAF) piloted by Flight Lieutenant A.V. Hunter. The aircraft dropped three bombs; they fell wide. The submarine put up heavy anti-aircraft fire and even used her deck gun to keep the enemy at bay. She asked for assistance, but the promised German escort failed to materialise. Taking refuge in the bay of St. Jean de Luz during the afternoon of 5 January, she would finally reach Le Verdon the following day. Repairs would prevent her from sailing again until June.

On the 5th, Cappellini (C.C. Salvatore Todaro) attacked with gunfire the British Shakespear³  (5,029 GRT, built 1926), a straggler from convoy OB.262 carrying 8,000 tons of coal from Milford Haven for Alexandria. She proved to be a tough nut to crack as she replied with a gun and killed a gunner’s mate from the submarine gun crew before being sent to the bottom. But Todaro, showing the great compassion that had earned him the sobriquet of ‘Knight of the Atlantic,’ rescued twenty-two survivors and landed them on the island of Sale (Cape Verde); eighteen perished.

On 9 January, Glauco (C.C. Luigi Baroni) had a similar experience when she attacked the ocean boarding vessel HMS Cavina (6,908 GRT, 1924). After a torpedo was fired without success, gunfire was opened, scoring one hit; she replied with light guns and mortally wounded the submarine gunnery officer S.T.V. Carlo Marenco di Moriondo. He kept giving orders to his gun crew until his strength failed him, and he fell overboard. He was awarded the Medaglia d’Oro. The submarine was forced to break off the attack.

But Cappellini had a worse experience when she attacked the British steamer Eumaeus (7,472 GRT, built 1921) on 14 January. After a two-hour gun battle, the submarine had one officer killed and nine ratings wounded. The officer was Tenente G.N. (DM) Danilo Stiepovich, who was at a machine-gun station substituting for a wounded rating. A shell fragment took off his leg; he remained at his post, returning fire until he expired. He was posthumously awarded the Medaglia d’Oro al Valore Militare. But the steamer was sunk with twenty-three killed. The survivors got some assistance from a Walrus (P.5667) from 710 Squadron piloted by Lt V.B.G. Cheesman, RM, who had bravely alighted near them. Sixty-three were later picked up by HMS Bengali and HMS Spaniard. The destroyers HMS Isis and Encounter and the armed trawler Pict recovered the remaining survivors. In all, 305 men were picked up. Reviewing this incident, Dönitz sardonically commented that Todaro should have been in command of a gunboat! It must be noted that the greatest U-boat ace, Lothar von Arnauld de la Perrière, sank most of his victims by gunfire. This was during the Great War, Air Power had now made the use of this weapon increasingly risky.

Barely an hour later, Cappellini was attacked with three 100-lb anti-submarine bombs by another Walrus from 710 Squadron (piloted by P.O. Leonard Staffell John Windrew with observer Sub Lt Morgan Joseph Thomas, RN) launched from the seaplane tender HMS Albatross. Although she escaped by diving, she was seriously damaged and was forced to take refuge at Luz (Gran Canaria). She landed a wounded rating and took seventy-three tons of fuel from the German supply ship Charlotte Schliemann. On her return trip to Bordeaux, Cappellini would be the object of an interception attempt by the submarine Tribune which was unsuccessful.

On 14 January, Da Vinci (C.C. Ferdinando Calda) received a signal that a convoy was 100 miles away. The chase was hampered by the bad weather, which slowed her down. She finally gave up as she was short of fuel. Torelli (C.F. Primo Longobardo) vectored in on the same convoy, saw nothing, and by next morning gave up the attempt. During the night of 15/16 January, her luck changed; in the span of three hours, she successively sank the Greek Nemea (5,198 GRT, built 1919), the Norwegian Brask (4,079 GRT, built 1911), and the Greek Nicolaos Filinis (3,111 GRT, built 1904), expending five torpedoes in the process. The last vessel had to be finished off with gunfire; she had three killed, and twenty-six survivors would be picked up. The three ships were part of convoy OB.272, which had dispersed. Nemea had suffered seventeen killed, and fourteen survivors had abandoned ship. Brask had twelve killed; her twenty survivors boarded Nemea, which was still afloat. They were joined by her Greek survivors, who re-boarded her. Together, they attempted to get her underway. She was finally abandoned on the 17th, and the survivors of both ships were rescued by the destroyer HMS Highlander.

