March 1942
| 6-8 | March | Operation SPOTTER [2nd attempt] (HMS Eagle and Argus reinforced Malta with fighter aircraft). |
| 20-23 | March | Operation PICKET I (HMS Eagle reinforced Malta with fighter aircraft). |
| 22 | March | Second Battle of Sirte. |
| 26-30 | March | Operation PICKET II (HMS Eagle reinforced Malta with fighter aircraft). |
Italian submarine patrols in the Mediterranean during March 1942
| H.4 (…1 March)x | H.6 (…1 March) | Rismondo (…2 March) |
| Axum (…4 March) | Aradam (…4 March) | Turchese (…4 March) |
| Brin (…10 March) | Ametista (4-24 March) | Corallo (4-14 March) |
| H.2 (4-5 March) | Veniero (4-13 March) | Millo (5-14 March*) |
| Galatea (5-23 March) | Dagabur (7-14 March) | H.6 (7-9 March) |
| H.4 (7 March)x | Bajamonti (7-9 March) | Uarsciek (11-13 March) |
| Onice (11-14 March) | Mocenigo (13 March…) | Guglielmotti (15-17 March*) |
| Onice (15-31 March) | Platino (15-31 March) | Dandolo (16 March) |
| Tricheco (16-18 March*) | Nereide (17-21 March) | H.8 (17-18 March) |
| Sirena (24-27 March) | Perla (26 March…) | Acciaio (26 March…)x |
| Brin (27 March…) | Turchese (27 March…) | Aradam (27 March…) |
| Narvalo (28 March…) | Santarosa (28 March…) | Veniero (29 March…) |
In the early hours of 6 March, Force H departed from Gibraltar for another flying off operation to Malta. The next day, the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle launched fifteen Spitfires which reached the beleaguered island (Operation SPOTTER).
Brin (T.V. Luigi Andreotti) had been on a patrol line with Axum, Aradam and Turchese south of Majorca. The other three submarines had a short endurance (they were of the 600-ton type, Brin had a displacement of 1,060 tons) and were recalled on 4 March but Brin was immediately ordered to the eastern approaches of Gibraltar between Cartagena and Oran. Two days later, her hydrophones revealed the presence of a naval force proceeding east. This was probably Force H on its way to carry out Operation SPOTTER II. On 8 March, the submarine detected another naval force, estimated at five destroyers, proceeding eastward. In both instances, she was too far to carry out an attack.
The old submarine H.2 (T.V. Antonio Canezza) was being transferred from Taranto to Brindisi. On 10 March, as she neared the Straits of Otranto, she reported being missed by a torpedo. However, there were no Allied submarines in this area.
Loss of Ammiraglio Millo
On 14 March, Ammiraglio Millo (C.C. Vincenzo d’Amato) was returning from a patrol southeast of Malta. HMS Ultimatum (Lt P.R.H. Harrison, DSC, RN) was lurking off Monasterace (Punta Stilo area) when, at 1255 hours, the Italian submarine was seen zigzagging every seven minutes at 8,000 yards. The British submarine closed to 2,200 yards and, at 1318 hours, fired a salvo of four torpedoes. Millo was hit in the bow and mid-section and sank immediately. Fifty-five crew members were killed (including d’Amato and two officers). Fifteen survived; four officers and ten ratings were picked up by the British submarine and one by an Italian small boat. Two torpedoes hit the shore; one exploded, but the other was recovered intact and studied by the Italians.
The same evening, near Cape Carbon, Mocenigo (C.C. Paolo Monechi) sank the Vichy French Sainte Marcelle (ex-Norwegian Vigoer, 1,518 GRT, built 1935) in error. There were twenty-seven survivors, but two men were killed or missing.
On 16 March, Galatea (T.V. Mario Baroglio), patrolling off Beirut, attacked an unidentified sailing vessel which was sunk by gunfire. She also fired a torpedo at an incoming small warship but missed. The sailing vessel has been claimed to be the Greek Zoodochos Pighi (48 GRT). This is an error as this vessel was sunk by air attack at Tobruk three days earlier. British records are incomplete for this period.
After midnight on 16 March, Onice (C.C. Bruno Zelik) observed a submarine and, in a snap attack, fired two torpedoes and opened fire with her deck gun and machine guns. This was HMS P36 who escaped by crash-diving but assumed that she was attacked by an E-boat. Further away, HMS Unbeaten (Lt Cdr E.A. Woodward, DSO, RN) heard the explosions of the two torpedoes hitting the bottom. A week later, the Italian submarine attacked a destroyer with a pair of torpedoes but missed despite hearing an explosion (also heard by Platino, located a few miles away). This was possibly HMS Lively, who was delayed by flooding forward from weather damage and arrived in Alexandria after the 15th Cruiser Squadron.
