March 1941
General Events
| 7 | March | British forces invaded Italian-held Ethiopia. |
| 19-23 | March | Operation M.C.9 (convoy M.W.6 from Alexandria and Haifa to Malta). |
| 24 | March | Rommel began his first counter-offensive in the Libyan Desert. |
| 28-29 | March | Battle of Gavdo/Matapan. |
To address the shortcomings of Italian submarines, they were modified to render them more silent, accelerate the diving time, and reinforce the fuel tanks, which were suspected of leaking too easily during depth charging. By December 1941, the modifications were applied to most Mediterranean submarines with the exceptions of Ascianghi based at Leros: Emo, who had returned from the Atlantic and was destined to the Pola training school, the old submarines of the Balilla and Pisani classes, and those of the H-class.
For Dönitz, March 1941 marked the end of the ‘Happy Times’. His three best aces were lost: Prien, the hero of Scapa Flow (U-47), Schepke (U-100), and his top scorer Kretschmer (U-99), who would be the sole survivor of the trio.
Mediterranean
Italian submarine patrols in the Mediterranean during March 1941
| H.6 (…1 March) | Galatea (…2 March) | Nereide (…3 March) |
| Micca (…4 March) Pt.1 | Turchese (…4 March) | Menotti (…7 March) |
| Settimo (…8 March) | Serpente (…12 March) | H.2 (3 March) |
| H.1 (3-4 March) | H.6 (3-4 March) | Topazio (4-15 March) |
| Anfitrite (4-6 March*) | Uarsciek (6-18 March) | Onice (6-9 March) |
| Capponi (7-11 March) | H.2 (7-8 March) | Corridoni (7-8 March) |
| Smeraldo (7-22 March) | Ondina (8-19 March) | Zoea (9-13 March) Pt.2 |
| Malachite (9-24 March) | Jalea (10-11 March) | Ascianghi (10-12 March) |
| Colonna (10-12 March) | Micca (11-15 March) Pt.2 | H.4 (13-14 March) |
| Beilul (13-18 March) | H.6 (14-15 March) | H.2 (14-15 March) |
| Fisalia (15-26 March) | Speri (16-17 March) | Nereide (19 March…) |
| Ascianghi (19 March…) | Ambra (21 March…) | Adua (22-23 March) |
| Galatea (24-31 March) | Dagabur (24 March…) | H.4 (25-26 March) |
| H.1 (25-26 March) | H.2 (26-27 March) | Aradam (27 March) |
| Glauco (27 March) | Micca (30 March…) Pt.1 | Jalea (31 March…) |
| Salpa (31 March…) |
The focus had now shifted to the Aegean.
Loss of Anfitrite
On 5 March, Anfitrite (T.V. Brunone Ghersina) was ordered to intercept a convoy, reported to include a large liner on a northerly course 60 miles south of the Kaso Straits. The following day, convoy AS.16 was sighted, but it was bound for Alexandria escorted by HMS Greyhound and HMS Havock. At 0730 hours, the submarine was detected by Asdic at 950 yards by Greyhound and attacked with a pattern of six depth charges set between 100 and 250 feet. Forced to the surface, she came under fire from the destroyer which scored two direct hits. As the submarine was abandoned, seven were killed; six officers and thirty-three ratings were picked up. The destroyer’s First Officer, Lt. Robert Scott, led a boarding party and managed to enter the submarine to collect books and other secret documents; he had to leave quickly as the submarine sank. The books he had collected fell into the sea; although some were recovered, they were of little value. British Intelligence was informed from intercepts that she had sailed for Zone D [Kaso Straits] and that Anfitrite was to leave her patrol on 9 March, but there is no evidence that this contributed to her loss.
During the night of 7/8 March, Onice (T.V. Gustavo Lovatelli) was on patrol thirty miles northwest of Cape Sidero (eastern Crete) when she observed a vessel, possibly a cruiser. She fired two torpedoes without success. This may have been one of the light cruisers from the 7th Cruiser Squadron (HMS Orion, HMS Ajax, and HMAS Perth) on passage from Alexandria to Piraeus, where they arrived at 1000 hours on 8 March.
Fisalia (C.C. Girolamo Acunto) was on passage from Pola to Brindisi when, during the night of 10/11 March, she stopped Città di Bergamo off Pelagosa. The Italian steamer had failed to answer signals, but she was allowed to proceed when her identity was ascertained.
The following afternoon, the Hellenic destroyer Psara attacked a submarine contact near Falconera Island. During the evening, the destroyer Sphendoni reported being missed by a torpedo and counterattacking a submarine near Cape Thasos (Northern Greece). Was it a sign of nervousness of the times? The attacks were apparently bogus, as no Italian submarines operated in these areas. On 18 March, HMAS Vendetta’s also carried out an attack on a non-sub contact between Kea and Aghios Georgios with the assistance of Sunderland ‘U’ from 230 Squadron and two Hellenic Air Force Ansons.
