September 1940
General Events
| 3 | September | Operation HATS was completed. |
| 13 | September | The Italian Army, under Field Marshal Graziani, invaded Egypt. The advance was cautious due to a lack of motorized transport, and stopped at Sidi Barrani. |
| 15 | September | The Battle of Britain reached its climax. |
| 17 | September | Operation SEELÖWE (Sea Lion), the invasion of England, was postponed indefinitely. |
| 21 | September | Dönitz requested Italian submarines to operate longer patrols in the Atlantic. They agreed to extend their patrols by three days. |
| 25 | September | British and Free French failure at Dakar (Operation MENACE). British cryptographer, Alfred Dillwyn ‘Dilly’ Knox of the Enigma section, managed to break the code used between Rome and Rhodes. Movements of Italian submarines to and from the Dodecanese were now read, which would also lead to the victory of Matapan in March 1941. |
| 27 | September | Tripartite Act was signed by Germany, Italy, and Japan. |
| 30 | September | Admiral Dönitz visited Admiral Parona in Bordeaux. |
Mediterranean
Italian submarine patrols in the Mediterranean during September 1940
| Jantina (…1 September) | Atropo (…1 September) Pt.1 | Foca (…1 September) Pt.1 |
| Capponi (…4 September)x | Diaspro (…4 September) | Medusa (…4 September) |
| Alagi (…5 September) | Axum (…5 September) | Da Procida (…6 September) |
| Bianchi (…7 September) | Dagabur (…7 September) | Des Geneys (…7 September) |
| Millelire (…11 September) | Corallo (…18 September)x | Sirena (…21 September) |
| Nereide (…22 September) | Settimo (…23 September) | Berillo (2-5 September) |
| Berillo (2-4 September) | Velella (6-14 September) | Ondina (6-25 September) |
| Uarsciek (6-22 September) | Foca (10-15 September) Pt.2 | Beilul (16-21 September) |
| Narvalo (16-26 September) | Squalo (16-26 September) | Ambra (18 September…) |
| Serpente (18 September…) | Berillo (18 September…) | Colonna (19 September…) |
| Mameli (19 September…) | Delfino (20-26 September) | Lafolè (20-21 September) |
| Tembien (20 September…) | Gondar (21-30 September*) | Alagi (23-29 September) |
| Medusa (23 September…) | Corallo (26-29 September) | Beilul (27 September…) |
| Ametista (30 September…) | Gemma (30 September…) | Tricheco (30 September…) |
As Operation HATS proceeded, the Italian Fleet flexed its muscles with a deployment consisting of five battleships, six heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, thirty-four destroyers, and two torpedo boats. This was the most significant force it would muster in the entire war. Opposing it were the two British forces converging toward Malta, in all three battleships, one battlecruiser, two aircraft carriers, one heavy cruiser, seven light cruisers, and thirty-three destroyers. Everything appeared to be in place for a clash of the first magnitude, but the operation would unfold with surprisingly little interference from both sides. Only the merchant ship Cornwall was hit by a bomb and suffered slight damage.
Fifteen Italian submarines were covering the sortie. Alagi, Axum, Diaspro, and Medusa had formed a patrol line north of Cape Bougaroni (Algeria); one submarine was patrolling off Gibraltar (Bianchi), another was off Malta (Capponi), and the remainder were deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean. Dagabur and Da Procida patrolled near Cyprus while Foca and Atropo were on a supply run to the Dodecanese. Due to concern at Supermarina headquarters that Crete might be occupied by British forces, no less than seven submarines were deployed around the island (Corallo, Des Geneys, Jantina, Millelire, Nereide, Settimo, and Sirena). No enemy ship was sighted, but on 1 September, Diaspro (T.V. Marino Salvatori), operating 60 miles southwest of Sardinia, repulsed an attack by a Swordfish from HMS Ark Royal, which dropped bombs and strafed the submarine. She escaped without damage. The enemy was not encountered despite intense aerial reconnaissance.