Loss of Guglielmotti
At dawn on 17 March, Guglielmotti (C.C. Federico Tamburini), while on passage from Taranto to Cagliari, was attacked south of Cape dell’Armi (Calabria) by HMS Unbeaten. The British submarine fired four torpedoes from a range of 2,000 yards, and one of them hit the submarine, which sank. Woodward saw about twelve survivors in the water and attempted to rescue them but was forced to take his submarine deep because of an approaching aircraft. The aircraft observed three survivors in the water and attempted to warn the torpedo boat Stocco who was arriving on the scene. It was to no avail, as the warship saturated the area with seventeen depth charges. The attack was ineffectual, and she could not locate any survivor, only a single corpse. Seven officers and fifty-four ratings were lost, Guglielmotti was a veteran of the Red Sea and the Atlantic.
In the afternoon, a German aircraft strafed in error Onice (C.C. Bruno Zelik) west of Crete but no damage was done, and the aircraft left after the submarine fired a recognition signal. At dusk, it was the turn of Platino (T.V. Innocenzo Ragusa), patrolling some 150 miles northeast of Benghazi, to escape from attacks by Blenheim bombers on two occasions by replying with her machine guns and by quick diving. The first attack was from Blenheim ‘C’ of 203 Squadron (Flight Lieutenant Green) which, having released four 250-lb anti-submarine bombs, claimed to have damaged the submarine and killed one of its crew. This was not the case. The aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire but suffered no significant damage. Although the submarine reported being the target of an attack by other bombers, this has not been substantiated.
Loss of Tricheco
On 18 March, HMS Upholder (Lt Cdr M.D. Wanklyn, VC, DSO, RN) was lurking outside Brindisi. In the afternoon, a submarine of the Perla class was sighted entering port. It was Ondina (T.V. Gabriele Andolfi) returning from exercises. The British submarine tried to close but could not get nearer than 5,000 yards, and the attack was abandoned. Andolfi did not realise the peril he had avoided. Two hours later, Tricheco (C.C. Giovanni Cunsolo) was not so lucky. She was on passage from Augusta to Brindisi and only two miles from her destination when, at dusk, she was detected by Upholder. A salvo of four torpedoes was fired, two of them scoring hits. One officer and thirty-seven ratings were killed. Four officers and seven ratings were picked up by the freighter Nazario Sauro and the sailing vessel S. Spiridione. She was the third submarine to be sunk by British submarines in this month. But Upholder, the most successful British submarine of the Second World War, would not survive her victim long. Less than four weeks later, she would disappear off Tripoli with all hands.
On 20 March, Italian submarines were informed that a force consisting of two aircraft carriers, a battleship, and a cruiser had sailed from Gibraltar. These were the aircraft carriers HMS Eagle and Argus, the battleship Malaya, and the light cruiser Hermione escorted by the destroyers Whitehall, Wishart, Laforey, Duncan, Active, Anthony, Blankney, Croome, and Exmoor on their way to carry out Operation PICKET I. This time, two ocean-going submarines were already at sea, operating within range. Dandolo (T.V. Gaetano Di Meglio) attempted to gain an intercepting position but without result. In the afternoon, sixty miles northeast of Oran, Mocenigo (C.C. Paolo Monechi) discovered them and fired three torpedoes from her stern tubes at a range of 1,200 metres; they missed. HMS Eagle reported an explosion, which was probably a torpedo at the end of its run. Because of the bad weather, only nine Spitfires were flown off to Malta, and Force H returned to Gibraltar on 23 March.
Focus now changed to the Central Mediterranean Basin as an attempt to resupply Malta was being made from the east.
