Brin class
 Brin class before the tower reconstruction
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The five submarines of Brin class were from 1936 to 1939 for the Italian Navy built and in the Second World War and outside the Mediterranean used. The boat class was named after Admiral Benedetto Brin .
history
The five ocean-going boats Brin, Galvani, Guglielmotti, Archimede and Torricelli were built at the Tosi shipyard in Taranto . Originally only three boats were planned. During the Spanish Civil War , Italy secretly sold two Archimede-class boats , Archimede and Torricelli , to the Spanish nationalists . To replace this, two more boats of the same name of the Brin class were commissioned in the hope that the levy would go undetected.
The Brin class was a further development of the Archimede class, whereby despite a slight increase in displacement with unchanged propulsion, the speed could be increased without, however, significantly improving the seaworthiness . In terms of armament, the AA-MG was doubled from two to four, but the on-board cannons were reduced from two to one. The on-board cannon was built into the rear area of the tower, which thus differed significantly from that of the previous class. Since this solution did not meet expectations and the tower, like many Italian submarines, was too big, the cannon was placed in front of the tower again during the war and the tower was rebuilt and reduced in size. The partially double-hulled boats had four torpedo tubes at the bow and a stern torpedo room with four more tubes.
Boats of the class
See also: Italian Naval Forces in World War II
Benedetto Brin
The Benedetto Brin was laid down at Tosi in Taranto on December 3, 1936, launched on April 3, 1938 and put into service on June 30, 1938. Like all other boats of the class it came first to the 44th squadron of the 4th submarine group in Taranto, in 1939 then to the 41st. Brin came with Galvani to a submarine command in Massaua and operated in the Red Sea and in the Indian ocean . While all other boats of the class were moved to Massaua in 1940, Brin returned to the Mediterranean and operated first in the Strait of Sicily and then near Crete . At the end of October 1940 it moved from Messina to Bordeaux , only narrowly escaping two British destroyers in the Strait of Gibraltar . On June 13, 1941, Brin sank two merchant ships near the Azores . At the end of August 1941 the boat returned to Messina, from where it operated unsuccessfully for the next two years. After the armistice of Cassibile , it was handed over to the Allies in Bône in September 1943 , who moved it with the Italian occupation first to Malta and then in October 1943 to Taranto. Between May 1944 and December 1945 it was used again in the Indian Ocean, where it was used by the Royal Navy for anti-submarine training in Ceylon . The boat was decommissioned on February 1, 1948 in Taranto and then scrapped.
Luigi Galvani
This boat, named after the scientist Luigi Galvani , was also laid down on December 3, 1936, the launch took place on May 22, 1938, the handover on July 29, 1938. In June 1940 it was subordinate to the 81st Squadron in Massaua in Eritrea . On June 10, 1940, it left its base for the Gulf of Oman , which it reached on June 23. After the British captured the boat Galilei and with it the orders of the 81st Squadron on June 19, Galvani was already expected in the Gulf of Oman. The corvette HMS Falmouth hit the submerged boat in the stern torpedo room, the bulkhead of which was closed by NCO Pietro Venuti. Thanks to Venuti, who drowned in the stern torpedo room, the boat, which had been further damaged by depth charges, was able to briefly return to the surface and most of the crew were rescued. Various sources attribute the sinking of the British-Indian sloop HMIS Pathan to the boat Galvani .
Alberto Guglielmotti
The boat named after the Dominican and naval historian Alberto Guglielmotti was laid on December 3, 1936 in Taranto and launched on September 11, 1938; on October 12, 1938 it was handed over to the Navy. In June 1940 it was under the 81st Squadron in Massaua. On June 22, 1940, Guglielmotti rescued the crew of the Macallè boat , which ran onto a rock on June 15 near the island of Barr Musa Kebir. On September 6, 1940, it sank the Greek tanker Atlas . Shortly before the fall of Italian East Africa , the Italian submarines received the order to circumnavigate the African continent and go to the Italian submarine base in Bordeaux . Guglielmotti was the last Italian submarine to leave Massaua on March 4, 1941. It arrived in the French port city on May 6, 1941, where it was repaired for several months. In September 1941 it ran past Gibraltar back into the Mediterranean, where it was modernized in Taranto by February 1942. On March 15, 1942, it left Taranto for Cagliari , but was sunk on March 17, 1942 near Cape Spartivento (Calabria) by the British submarine HMS Unbeaten . There were no survivors.
Archimede
The boat named after Archimedes was laid down in Taranto on December 23, 1937, launched on March 5, 1939 and was handed over on April 18, 1939. In June 1940 it belonged to the 82nd Squadron in Massaua. On June 19, the mission ran off the coast of Djibouti , but had to be canceled after problems with the ventilation system and the resulting poisoning and deaths among the crew. Archimede left Massaua on March 3, 1941 for the reasons mentioned above and arrived in Bordeaux on May 7, 1941, where it was repaired. Under the command of Gianfranco Gazzana Priaroggia , on May 23, 1942 it unsuccessfully attacked the cruiser USS Milwaukee and the destroyer USS Moffett . On June 16, the merchant ship Cardina was sunk while the US steamer Columbian escaped. In October 1942 it operated off the West African Freetown , where it sank the troop carrier Oronsay on October 9 and damaged the Greek steamer Nea Hellas the following day . Archimede was sunk on April 15, 1943 at Fernando de Noronha after a hard fight by the American Consolidated PBY Catalina . A number of crew members were able to get to safety on discarded life rafts , but gradually died there. After 27 days, a survivor was rescued by Brazilian fishermen.
Evangelista Torricelli
The boat named after the physicist Evangelista Torricelli was laid down on December 23, 1937, it was launched on March 26, 1939, and was handed over on May 7, 1939. In June 1940 it belonged to the 82nd Squadron in Massaua. On June 14, 1940, it ran under the command of Salvatore Pelosi in the direction of Djibouti, but was damaged there by British destroyers and then again on the march back in the Strait of Bab al-Mandab . Shortly after the second attack, Pelosi appeared, but was then, contrary to his expectations, confronted with three destroyers and two sloops trying to capture the boat Torricelli . In the forty-minute overwater battle, the two British sloops Shoreham and Indo were forced to retreat and the three destroyers were damaged, whereby the HMS Khartoum had to be grounded and abandoned. The boat Torricelli ended up being badly damaged and unable to maneuver. Shortly before boarding it, Pelosi ordered the scuttling. Seven men died in an overwater battle, the wounded Pelosi was rescued by the British against his will with the rest of the crew.
literature
- Erminio Bagnasco: Submarines in World War II. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-613-01252-9 .
- Giorgio Giorgerini: Uomini sul fondo. Storia del sommergibilismo italiano dalle origini a oggi. Mondadori, Milan 2002, ISBN 978-8804505372 .
- Robert Jackson: Submarines. Gondromverlag, Bindlach 2001, ISBN 3-8112-1874-3 .