Before dawn, on 13 March, Micca (C.C. Guido D’Alterio), returning from a supply mission to Leros, unsuccessfully fired a single torpedo at a group of four destroyers forty miles southwest of Cape Matapan. Five minutes later, a second torpedo only misfired. During the morning, Smeraldo (C.C. Vincenzo D’Amato) discovered a convoy of seven merchants escorted by a cruiser and destroyers. The distance was 10,000 metres, and, unable to close, she made an enemy report. This was probably convoy AG.5 on its way to Piraeus.
The same afternoon, Ondina (T.V. Corrado Dal Pozzo), patrolling near the Kaso Straits, discovered a convoy of eight merchant ships escorted by a light cruiser of the Ceres or Caledon class with two destroyers at 15,000 metres but could not close either. This was most likely convoy AN.19 escorted by the anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Coventry and the Greek destroyers Spetsai and Hydra.
After midnight on 19 March, Malachite (T.V. Enzo Zanni), operating in the Aegean, fired two torpedoes at a cruiser of the Southampton class but without result. An attempt to fire a third was thwarted by one of the escorting destroyers. This was possibly the cruiser HMS Gloucester escorted by HMS Hasty on passage from Alexandria to Piraeus via the Kythera Channel; she was carrying General Blamey and 1,087 troops of the Australian Corps.
Operation M.C.9 was started on 19 March. This was convoy M.W.6 from Alexandria and Haifa to Malta1. The convoy was detected at sea by air reconnaissance as it was near Malta but was bombed only after its arrival there. Although Italian Naval intelligence was aware of the presence of enemy convoys at sea, it was focused on convoys to Greece and failed to realise that a convoy was directed to Malta. However, the naval forces retiring to Alexandria were sighted on the 24th. The submarine Nereide, patrolling off Ras El Kenayis (Libya), was moved to intercept them but failed to make contact.
The attack on Suda Bay
On 26 March, in a daring raid, the destroyers Crispi and Sella launched six explosive boats of the Decima Flottiglia MAS led by T.V. Luigi Faggioni2. They managed to penetrate the Suda Bay anchorage, where they hit the heavy cruiser HMS York and the tanker Pericles (8,324 GRT, built 1936). Both were sunk in shallow waters. The six Italian operators managed to swim ashore and were taken prisoners. York continued to be used as an AA battery and was supplied with power by the submarine HMS Rover. She was scuttled when Crete fell to Axis Forces in May 1941. Pericles was later raised and towed to Alexandria but sank when she was only 35 miles from her destination.
Italian submarines played no significant role in the battle of Matapan, and there is no evidence that any attempt was made to coordinate their efforts with the sortie of the Italian Fleet. During the evening of 26 March, the battleship Vittorio Veneto sailed from Naples, the heavy cruisers Pola, Zara, and Fiume from Taranto, and the light cruisers Duca Degli Abruzzi and Garibaldi from Brindisi, followed the next morning by the heavy cruisers Trento, Trieste, and Bolzano from Messina. They were escorted by several destroyers and were to join up and raid convoys plying the waters between Alexandria and Piraeus. They were unaware that Admiral Cunningham was informed of the movement and was taking his Mediterranean Fleet3 to meet them.
In the Eastern Mediterranean, Ambra was patrolling about 75 miles north of Sidi Barrani, Aradam was off Ras Aamer, Ascianghi and Dagabur were between Cape Krio and Alexandria, Galatea was in the Kaso Straits and Nereide off Ras Kenayis. None of them made contact with the British ships.
Vittorio Veneto and Pola were torpedoed by Fleet Air Arm aircraft. The battleship could escape, but the crippled Pola was sunk in an engagement which also caused the loss of her two sister ships Zara and Fiume, as well as two destroyers which were sent to her assistance. This one-sided affair emphasised the importance of radar in a night action. Over 2,400 Italian sailors lost their lives.
Sinking of the light cruiser Bonaventure
On the evening of 30 March, south of Crete, Dagabur (T.V. Domenico Romano) fired a pair of torpedoes at a Liverpool-class cruiser. This was probably the light cruiser HMS Bonaventure, which was stationed astern of a convoy. The attack failed despite the claim of having heard two hits, but a few hours later, the cruiser would not be as lucky.
Ambra (T.V. Mario Arillo) partially avenged the terrible losses incurred at the Battle of Matapan. The submarine was ordered to intercept a convoy some 100 miles south of the Kaso Strait but missed it. She was then ordered to leave her patrol when a tanker was sighted in the early hours of 31 March. This was HMS Bonaventure, stationed astern of the Breconshire convoy4; she was hit by two torpedoes from a salvo of three. She sank with a loss of twenty-three officers and 115 ratings, and survivors were picked up by the destroyer HMS Hereward. The destroyer HMAS Stuart was missed. Both destroyers carried a vigorous counterattack, dropping a total of thirty-nine depth charges, but Arillo wasted no time in taking his submarine deep and made good his escape.