Around the same time, Da Vinci fired a single torpedo at an unidentified destroyer. It missed. In return, the submarine was depth-charged but escaped by diving to fifty metres.

Malaspina (C.F. Mario Leoni) was on her way to a patrol off the west coast of Scotland when she was diverted by a report of a convoy 280 miles away. The search proved fruitless. She resumed her patrol on 16 January.

The next day, Marcello (C.C. Alberto Carlo Teppati) came in sight of a convoy but was put down by the escort and lost contact. She could only make an enemy report.

In the early hours of 20 January, in very poor visibility, Torelli was hunted by two destroyers and dived to 120 metres. These were HMS Legion and Somali (D.6). Legion, escorting HMS Salopian, had been detached to search for the British freighter Zealandig (10,578 GRT, built 1928), who had been sunk on 16 January by U-106. A couple of hours later, she fired two stern shots at one of her tormentors and a third at the second one, but without success.

The same afternoon, in bad weather, Marcello encountered the British Thelma (1,593 GRT, built 1935) of convoy HG.50. The vessel escaped after returning fire; the submarine had four ratings swept overboard. She broke off the pursuit to pick them up. Three were recovered; the fourth drowned. Later the B-Dienst (German radio intercept service) would erroneously assume that her target was the Greek Eleni.

On the evening of 28 January, Torelli rounded up a most successful patrol by sinking the British Urla (5,198 GRT, built 1924) from convoy HX.102, with a single torpedo at close range. Her forty-two survivors were all rescued. Earlier in the day, Malaspina had sighted an armed merchant cruiser but could not close to less than 5,000 metres.

On the last day of the month, Dandolo sank the British Pizarro (1,367 GRT, built 1923), a straggler from convoy OG.51. Her first pair of torpedoes missed the target after breaking surface, and the next pair fired from the stern tubes scored a double hit. Of the twenty-nine crew members, only six men were found by the British steamer MacBrae.

Red Sea and Indian Ocean

Italian submarine patrols in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean during January 1941

Archimede (12-16 January)

Ferraris (20-27 January)

On the afternoon of 5 January, Blenheim bombers of 14 Squadron raided Massawa. The submarines Perla and Guglielmotti were slightly damaged by near misses.

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1. Force H: battle cruiser Renown (flagship of Vice-Admiral Somerville), battleship Malaya, aircraft carrier Ark Royal, light cruiser Sheffield and destroyers Faulknor (D.8), Forester, Fury, Foxhound, Firedrake, Fortune and Jaguar.
   Force F (close cover to the EXCESS convoy): light cruiser Bonaventure and destroyers Duncan (D.13), Hasty, Hero, and Hereward. ↩︎
2. Force A: battleships Warspite (flagship Admiral Cunningham) and Valiant, aircraft carrier Illustrious and destroyers Jervis, Nubian, Mohawk, Dainty, Greyhound, Gallant, and Griffin.
   Force B: light cruisers Gloucester (flagship Rear-Admiral De Renouf) and Southampton and destroyers Ilex and Janus from Alexandria to Malta to reinforce the EXCESS convoy.
   Force C: transport Brambleleaf from Alexandria to Suda Bay escorted by the corvettes Peony, Salvia, and Hyacinth.
   Force D: light cruisers Orion (flagship Vice-Admiral Pridham-Wippell, Light Forces), Ajax, Perth, and heavy cruiser York [joined by the light cruiser Sydney and destroyer Stuart from Malta].
   In addition, the light cruiser Calcutta and the destroyers Diamond and Defender would provide anti-aircraft protection successively to each convoy between Malta and Crete. ↩︎
3. This is the correct spelling for the name of this ship and not Shakespeare. ↩︎