June 1941
General Events
| 1 | June | British forces completed their evacuation of Crete. |
| 5-7 | June | Operation ROCKET (HMS Ark Royal and Furious with aircraft reinforcements to Malta). |
| 13-15 | June | Operation TRACER (HMS Ark Royal and Victorious with aircraft reinforcements to Malta). |
| 8 | June | British and Free French Forces attacked Syria. Vichy Forces put a fierce resistance (operation EXPORTER). |
| 15-18 | June | Operation BATTLEAXE (British counter-offensive in Libya) fails. |
| 22 | June | Operation BARBAROSSA: Hitler invaded Russia. |
| 26-28 | June | Operation RAILWAY I (HMS Ark Royal with aircraft reinforcements to Malta). |
| 28-30 | June | Operation RAILWAY II (HMS Ark Royal and Furious with aircraft reinforcements to Malta). |
Mediterranean
Italian submarine patrols in the Mediterranean during June 1941
| Nereide (…1 June) | Topazio (…1 June) | Squalo (…2 June) |
| Malachite (…5 June) | Sirena (…6 June) | Adua (…7 June) |
| Dessié (…8 June) | Turchese (…8 June)x | Smeraldo (…10 June) |
| Alagi (…14 June) | Zoea (2-4 June) Pt.1 | H.1 (3-4 June) |
| H.6 (3-4 June) | H.6 (4-5 June) | H.1 (4-5 June) |
| Bausan (4-5 June) | Speri (4-5 June) | Zoea (5-7 June) Pt.2 |
| Atropo (5-7 June) Pt.1 | H.6 (5-6 June) | Colonna (5-7 June) |
| Diaspro (5-12 June) | Bandiera (5-12 June) | Manara (5-12 June) |
| Da Procida (6-8 June) | Santarosa (6-8 June) | H.1 (6-8 June) |
| Atropo (8-10 June) Pt.2 | Axum (11-27 June) | Jantina (11-16 June) |
| H.4 (12-13 June) | H.6 (12-13 June) | Atropo (13-15 June) Pt.1 |
| Ondina (13-27 June) | Corallo (13-19 June) | Santarosa (13-19 June) |
| H.2 (13-14 June) | Jalea (14 June) | H.6 (14-16 June) |
| Da Procida (14-16 June) | H.4 (14-16 June) | Colonna (14-16 June) |
| C.B.3 (14-15 June) | H.2 (14-15 June) | Micca (14-15 June) Pt.2a |
| H.8 (15-16 June) | Atropo (16-19 June) Pt.2 | Micca (16-17 June) Pt.2b |
| Dagabur (16-19 June)x | H.8 (17-18 June) | Uarsciek (18 June…) |
| Salpa (18-27 June*) | Pisani (19-21 June) | Mameli (19-22 June) |
| Jantina (19-30 June) | Beilul (19-21 June) | H.8 (19-20 June) |
| Beilul (21-22 June) | H.8 (21-22 June) | Zoea (23-26 June) Pt.1 |
| Tembien (23 June…) | Onice (23-24 June) | Jalea (24 June) |
| Onice (24-25 June) | H.6 (24-28 June) | H.4 (24-28 June) |
| C.B.1 (25-27 June) | Atropo (25-27 June) Pt.1 | Onice (25-26 June) |
| C.B.4 (25-27 June) | Jalea (26 June) | Zoea (27-29 June) Pt.2 |
| Atropo (28 June…) Pt.2 | Ametista (29 June…) | Narvalo (30 June…) |
| Malachite (30 June…) |
Towards the end of the month, midget submarines, having completed a series of exercises, carried out their first anti-submarine patrols off La Spezia. The six units (C.B.1 to C.B.6) were later transferred to Salerno.
As the conquest of Crete drew to a close, several British troops were left at large as the heavy air attacks had prevented the Royal Navy from completing their evacuation. On 3 June after midnight, Adua (T.V. Luigi Riccardi), while patrolling close to Cape Litino (near Heraklion), intercepted the small motor barge A.2, with seventy-two British troops attempting to escape from Crete. She ordered the British officers on board and took eight of them; another drowned while swimming to the submarine.[1] Riccardi ordered the barge to Crete. When the submarine was gone, the barge reversed course and reached Mersa Matruh three days later.
