June 1943
| 11-13 | June | The islands of Pantelleria, Lampedusa, and Linosa surrendered to Allied Forces. |
Italian submarine patrols in the Mediterranean during June 1943
| Gorgo (…2 June*) | Nichelio (…2 June) | Platino (…2 June) |
| Atropo (…4 June) Pt.2 | Brin (…13 June) | Alagi (…13 June) |
| Beilul (…15 June) | Ambra (2-7 June) | H.2 (2-3 June) |
| Atropo (6-10 June) Pt.1 | H.2 (7-8 June) | Sirena (7-12 June) |
| H.2 (9 June) | Galatea (10-28 June) | Atropo (11-16 June) Pt.2 |
| Acciaio (12-22 June) | Argo (12-21 June) | H.2 (14-15 June) |
| Rismondo (15 June) | Platino (17-22 June) | Argento (17 June…) |
| Bronzo (18 June…) | Velella (18-21 June) | Rismondo (20-21 June) |
| Zoea (21-22 June) | H.2 (24-25 June) | Beilul (25 June…) |
| Giada (30 June…) | Turchese (30 June…) |
As the Regia Marina braced itself for the expected assault on Italian soil, submarine activity was curtailed as submarines were being refitted and prepared to defend the homeland.
Loss of H.8
During an air raid on La Spezia, the submarine H.8 (T.V. Augusto Marraccini) was near-missed by a bomb and sank at about 1400 hours on 5 June. The Germans later raised her. She was used as a battery charging station at Genoa but would never be operational again.
On 6 June, Atropo (T.V. Emerico Siriani) sailed from Augusta for a supply mission to Lampedusa. She was the last submarine from X Grupsom to use this base. After completing her mission, she was directed to Taranto to undergo a short refit. Her Grupsom was now dissolved, meaning that no Italian submarines would be available in the immediate vicinity of the Allied landings, which would occur the following month. Relentless Allied bombing had made Sicilian bases untenable.
In the afternoon of 10 June, Galatea (T.V. Carlo Gladstone Cruciani) sailed from Leros for a patrol south of Crete. At 1950 hours, she was still escorted by a MAS boat and was proceeding near Stampalia when she was shaken by an explosion followed in quick succession by two more. No enemy submarine or torpedo track had been observed, but she had nearly fallen victim to HMS Taurus (Lt Cdr M.R.G. Wingfield, DSO, RN), who had fired six torpedoes from 4,000 yards.
During the evening of 10 June, patrolling north-east of Bougie, Brin (T.V. Luigi Andreotti) sighted an unknown vessel (probably from convoy GTX.2 proceeding from Gibraltar to Oran and Alexandria), which she attacked with a stern salvo and when it missed, she fired three torpedoes from her forward tubes (a fourth misfired) with no better luck. Yet, HMS Wishart reported that a ship was hit and sank before the tug Empire Gnome could take her in tow. The corvette HMS Convolvulus dropped depth charges on the submarine but without success.
Alagi (T.V. Sergio Puccini) was patrolling seven miles northwest of Cap de Fer when two destroyers were sighted. She closed to 500 metres before was sighted and forced to dive down to 150 metres. The ensuing depth-charging inflicted slight damage, but she was then recalled from her patrol.
In the afternoon of 18 June, Velella (T.V. Mario Patanè), which had sailed from La Maddalena for a patrol west of Sardinia, was strafed near the island of Asinara by an aircraft initially mistaken for Italian and later believed to be a Blenheim IV bomber. This was a B.26 Marauder (Wing Cdr W.S.G. Maydwell) from the North West African Coastal Air Force. She managed to repeal the attack with her machine guns and suffered only minor damages in the process.
Off Bougie on the morning of 19 June, Argo (T.V. Arcangelo Ghiliberti) fired four torpedoes at an enemy convoy. Despite hearing three hits, the results were not confirmed.
In the early hours of 20 June, Argento (T.V. Leo Masina) was patrolling near Les Sorelles Reef (southwest of La Galite Island) when an aircraft was sighted. The submarine dived quickly. Flight Officer F. Handsford, piloting Hudson ‘W’ (FK706) of 608 Squadron, who had detected the submarine with his radar, was unable to attack in time. About two hours later, near Cap de Fer (Ras El Hadid, Algeria), Platino (T.V. Vittorio Patrelli Campagnano) had a similar experience when she was detected by Hudson ‘J’ (FK711), piloted by Flight Sergeant B. Linnell from the same squadron.