The Second Battle of Sirte
The Second Battle of Sirte developed on 22 March. The battleship Littorio (Admiral Campioni), two heavy cruisers, a light cruiser, and eight destroyers attempted to prevent a convoy from Alexandria from reaching Malta. The convoy MW.10 consisted of four merchant ships screened by a force led by Admiral Vian (flagship light cruiser HMS Cleopatra) with five light cruisers and seventeen destroyers. Platino had located them during the afternoon of the 21st, but was unable to close. The Italian squadron failed to reach the convoy, which was skillfully defended by Vian, and by nightfall, had to withdraw. Onice (C.C. Bruno Zelik) spotted three or four cruisers and three destroyers retiring to Alexandria. She fired two torpedoes and heard one hit, also heard by Platino; both missed. The submarine was now equipped with torpedoes armed with magnetic pistols and a bubbleless apparatus (‘senza bolla’), which did not work. Two Dido-class cruisers came in sight of Platino at 15,000 metres; they passed out of range. No other Italian submarines were in the area. By contrast, half a dozen German U-boats were deployed from Cyrenaica to Alexandria, and none managed to interfere with the British forces. The four merchant ships managed to reach Malta but were all sunk in the harbour by air attacks. The retiring Italian battle fleet did not come out unscathed either. It encountered a heavy storm, and the destroyers Lanciere and Scirocco capsized with heavy loss of life.
Force H with HMS Eagle sailed again on the 26th. The same morning Dandolo and Mocenigo were ordered to intercept the British steamer Etrib, who was expected to leave Valencia for Gibraltar; they patrolled off Cape Palos without result. At dawn on the 27th, Dandolo (T.V. Gaetano Di Meglio) sighted an unknown submarine. It turned away and dived before any action could be taken. This was HMS Upright (Lt J.W.D. Coombe, RN), on passage from Malta to Gibraltar and the United Kingdom for a refit. On the bridge of the British submarine, a vessel had been sighted but its identity and type could not be made out against the dark skies. Upright was armed with only two torpedoes,[1] and prudently, the order was given to turn away and dive. The same evening Dandolo and Mocenigo were informed of sortie of Force H. The following morning, Dandolo detected with her hydrophones five destroyers conducting an anti-submarine search; she extricated herself by going down to 70 metres. The dependency on hydrophones for detection while rarely using the periscope made interception difficult. The same day, Eagle successfully launched seven Spitfires for Malta (operation PICKET II), and Force H returned to Gibraltar on the 30th of the month.
On the last day of the month, Brin (T.V. Luigi Andreotti, patrolling northeast of Algiers, was caught on the surface by Catalina ‘C’ (AJ162) of 202 Squadron flown by Flight Lieutenant Melville Jackson. The aircraft detected the submarine with its radar at a range of ten miles and released four depth charges as it dived. One depth charge exploded very near but without causing damage.
Italian submarine patrols in the Atlantic during March 1942
| Da Vinci (…15 March) | Finzi (…31 March) | Torelli (…31 March) |
| Tazzoli (…) | Morosini (…) | Calvi (7 March…) |
On 2 March, in the mid-Atlantic, rough seas prevented Da Vinci (C.C. Luigi Longanesi Cattani) from supplying twenty tons of fuel to Morosini (C.C. Athos Fraternale). On the second try, the hose broke, and the attempt was abandoned. It was only ten days later that Finzi (C.C. Ugo Giudice) managed to refuel Morosini before returning to France.
This month, Italian submarines went on a rampage in the Bahamas and West Indies.
During the night of 3/4 March, Tazzoli (C.C. Carlo Fecia di Cossato) fired two pairs of torpedoes from her bow tubes at the British tanker Rapana (8,017 GRT, built 1917). All four torpedoes missed, and the ship made good her escape. Two nights later, using gunfire and torpedoes, she sank the Dutch Astrea (1,406 GRT, built 1921) 200 miles south-southeast of Bermuda. Her victim had sailed from Rio de Janeiro bound for New York via Port of Spain (Trinidad) carrying 1,652 tons of general cargo. The crew of twenty-seven were picked up eleven days later by the Dutch Hebe and the Argentine Rio Iguazu.
During the night of 6/7 March, once again using a combination of gunfire and torpedoes, Tazzoli destroyed the Norwegian Tønsbergfjord (3,156 GRT, built 1930). There were no casualties. Thirty-two survivors got away in two lifeboats, but one man was missing. He had been knocked out by the shelling and, when he got back to his senses, found himself alone on the sinking ship. Luckily, he found a raft and was rescued six days later by the Norwegian Arthur W. Sewall. Eighteen men in a lifeboat were rescued by the Dutch Telamon, the other fourteen survivors were located by the Norwegian tanker Velma.
Two nights later, Tazzoli encountered the Uruguayan Montevideo (5,785 GRT, built 1920, formerly Italian Adamello seized in 1941) and despatched her by the same means. Her thirty-one survivors linked up with Tønsbergfjord ‘s first lifeboat and were also rescued by Telamon.
During the night of 11/12 March, Tazzoli damaged the Panamian Cygnet (3,530 GRT, built 1917) with a torpedo and finished her off with gunfire. Her Greek crew of thirty were rescued by the British Monarch of Nassau.