On the evening of 4 June, near La Spezia, H.6 (S.T.V. Filiberto Sturlese) claimed an encounter with an enemy submarine and attacked her with a single torpedo but missed. There were no British submarines in the area at the time. The target was probably a fishing vessel.
The supply of aircraft to Malta continued with Force H, which again covered the aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal and Furious. They managed to fly off forty-three hurricane fighters on June 6 (Operation ROCKET). Informed of the sortie by their agents at Algeciras, Diaspro (T.V. Antonio Dotta) from Cagliari, Manara (T.V. Innocenzo Ragusa), and Bandiera (T.V. Carlo Forni) from Trapani were ordered to sea to take positions between Sardinia and Bone but Force H remained further west, out of reach.
On 13 June, the operation was repeated with almost the same success, this time with the aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal and Victorious sailing from Gibraltar to fly off forty-eight Hurricanes the following day (Operation TRACER). Four aircraft were lost, and one did not manage to take off, but the remaining forty-three reached Malta. Again, a submarine from Cagliari (Corallo, T.V. Gino Andreani) and one from Trapani (Santarosa, T.V. Pietro Abate) were sailed to intercept and were too late to make contact.
At dusk on 12 June, Alagi (T.V. Giulio Contreas) was returning home after a patrol off Ras Aamer and Tobruk (which was besieged by Axis forces) when she was attacked by a Sunderland [probably from 228 Squadron] some 240 miles ESE of Malta. The aircraft strafed the submarine, which replied with her Breda machine guns. Two bombs missed the submarine astern, and some fifteen rounds hit, causing superficial damage. Two gunners were wounded, one of them fatally. The aircraft was believed to have been hit and perhaps shot down. This was not confirmed by British records.
At noon on 22 June, near Capri, HMS Severn (Lt Cdr A.N.G. Campbell, RN) unsuccessfully attacked with two torpedoes a submarine of the Argonauta class. This was almost certainly Ametista (C.C. Virgilio Spigai) on passage from La Spezia to Augusta. The attack went unnoticed.
On the evening of 23 June, the Turkish steamer Refah (3,512 GRT, built 1901), carrying Turkish naval officers on their way to Port Said (and on to a submarine course in England), was torpedoed and sunk by Ondina (T.V. Corrado dal Pozzo). The sinking could have proven an embarrassment to the Italian government as Turkey was sought as an ally in the war against the Soviet Union. The submarine refrained from using her gun to avoid disclosing her presence. The loss was attributed to a mine, but an ULTRA decrypt revealed the true cause. Of the 200 passengers and crew, only twenty-eight survived. Captain Christopher Michael Cadogan of SOE, the sole British passenger, was among the victims.
The same evening, Axum (C.C. Emilio Gariazzo) attacked an unknown vessel near Ras El Melh (Libya)with two torpedoes. This was most likely the minesweeper HMS Derby, who reported being attacked by a submarine or E-boat in the same area on that date.
Entering the Scarpanto Strait on the morning of 26 June, Axum was reported by the coastal station of Menetes (Karpathos) and successively attacked by Italian and German aircraft. Three SM.82s, two SM.79s, and five Junker 87s bombed her. The submarine did not help her cause by opening fire on her attackers, confirming their view that she was an enemy. Axum was fortunate to escape with only minor damage, underlining the ineffectiveness of the Axis Air Forces’ anti-submarine measures. Shortly after, she was attacked by MAS-542, but she avoided the single torpedo that was fired at her. The error was compounded by the fact that the submarine HMS Tetrarch (Lt Cdr R.M.T. Peacock, RN) had attacked the sailing vessel Alleanza in the same area the previous day, and local authorities had not been informed of the arrival of the Italian submarine. This incident would be the object of an inquiry presided over by C.V. Aldo Cocchia. The former commander of Torelli and Chief of Staff at Betasom would later become Director of the Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare and author of books on Betasom submarines and Mediterranean convoys.