Following this attack, British vessels were ordered to zigzag day or night unless the weather made a submarine attack unlikely.
Loss of Pier Capponi
At 1337 hours on 31 March, the British mine-laying submarine HMS Rorqual picked up a sound on her hydrophones, and two minutes later, a speck was seen on the horizon. It turned out to be a submarine believed to be of the Calvi class proceeding on the surface on a 325° course south of Stromboli. At 1402 hours, the British submarine fired a salvo of five torpedoes. Two were observed to hit the submarine, the first under the conning tower and the second aft. This was Capponi (C.C. Romeo Romei) on passage from Messina to La Spezia, and she disintegrated under the blows taking down the whole crew of five officers and thirty-three ratings.
The same evening, Galatea (T.V. Mario Baroglio) was alerted by Marina Rodi5 that a large convoy was proceeding southeast of Crete. Her attempts to intercept were fruitless.
Atlantic
Italian submarine patrols in the Atlantic during March 1941
| Otaria (…2 March) | Bianchi (…4 March) | Barbarigo (…8 March) |
| Velella (…21 March) | Brin (…25 March) | Argo (…30 March) |
| Emo (3-26 March) | Veniero (5-31 March) | Mocenigo (5-26 March) |
| Giuliani (16-30 March) | Glauco (19-21 March) | Glauco (22-25 March) |
| Da Vinci (26-28 March) | Calvi (31 March…) |
Velella (T.V. Pasquale Terra) received an order to intercept convoys but did not see anything before 3 March, when two destroyers put her down. In the next days, Emo and Veniero were also frustrated in their search.
Brin (C.C. Luigi Longanesi Cattani) was patrolling west of Ireland on 5 March. She was attacked with four depth charges by Sunderland ‘B’ (N.9049) from 10 Squadron (RAAF) piloted by Flight Officer V.A. Hodgkinson. This was followed by Whitley ‘K’ of 502 Squadron, which dropped a single 450-lb depth charge. The submarine got away without damage.
Two days later, Argo (T.V. Alberto Crepas) was surprised by Sunderland ‘H’ of 210 Squadron and opened fire with her anti-aircraft armament. Luckily the aircraft refrained from attack. This was possibly due to the presence, in the area, of the submarine HMS Taku, disabled in heavy weather, and of her sister ship Tribune which had gone to her assistance.
At about noon, on 9 March, some 330 miles west of Ireland, Emo (C.C. Giuseppe Roselli Lorenzini) was surprised on the surface by Sunderland “J” (P.9604) of 10 Squadron (Squadron Leader J. Cohen). The aircraft was seen when only at about 2,000 metres, and the submarine crash-dived. Two depth charges were immediately released, which caused some damage. The aircraft returned on a second run and dropped two additional depth charges. This time, the submarine had gone down to 110 metres and escaped further damage. During the night of 13/14 March, Emo successively fired three single torpedoes at British Western Chief (5,759 GRT, built 1918). The third torpedo finally hit, and she sank. Twenty-one survivors were picked up by the Dutch Venus and landed at Ponta Delgada on 26 March; twenty-three men perished.
After midnight on 19 March, Emo missed, with a single torpedo and a couple of rounds of her 120mm gun, the British Clan Maciver (4,606 GRT, built 1921) and avoided an attempt at ramming by the steamer, which escaped in the heavy seas. The merchant ship made a signal that she was torpedoed but later cancelled it.
The bad weather continued to frustrate attempts to intercept convoys, and Brin, Veniero, Mocenigo, and Emo failed to make contact.
Finally, during the afternoon of 24 March, Veniero (T.V. Manlio Petroni) stopped the British steamer Agnete Maersk (2,104 GRT, built 1924) with gunfire. She was a straggler from convoy OG.56d. Attempts to sink her with three torpedoes failed as they ran under the vessel, and she was finally finished off with more gunfire. Twenty-eight men were killed; there were no survivors.
Marigammasom
On 30 March, Reginaldo Giuliani (C.F. Vittore Raccanelli) was the first and only Italian submarine to reach Brunsbüttel. After a brief Atlantic patrol, she made the trip through the Iceland-Faroes passage. The next day, she went through the Kiel Canal and reached the Baltic. She was eventually based at Gotenhafen where the new training base known as Marigammasom was established. Raccanelli was the former commanding officer of Enrico Tazzoli; he had been criticised by his own executive officer, Carlo Fecia di Cossato, for his lack of aggressiveness (see December 1940). Eventually, the latter would take over command of this submarine. In April, Giuliani came under the command of C.C. Adalberto Giovannini and carried out a series of exercises in the Baltic until her return to Bordeaux in May 1942.