The Italian submarine concluded a very successful patrol when the British Daytonian (6,434 GRT, built 1922) and the British tanker Athelqueen (8,780 GRT, built 1928) were both sunk by gunfire and torpedoes, respectively, on 13 March and 15 March. The crew of Daytonian, fifty-eight in all, survived except an elderly seaman who suffered a heart attack in the lifeboat. All four lifeboats were rescued by the Dutch tanker Rotterdam. During the last attack, Tazzoli collided with Athelqueen, damaging her forward tubes and preventing her last two torpedoes from being fired. Carlo Fecia di Cossato decided then to interrupt his patrol. He was upset with himself, which may explain his apparent disregard for the survivors of his last victim. Three men had been killed; the forty-six survivors reached Abaco. The submarine initiated her return voyage and, on 16 March, observed a tanker believed to be the British Resolution. Tazzoli was short of fuel and could not engage in a hot pursuit. On 20 March, an attack on the British tanker Davila was broken off when the latter replied accurately with a gun.
On the night of 6 March, Finzi was closing the Caribbean when she encountered the British Melpomene (ex-French, 7,011 GRT, built 1923). She had initially sailed from Belfast with convoy OS.19 and was now proceeding independently for New Orleans. After the first torpedo hit, the crew was allowed time to abandon ship; two more hits would be required to send her to the bottom. Her crew of forty-nine survived, including three seriously wounded. All of them were picked up by the American steamer Idaho. The following night, the Swedish Skåne (4,528 GRT, built 1921) was attacked. Despite three torpedo hits, she had to be finished off with gunfire. Her crew of thirty-six survived and were rescued by the American Ipswich. Following this attack, the submarine reloaded her forward tubes with the three torpedoes stored on deck. In another attack on the night of 10 March, she sent to the bottom the Norwegian motor tanker Charles Racine (9,957 GRT, built 1937), which proved resilient, absorbing four or five torpedoes hits out of six fired. The forty-one crew would also be rescued, thirty-four by the destroyer USS Moffett (DD-362) and the remaining seven by an Argentine steamer.
After midnight on 11 March, Torelli (C.C. Antonio De Giacomo) fired a single torpedo at the British Orari (10,107 GRT, built 1931) and missed. She had only one defective bow torpedo left, as she had already used the others the previous month. De Giacomo attempted to chase the vessel, but bringing his stern tubes to bear proved difficult, and the vessel finally escaped.
In the late afternoon of the same day, Morosini (C.C. Athos Fraternale) missed an unidentified tanker with a pair of torpedoes. The vessel replied with her stern gun and managed to flee. After midnight on 12 March, the submarine sank a vessel believed to be the British Manaqui (2,802 GRT, built 1921), who left Belfast on 22 February and disappeared with her crew of thirty-four at about this time.[2] On 16 March, the Dutch Oscilla (6,341 GRT, built 1939) was attacked. She was in ballast and on passage from Gourock to Curaçoa. Five torpedoes were expended, and two hits were scored. However, the vessel remained afloat. She was finally sunk with eighty-one rounds from both deck guns. Four of her crew were killed, and fifty-one survivors were picked up by the American steamer Explorer. The British tanker Peder Bogen (9,741 GRT, built 1925) met a similar fate on 23 March. She had a crew of fifty-two and one passenger; all were picked up by the Spanish Gobeo and the Argentine Rio Gallegos.
Calvi (C.C. Emilio Olivieri) joined the fray as she was sailing for a patrol off the coast of Brazil. On 29 March, she sank a ship believed to be the British Tredinnick (4,589 GRT, built 1921) on passage from New York to Cape Town with two torpedo hits. None of her forty-six crew members survived.
Just before midnight on 31 March, Morosini opened fire on the American tanker T.C. McCobb (7,451 GRT, built 1936). The sinking of the tanker required the expenditure of six torpedoes. There were fifteen survivors, and twenty-four were killed.
This concluded a most successful month for the sommergibili in this theatre. A handful of submarines had sunk some 80,000 tons of enemy shipping, more than what their Mediterranean counterparts would sink during the whole war. Unfortunately, the effort could not be sustained as there were no relief submarines available, and the following month would be relatively quiet as this wave of submarines returned to base for rest and maintenance.
[1] British submarines leaving Malta for refit in the United Kingdom were usually armed with only two torpedoes so as not to deplete the low stocks in Malta.
[2] Initially, the ship was believed to have been Stangarth, but she was most likely sunk by U–504 (Poske).