Force H, with the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal departed again from Gibraltar on 26 June. Twenty-two Hurricane fighters were flown off to Malta the next day (Operation RAILWAY I). One failed to arrive, and one crashed on landing, but twenty landed safely. Italian submarines did not appear to have been informed of the sortie, and none were sent to intercept. Ark Royal returned to Gibraltar on 28 June and sailed with Furious, feinting westward before doubling back and entering the Mediterranean. The following day, they launched thirty-five aircraft before a serious accident on Furious prevented the remaining six aircraft from taking off (Operation RAILWAY II). Once again, Maricosom was not informed of the sortie and did not take the usual precautions. Thus, Italian submarines failed to interfere with Force H in four sorties this month, mainly because they did not carry out long patrols in the Western Mediterranean. They only reacted to the sorties of British forces from Gibraltar. As long as aircraft were flown to Malta from the meridian of Algiers, they could not arrive in time to intercept the aircraft carriers. By failing to maintain a continuous patrol east of Gibraltar, the submarines proved to be largely ineffective.
In the early hours of 27 June, Jantina (C.C. Vincenzo Politi) claimed a hit on a destroyer twenty miles north of Ras el Kanayis; this was the sloop HMAS Parramatta escorting the Greek steamer Antiklia (1,014 GRT, built 1892). The torpedo had missed, and the sloop hunted the submarine, delivering ten depth charges which caused some damage.
Loss of Salpa
HMS Triumph (Lt Cdr W.J.W. Woods, RN) was proceeding for a patrol off Benghazi. At 0757 hours on 27 June, north of Sidi Barrani, she spotted an object which appeared to be a surfacing submarine. Because of the possible presence of HM submarine Cachalot, Woods made a careful approach on a parallel course. The British submarine had only one torpedo that could be angled. Unlike Italian submarines, British submarines rarely use angled torpedoes, preferring to point the submarine toward the target and fire torpedoes at intervals of a few seconds. The submarine was now identified as a Perla-class submarine, and Triumph surfaced at 0811 hours and opened fire at a range of 1,500 yards. After thirty-three rounds of her 4-inch (102mm) gun, claiming three to five hits, and many rounds with her Lewis guns, the enemy submarine was observed to have slowed down to a near stop. Her gun crew fired back about five rounds, which all missed over Triumph, and they appear to have been ordered back into the submarine. Woods observed his target slowly sinking from the stern, and, at 0818 hours, orders were given for two torpedoes to be fired from the bow tubes. The range was only 650 yards; the first torpedo appeared to have an erratic course, and the second hit squarely the target, which blew up, showering the British submarine with debris. The submarine was certainly Salpa (T.V. Renato Guagni); on 18 June, she had sailed from Messina for a patrol north of Cyrenaica. No survivors were seen. Five officers and forty-three ratings perished.
Two days later, Tembien (T.V. Guido Gozzi) came across HMAS Waterhen, who was crippled by a bomb attack and was struggling to stay afloat. Two torpedoes were fired without success, and HMS Defender, who was escorting the Australian vessel, opened fire on the submarine and forced her away. Waterhen later capsized.
Atlantic
Italian submarine patrols in the Atlantic during June 1941
| Marconi (…10 June) | Mocenigo (…13 June) | Argo (…14 June) |
| Emo (…18 June) | Veniero (…19 June) | Velella (…20 June) |
| Brin (…20 June) | Baracca (18 June…) | Da Vinci (18 June…) |
| Glauco (18-21?June)x | Dandolo (19-23 June)x | Glauco (23-27 June*) |
| Dandolo (26 June…) | Malaspina (27 June…) | Cappellini (28 June…) |
| Torelli (29 June…) |
The submarine Bagnolini (C.C. Giulio Chialamberto) was being prepared to sail for Gotenhafen, where she was to join Giuliani for training. The invasion of Russia forced the cancellation of this movement.