In June 1941, the submarine Bagnolini was earmarked to join Marigammasom, but the changing war situation forced the cancellation of this project.
Eventually, nine German-built U-boats were taken over by the Regia Marina in 1943. They trained in the Baltic but they were never to become operational. The Italian Armistice would interrupt their training, and they would be taken over by the Germans.
Red Sea and Indian Ocean
The circumnavigation of Africa (Part One)
This month was marked by the departure for Bordeaux of the four surviving submarines of the Red Sea Flotilla. Perla (T.V. Bruno Napp) left on 1 March. Early the same morning, a Blenheim bomber was sighted. The Italian submarine was forced to submerge, but no attack ensued. The same afternoon, off Dahlak Island, she was bombed by another Blenheim, which claimed her as sunk, but she escaped damage. After dusk, five Albacores from the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable raided Massawa and bombed a floating dock containing a submarine but caused no damage. The next to follow were Ferraris (C.C. Livio Piomarta) and Archimede (C.C. Marino Salvatori) on 3 March and Guglielmotti (C.F. Gino Spagone) on 4 March. Italian submarines encountered convoys as they sailed from their base for their voyage around Africa. Unfortunately, they had strict orders to avoid attacking them as any damage incurred could prove fatal.
Perla was the smallest of the four submarines escaping from Massawa. Her shorter range meant that she was to be refuelled twice. Supermarina had little hope that she could make the voyage and had instructed her —if all else failed—to seek internment at Diego Suarez in the French colony of Madagascar. If the four submarines encountered difficulties in the Atlantic, they were authorized to seek refuge in the Canary Islands, Pernambuco, or any Brazilian port.
The departure and destination of the Italian submarines were known to British Intelligence since 1 March, and the Operation Intelligence Centre was also aware that Perla was to refuel from a German ship. Rome had been communicating with Asmara in Eritrea using the Enigma coding machine after conducting tests on 24 August 1940, and the signals were now being deciphered at Bletchley Park. The cruisers HMNZS Leander and HMAS Canberra, put at the disposal of the East Indies Command, were alerted, and from 12 to 20 March, they patrolled near 35° S and 50° E (yet according to O.I.C. the position was 33° S, 50° E). This was Operation SUPPLY. The armed merchant cruiser City of Durban was also cruising in the vicinity, ready to pass herself for the German supply ship. The Q-ship HMS King Gruffydd was to operate on a patrol line between 15°30’ S, 43°40’ E and 17°00’ S, 41°50’ E. But the Perla encountered rough weather in the Roaring Forties and had trouble making any headway; she was late, and this would ultimately save her. Leander was forced to return to base and refuel before resuming the search. On 23 March, the Vichy French Charles L.D. (5,267 GRT, built 1934) was captured by the cruiser, while the tanker Trocas, which was missing, was located on 27 March and escorted to Mauritius. On 28 March, the German Raider Atlantis (Schiff 16) arrived at the rendezvous, which she believed to be in position 33° S, 50° E, but did not find the submarine. She was then told that the submarine should be in position 35° S [so the confusion was not one-sided]. She turned south and homed in on the beacon signal emitted by the submarine. Perla was refueled and given badly needed provisions. The Raider’s commanding officer, Kapitän zur See Rogge, requested Napp to come along on a hunting cruise but the latter declined as he had strict orders to proceed to Bordeaux and resumed his voyage.
Italian submarine patrols in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean during March 1941
| Perla (1 March…) | Archimede (3 March…) | Ferraris (3 March…) |
| Guglielmotti (4 March…) |
- Transports Perthshire, City of Lincoln, City of Manchester, and Clan Ferguson escorted by the destroyers HMS Hotspur, HMS Griffin, and HMS Greyhound, and later reinforced by the light cruiser HMS Bonaventure and subsequently by the antiaircraft cruisers HMS Coventry, HMS Carlisle, HMS Calcutta and the destroyer HMS Havock. ↩︎
- Faggioni was awarded the Medaglia d’Oro for this action. The other five men were S.T.V. Angelo Cabrini and petty officers Alessio de Vito, Tullio Tedeschi, Lino Beccati, and Emilio Barberi. ↩︎
- The battleships Warspite, Barham, and Valiant, the aircraft carrier Formidable, the light cruisers HMS Ajax, Gloucester, Orion, and HMAS Perth, and a dozen destroyers. ↩︎
- This was fast convoy GA.8 consisting of HMS Breconshire and the steamer Cameronia proceeding from Piraeus to Alexandria on course 131° at 16.5 knots. They were escorted by destroyers HMAS Stuart, HMS Griffin, and HMS Hereward. ↩︎
- The Italian Naval Command for the Dodecanese Islands, under Admiral Biancheri. ↩︎