On 2 September, nine Swordfish from the aircraft carrier attempted to bomb Elmas aerodrome near Cagliari (operation SMASH), but the cloud cover made the attack difficult. At dusk on the 3rd of the month, the submarine Des Geneys (C.C. Antonio Cuzzanati) discovered a large enemy formation ten miles south of Cape Krio (Chania, Crete), steering 120° at 20 knots. She was forced to dive, and the attack was aborted. This was probably Force A, consisting of the cruisers Kent, Liverpool, and Gloucester (Third Cruiser Squadron) escorted by the destroyers Nubian and Mohawk.
On 3 September, Italian submarines were instructed to intercept the Greek steamer Darien flying the Panamanian flag. She was reported by Italian Intelligence to have sailed from Crete for Alexandria and was suspected of carrying ammunition. She was the former Sofia, purchased by SOE for special services in the Aegean and the Black Sea. Darien was to be armed with guns and torpedo tubes and to be commissioned under the command of Lt. Cdr. Nicholl, replaced shortly after by Lt. Cdr. Francis G. Pool, who would later acquire notoriety for his work in Crete. She was to be manned by a Jewish crew from a secret organisation, ‘The Friends’ (Haganah). It is unlikely that Italian Intelligence was aware of her special role, and she managed to reach her destination unscathed. The submarine ring around Crete had yielded no result. On the morning of 4 September, Domenico Millelire (C.C. Francesco De Rosa de Leo) and Corallo (C.C. Loris Albanese) reported being bombed by aircraft in the Kasos Strait and south of Crete, respectively, but had escaped damage.
The month was marred by mishaps: on 4 September, H.8 (T.V. Mario de Angelis) collided with the tug Titan as she sailed for a defensive patrol in the Gulf of Genoa and had to abort her mission.
Two days later, Uarsciek (T.V. Carlo Zanchi) sailed from Taranto for a patrol off the Egyptian coast. Having dived during the day, she was slow in clearing the Cape Colonne area, and on the evening of 7 September, she was sighted by the destroyers Granatiere and Bersagliere screening Italian battleships. They mistook her for an enemy submarine and opened fire. The submarine hurriedly dived to ninety metres and was depth charged by Granatiere. They were reported to have been missed by two torpedoes, but Uarsciek had not fired any. Fortunately, the submarine suffered only minor damage.
On 12 September, some thirty miles northwest of Ras Azzaz (Libya), the submarine HMS Proteus (Lt. Cdr. R.T. Gordon-Duff, RN) fired a single torpedo (a second torpedo misfired) at one of two Italian submarines. These were probably Uarsciek (T.V. Carlo Zanchi) and Ondina (T.V. Vincenzo d’Amato), proceeding to patrol off Ras Uleima and Mersa Matruh, respectively. They went on, blissfully unaware of the peril they had avoided.
During the evening of the 14th, the trawler HMS Jade claimed to have sunk a submarine off Malta; no Italian submarines were operating in this area at that time.
Ondina, patrolling off Mersa Matruh, reported to have escaped several air and anti-submarine attacks on 13, 17, and 18 September.
At dusk on 17 September, Corallo (C.C. Loris Albanese) had a golden opportunity when she discovered the Mediterranean Fleet. An aircraft carrier of the Illustrious class, a three-funnelled cruiser of the Kent class, and seven destroyers were observed on course 183°. This was indeed Illustrious, with the battleship Valiant and the cruisers Liverpool and Gloucester escorted by five destroyers. The Kent had been torpedoed by an Italian aircraft and was being escorted to Alexandria by another group of ships. Corallo fired two torpedoes at 1,500 metres. They missed the destroyer HMS Hasty, who combed the tracks and immediately depth-charged the submarine. Corallo quickly dived to eighty metres but was damaged in the process. After three hours of dodging the enemy and reaching a depth of 140 metres, she finally surfaced. The air pressure forced the conning tower hatch open as the submarine was still at a depth of about fifteen metres; the executive officer T.V. Alfredo Gatti was thrown outside and never found. The depth-charging had been a gruelling experience, and a rating was also found dead after the depth-charging. He had shot himself with a Beretta pistol. Fortunately, the destroyer had vacated the scene, and the submarine could proceed to Tobruk for temporary repairs. She sailed from there on 21 September, took the coastal route to Tripoli, and then proceeded to Messina for more permanent repairs. She was the last submarine to use Tobruk before the town fell to British forces in January 1941. Italian submarines would not return before July 1942, when the fortress was recaptured by Axis forces.