The Kriegsmarine had requested Italian submarines to withdraw from the Atlantic to reinforce the Mediterranean. The occupation of Greece had opened new possibilities in the Eastern Mediterranean. Initially, Admiral Dönitz was asked to send some of his U-boats to be based in Greece, but he resisted the idea, arguing that the real battle was in the Atlantic. He finally suggested that all Betasom boats might be sent instead. The move was a great disappointment for the Italians as they had become more adapted to Atlantic warfare, and it was felt that their larger submarines were unsuitable for the confined waters of the Mediterranean. Finally, a compromise was reached, and only the smaller submarines would be sent. On 26 June, Dandolo (T.V. Walter Auconi) was the first Betasom submarine to sail for home and reached Naples on 7 July. British Naval Intelligence was well aware of her transfer; however, no effective interference was attempted. She was followed in August by Brin, Emo, Velella, and Veniero and in September by Guglielmotti, Otaria, and Perla. Archimede was also to have sailed in September but would finally be diverted for an Atlantic patrol and return to Bordeaux. Ferraris sailed in October but was lost during the battle of Convoy HG.75.
On 1 June, Marconi (T.V. Mario Paolo Pollina) sank the Portuguese Exportador I (318 GRT, built 1917) with gunfire after failing to attack with a torpedo because the target was zigzagging. Her identity was only discovered as she sank (Pollina erroneously recorded her as Equador Primero). Two of her crew were killed, three were wounded, and twenty survivors were later rescued.
One of the problems facing Italian submarines as they were ordered to operate further south in the Atlantic was the increasing presence of neutral ships, mainly Spanish and Portuguese. Many ships were chased, expending precious fuel, only to be recognized as neutral. The attacks on the Gibraltar convoys proved difficult and yielded little rewards. In his memoirs, the German ace Teddy Suhren would later express his distaste for the operations against these convoys as they were well-defended, and the ships were usually relatively small (about 2,000 tons). Competing with other aces who were adding up to their scores with easy pickings against the lightly defended mid-Atlantic convoys was challenging.
In the early hours of 6 June, Veniero (T.V. Manlio Petroni) attacked a 7,000-ton vessel from convoy OG.64. She fired a single torpedo from a bow tube, followed by another from a stern tube and claimed to have sunk it. This was probably the British Ariosto (2,176 GRT, built 1940), who reported being attacked on the same day but came out unscathed.
Two hours later, 170 miles southwest of Cape St. Vincent, Marconi attacked convoy OG.63. A large tanker described as of the Daghestan class was claimed sunk and a smaller vessel damaged but none of these claims were confirmed. She then sank the British Baron Lovat (3,395 GRT, built 1926) with two torpedo hits; her crew of thirty-five survived. Two minutes later, Marconi sank the Swedish Taberg (1,442 GRT, built 1920). Sixteen men were killed, and only six survivors were picked up. This rounded up a most successful patrol for this submarine, with four ships sunk for 13,284 GRT. For Pollina, this was his first patrol in command, and he would be awarded the Medaglia d’Argento.
Shortly after, Velella (T.V. Pasquale Terra) attacked the same convoy with three torpedoes, claiming two hits on a 12,000-ton tanker and one on a 3,200-ton freighter. The post-war examination did not substantiate this. Her second target was the British Tintern Abbey (2,479 GRT, built 1939), who opened fire on the submarine while the escorting sloop HMS Wellington joined in, straddling the submarine from nearly 14,000 yards away. Velella broke off the action, suffering only slight damage in the process.
The following afternoon, Emo (C.C. Giuseppe Rosselli Lorenzini) was the third Italian submarine to attack this convoy. She fired two torpedoes and claimed two hits on two ships. Rosselli Lorenzini had intended to fire a salvo of four; however, his helmsman was inexperienced, and he was afraid the submarine would break the surface. One torpedo hit Tintern Abbey in No.4 hold but failed to detonate correctly and caused only a small leak. The submarine was depth-charged but went down to 105 metres and escaped with minor damage.
On 8 June, in a position about 270 miles west of Gibraltar, Velella was surprised on the surface by Catalina ‘C’ (AH538) of 202 Squadron, piloted by Flight Lieutenant R.W. Whittome. The aircraft strafed the submarine, which replied with her Breda guns. Two bombs were dropped, followed by two more. Terra took the opportunity to dive when the aircraft pulled away. His submarine was near-missed but was undamaged.