Italian submarine patrols in the Black Sea during June 1943
| C.B.6 (27-29 June) | C.B.3 (27-29 June) |
Midget submarines were back in operation but had nothing to report.
Atlantic and Indian Ocean
Italian submarine patrols in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean during June 1943
| Cappellini (…) | Giuliani (…) | Barbarigo (16-20 June*) |
| Torelli (16 June…) | Cagni (29 June…) |
Giuliani (C.C. Mario Tei) sailed from Bordeaux on 23 May for a storing trip to Singapore. She had two German passengers: engine expert Schmidt and civil engineer Lange. On the morning of 3 June, she was 120 miles southwest of Madeira when she was sighted by Liberator ‘F’ (Major R.A. Reeve) of the 1st anti-submarine squadron (USAAF) operating from Port Lyautey. On the first run, Reeve tried to drop six depth charges, but only one was released; the second run failed to release more. Aircraft and submarine exchanged machine gun fire. Finally, Giuliani reached a fog bank, and Tei decided to dive. A third run by the bomber managed to release two depth charges of the four intended, but they were wide of the mark. On 17 June, Giuliani was to meet Tazzoli; she was not at the rendezvous and she was presumably lost the previous month.
Gamma man attempt at Huelva
During the night of 12/13 June, the Gamma swimmer Salvatore Nizzi, using the Italian Gaeta as a base, swam some 3,000 metres to affix two limpets on the hull of the British Hartbridge (5,080 GRT, built 1927). Failing to explode, they were found on 7 July when the ship arrived in Gibraltar and removed by the British diver Petty Officer D.M. Bell. British intelligence had suspected that Italians had been carrying sabotage at Huelva and every ship arriving from there was to be submitted to an underwater search. Gibraltar was often congested with shipping, and the task was not always easy to execute.
Torelli (T.V. Enrico Gropallo) sailed from Bordeaux on 14 June for Singapore. She carried five passengers, the Japanese Lieutenant-Colonel Kuizi Satake and German engineer Heinrich Foders, and three Italians with a cargo of mercury and special metal alloys; she was to bring back 310 tons of rubber.
Loss of Barbarigo
Barbarigo (T.V. Umberto De Julio, this was his first patrol in command of a submarine) followed for a similar trip on 16 June, with 130 tons of stores, but disappeared with all hands: six officers and forty-seven ratings. She was the submarine attacked by two Whitley bombers on the afternoon of 20 June. At 1637 hours, aircraft ‘J’ (EB399) of 10 Squadron discovered a submarine in position 45°28’ N, 09°31’ W, on a southwest course and dropped six depth charges, but they fell short. It was followed by Whitley ‘L’ of the same squadron piloted by Flight Sergeant H. Martin. He released six depth charges near the stern of the submarine, but although the submarine was not apparently firing at the aircraft, the bomber was seen to be trailing smoke and crashed in the sea. There were no survivors. The submarine appeared to be diving normally and was not molested any further. There is little doubt that Barbarigo was the submarine involved1. Was she sunk in this attack, or did she survive to fight another day? We have no evidence pointing to a subsequent attack, so the consensus is that she was probably lost as a result Whitley bombs.
At the end of three years of war, Maricosom produced statistics on the submarine war, but these had some significant inaccuracies2. The corrected figures are in brackets, although they are themselves subject to minor corrections.
| Torpedo Attacks Statistics for the first three years of the war | ||||
| Period of 10 June 1940 to 9 June 1942 | Period of 10 June 1942 to 10 June 1943 | |||
| Torpedo hits | 219 (154) | 37.1% (25.33%) | 97 (66) | 36.5% (20.12%) |
| Probable hits | 63 | 10.7% | 30 | 11.4% |
| Missed | 454 | 42.9% | 119 | 44.9% |
| Failed to explode | 10 | 1.7% | 0 | 0 |
| Irregular course | 45 | 7.6% | 19 | 7.1% |
| Total | 7913 (608) | 265 (328) | ||