On 19 September, Serpente (C.C. Vittorio Emanuele Tognelli) attacked in error the submarine Colonna (T.V. Guido Gozzi) south of Cape Santa Maria di Leuca; three torpedoes were fired singly from 800 to 1,000 metres but, luckily, they all missed.
Medusa (C.C. Enzo Grossi) claimed to have shot down a Sunderland near Bizerta on 24 September, but there was no confirmation from British records. This would not be the last controversial claim from this commanding officer.
Operation B.G.1
On 24 September, the submarine Scirè (C.C. Junio Valerio Borghese) sailed from La Spezia to attack Gibraltar with three maiali (the teams consisted of T.V. Gino Birindelli/2° Capo Palombaro Damos Paccagnini; Cap. G.N. Teseo Tesei/Sg. Pal. Alcide Pedretti; S.T.V. Luigi Durand de la Penne/2° Capo Palombaro Emilio Bianchi; Tenente G.N. Gian Gastone Bertozzi/2° Capo Palombaro Enrico Ario Lazzari were the reserve crew. The submarine was only fifty miles from its objective when Italian Intelligence learned that Force H had sailed from Gibraltar, and the operation was cancelled.
Operation G.A.2 and loss of Gondar
On 21 September, the submarine Gondar (T.V. Francesco Brunetti) departed from La Spezia. She stopped at Messina to pick up ten members1 of the Prima Flottiglia MAS2 to carry out an operation against Alexandria (Operation G.A.2). She was carrying three human torpedoes, Gondar left Messina on 25 September. At 2215 hours on the 29th, she was about 30 miles north of Dabaa (Egypt) when a warship was seen approaching. This was HMAS Stuart returning to Alexandria. The submarine immediately dived, but it had been detected by ASDIC at 3,000 yards. The destroyer rushed to the attack, dropping six depth charges. By dawn, contact had never been lost, and five more attacks were carried out with twenty-four depth charges expended. Early in the morning Sunderland L.2166 (Squadron Leader P.H. Alington) of 230 Squadron and the armed trawler Sindonis had joined the hunt. At 0930 hours, the aircraft dropped bombs, and a few minutes later, the submarine surfaced. It immediately came under fire from the two warships and was abandoned. The crew of thirty-eight and the ten maiali operators were picked up except for one rating, the electrician Luigi Longobardi. He had stayed behind to ensure the scuttling and was awarded the Medaglia d’Oro posthumously. To disguise the purpose of the operation, survivors will claim that they were on a mission to plant hydrophones on buoys ten miles from Alexandria with listening posts in Cyrenaica! Elios Toschi, one of the founders of these assault means, was shipped to a British PoW camp in India and made a remarkable escape by trekking through the Himalayas and reaching Portuguese Goa3. Brunetti had the dubious distinction of losing two submarines in forty days (the other was Iride).
Admiral Falangola, the head of Maricosom, visited Leros and Rhodes (26 September-1 October). He met with Governor De Vecchi, and no doubt, the sinking of the Greek cruiser Helle was discussed, although this was not recorded in Falangola’s account.