The next afternoon, it was the turn of Brin (C.C. Luigi Longanesi Cattani) to be attacked by Catalina ‘J’ (AH553), also of 202 Squadron piloted by Flight Lieutenant E.M. Pain. The aircraft released four bombs while the submarine replied with her machine guns before diving to safety. On 13 June, the submarine attacked an unidentified steamer from convoy SL.76. The two torpedoes were reported to have collided and sank prematurely! Another attack was directed at the British Ulla (1,575 GRT, built 1930), the fifth vessel in the seventh column, and although a hit was claimed, the torpedo missed under. Sheridan, the fifth vessel in the eighth column, spotted the submarine, but her gun misfired. Brin now fired her four stern torpedoes and was rewarded by at least two hits, which sent the Free French Djurdjura (3,460 GRT, built 1922) and the Greek Eirini Kyriakides (3,781 GRT, built 1922) to the bottom. Of the thirty-eight crew members of Djurdjura, only five would survive. The Greek vessel disappeared with her entire crew of thirty-one. This was the only instance of an Italian submarine attacking from inside a convoy; Longanesi Cattani had taken advantage of the low visibility (2,000 yards). The submarine had emptied all eight torpedo tubes, and she dived to reload, but this would take eight hours, and when she surfaced, the convoy was gone, and the attack could not be renewed.[2]
On 12 June, Argo (T.V. Alberto Crepas), returning to Bordeaux from a fruitless patrol off the Portuguese coast and Gibraltar, repulsed an attack by an enemy bomber. The aircraft has not been identified.
On 23 June, Da Vinci (C.C. Ferdinando Calda) was informed that the German Alstertor had been sunk (she was intercepted by the armed merchant cruiser HMS Marsdale), and she was instructed, along with Baracca (C.C. Enrico Bertarelli), to search for the survivors. An empty raft with ‘Norddeutscher Lloyd’ markings had been found earlier in the day, but further search combined with German aircraft proved fruitless.
The following day, Da Vinci observed an aircraft carrier with two destroyers from about 13-15,000 metres. These were probably HMS Furious, with the light cruiser Hermione escorted by six destroyers of the 8th Flotilla. The submarine dived but could not get within range.
Loss of Glauco
Glauco (C.C. Luigi Baroni) sailed from Bordeaux. Three days later, she was intercepted by the destroyer HMS Wishart west of Gibraltar and sunk on 27 June. The destroyer had left convoy HG.66 and was returning to Gibraltar when a submarine was sighted at four miles. The submarine also spotted the destroyer at 5,000 metres and submerged. At 0958 hours, Wishart carried out the first of eight depth charge attacks. At 1220 hours, Glauco surfaced as the destroyer opened fire with Lewis guns and, with her main armament, fired off two 4-inch (102mm) rounds. One officer and seven other ranks were killed or drowned; seven officers and forty-one ratings were picked up. Attempts to tow Glauco to Gibraltar failed, and she was finally sunk with gunfire after three torpedoes fired at her missed. Baracca was in the vicinity and assumed the attack was directed towards her.
Before midnight on 28 June, Da Vinci (C.C. Ferdinando Calda) fired eight torpedoes in six separate attacks at the British Auris (8,030 GRT, built 1935), who was transporting oil from Trinidad to Gibraltar. The tanker may have been hit three or four times before she sank. Of her crew, thirty-two were killed, and twenty-six survivors, including the Master, were rescued by the destroyer HMS Farndale. This was the first success for Da Vinci, who was to become the top scorer of the Italian Submarine Fleet, but the high expenditure of torpedoes came under criticism.
[1] Cf. Bomber Losses in the Middle East and Mediterranean, Vo.1 1939-1942 by David Gunby and Pelham Temple.
[2] For a good analysis of this attack, see the article Il venerdi tredici del comandante Longanesi Cattani by Umberto Burla in Rivista Marittima (Febbraio 2012). The author suggests that the steamer Hatatsu (which reported an accidental fire on 15 June and later sank) may have been the third victim of the submarine.