Atlantic
Italian submarine patrols in the Atlantic during September 1940
| Emo (…) | Faà di Bruno (…) | Giuliani (…) |
| Baracca (…) | Torelli (…) | Tarantini (…) |
| Barbarigo (…8 September) | Dandolo (…10 September) | Marconi (6-28 September) |
| Finzi (7-29 September) | Bagnolini (9-30 September) | Da Vinci (22 September…) |
| Otaria (23 September…) | Glauco (26 September…) | Veniero (28 September…) |
| Nani (29 September…) | Cappellini (29 September…) |
The base of Betasom at Bordeaux, under the command of Admiral Angelo Parona, was officially in operation as of 1 September. The French liner De Grasse was provided as a floating accommodation ship. About 500 Italian workers would be used to maintain and repair the submarines. The morale of Italian submariners and workers was high compared to those in the Mediterranean Theatre, where successes were rare. In 1941, they would have their weekly magazine (“La Vedetta Atlantica”) to entertain and inform the close-knit Italian community. The base was defended by twelve 88mm and twenty-four 20mm anti-aircraft guns to be reinforced shortly by four more 88mm and ten 20mm guns. The task of escorting the submarines in and out was assigned to the 2nd Minesweeping Flotilla under the command of Korvettenkapitän Thoma, assisted by a Sperrbrecher, and later reinforced by the 4th Vorpostensflottille (patrol-boats). Initially, Sperrbrecher III and Sperrbrecher V were put at their disposal. The Sperrbrecher was designed to detonate mines and clear a passage across minefields. These precautionary measures were at once justified as the RAF used Hampden bombers to mine the Gironde estuary as early as the night of 10/11 September.
On 2 September, Bianchi (C.C. Adalberto Giovannini) attempted to attack two destroyers near Gibraltar. She was detected and depth-charged but escaped unscathed.
Two days later, Malaspina (C.C. Mario Leoni4) was the first submarine to reach Bordeaux. The same day, Korvettenkapitän Hans-Rudolf Rösing (former commander of U–48) arrived at the base where he would act as a liaison officer. He spoke good English and a little Spanish, and his good nature made a favourable impression. His task was coordinating operations with Admiral Schuster, who was in command of Naval Forces based in France, and with the BdU (the newly promoted Vice Admiral Karl Dönitz).
After midnight on 8 September, Faà di Bruno (C.C. Aldo Enrici) missed an unidentified merchant ship with a single torpedo fired from 3,000 metres; she could not get any closer. The next day, 175 miles southeast of San Miguel (Azores), she shelled the British Auris (8,030 GRT, built 1935), but although damaged, the vessel replied with her gun and managed to escape by a burst of speed. If this was her first encounter with an Italian submarine, it would not be her last. She was finally sunk by Da Vinci the following June.
On 8 September Luigi Torelli (C.F. Aldo Cocchia), having cleared the Straits of Gibraltar, stopped the Greek ‘Griegi’ (this vessel has never been correctly identified) but released her after examining her papers.
Alpino Attilio Bagnolini (C.C. Franco Tosoni Pittoni) made the Gibraltar crossing on 13 September and reported a Sunderland attack northwest of Lisbon on 24 September, claiming hits on the aircraft, but so far, this has not been substantiated.
On 14 September Emo (C.C. Carlo Liannazza) used a combination of torpedoes and gunfire to dispose of the British St. Agnes (5,199 GRT, built 1918) some 600 miles west of Vigo. She had been detached from the SLS.46 convoy (Freetown to the United Kingdom). Her sixty-four survivors in four lifeboats were picked up by the American Exochorda, who had steered immediately to her assistance.
On 18 September, Bagnolini sank Cabo Tortosa (3,302 GRT, built 1921). Yet, Tosoni Pittoni had correctly identified the Spanish ship; however, her northerly course was suspect, and the arrival of another vessel prompted him to hastily fire a single torpedo, which was fatal to the vessel. The survivors were picked up by the Spanish Monte Ayala.
This was not the only incident involving Spanish vessels. The following day, without giving prior warning, Marconi (C.C. Giulio Chialamberto) torpedoed the small Spanish vessel Almirante José de Carranza5 (330 GRT, built 1918), mistaken for a 10,000-ton vessel due to the poor visibility. Of her crew of fifteen, only one survivor was picked up by the submarine and was later transferred to the Spanish fishing vessel Maria Dolores. Chialamberto was severely reprimanded by Admiral Parona for this action.
On the same day, Faà di Bruno missed an unidentified merchant vessel despite claiming a hit. On 21 September, Torelli did not fare better when she missed a neutral vessel and another on the 27th.
On 24 September, Bagnolini reported to have been attacked by a Sunderland aircraft NW of Lisbon; she replied with her machine guns and escaped damage.
On the 25th of the month, the British Naval Attaché in Madrid cabled the Admiralty that three to six Italian submarines would arrive off Estepona or Marbella in the following days and attempt to transit the Strait of Gibraltar. The information was fairly accurate. Leonardo da Vinci passed through the Strait on 27 September; Glauco on 2 October; Veniero, Nani, and Cappellini followed on successive days without serious interference.
On 26 September, west of Madeira, Giuliani (C.C. Renato d’Elia) opened fire at 5,000 metres on an unidentified ship. The target returned fire, the submarine’s guns jammed, and the attack was broken off.
Leonardo Da Vinci (C.C. Ferdinando Calda) made the Gibraltar passage on 27 September. At noon the next day, she sighted a two-funnel destroyer which dropped several depth charges. The submarine escaped by going down to 120 metres. This was HMS Wishart escorting the battlecruiser HMS Renown from Force H. Two days later, the submarine also reported another narrow escape at the hands of two destroyers.
However, the weather was beginning to affect submarine operations in the Atlantic. Finzi encountered seas of Force 6-7 and could not maintain periscope depth. She arrived at Bordeaux on 29 September and was visited by Admiral Dönitz the next day. No doubt, he must have concluded that the massive conning towers of Italian submarines were part of the problem, and several alterations would later address this.
Vice-Admiral Parona greeting C.C. Alberto Dominici (USMM)
Red Sea and Indian Ocean
Italian submarine patrols in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean during September 1940
| Ferraris (…1 September) | Guglielmotti (3-7 September) | Ferraris (…1 September) |
| Ferraris (14-16 September) | Guglielmotti (19-26 September) | Archimede (19-23 September) |
The Greek Atlas (4,008 GRT, built 1909) had initially travelled with convoy BN.4 and was bound from Abadan (Iran) for Piraeus. Her maximum speed was only 6 knots, and after the destroyer HMS Kingston had placed an armed guard of six men on board, she was ordered to proceed independently. On 6 September, Guglielmotti (C.C. Carlo Tucci) intercepted her 14 miles north of Djebel Tair Island (off the Arabian coast). No warning was given, and she was hit by a torpedo6 and sent to the bottom. Two days later, her survivors would reach the island of Kamaran. This would be the last success registered by the Massawa-based submarines.
Ferraris (C.C. Livio Piomarta) sailed for patrol on 14 September, but some of her crew were overcome by methyl chloride fumes, and she was forced to abort her patrol. She was the only Red Sea submarine still using this gas for her air conditioning system, which would be converted to Ircon gas in October.
On 22 September, a Royal Air Force reconnaissance of Kismayu reported several merchant ships and a submarine that had submerged, but no attacks were apparently carried out.
- They were led C.F. Mario Giorgini and consisted of T.V. Alberto Franzini/G.M. Alberto Cacioppo, Cap. G.N. Elios Toschi/Sg. Pal. Umberto Ragnati and Cap. A.N. Gustavo Stefanini/Sg. Pal. Alessandro Scappino and in reserve: G.M. Aristide Calcagno, Sg. Pal. Giovanni Lazzaroni and C. El. 2^ Cl. Cipriano Cipriani. ↩︎
- The SLC teams were initially part of the Prima Flottiglia MAS [First MAS Flotilla]; on 14 March 1941, they became a separate entity known as the Decima Flottiglia MAS [X or Tenth MAS Flotilla]. ↩︎
- Cf. Ninth time Lucky by Elios Toschi, William Kimber, London 1955. ↩︎
- Leoni published an account of his patrol as Sangue di Marinai, which was re-edited in 2007 as Il Sommergibile Malaspina è rientrato a Betasom (Gianni Bianchi ed.). ↩︎
- Also referred to Almirante Juan de Carranza named after Admiral Don José Juan de Carranza. ↩︎
- The survivors claimed that a total of four torpedoes were fired, but we cannot confirm it since the submarine’s patrol report did not survive. ↩︎