Small submarine type A (Italy)

Type a

Ship data flag  Italy Ship type Small submarine type A Shipyard San Bartolomeo underwater weapon factory Launch December 5, 1915 Whereabouts Scrapped January 1918

From 1915 length 13.50 m ( Lüa ) width 2.22 m Draft Max. 2.27 m   crew 4th

Machine system machine 1 × electric motor Machine performance 60 hp (44 kW) Top speed 8.5 kn (16 km / h) propeller 1

Mission data submarine Radius of action 12 at 6 kn sm Immersion depth, max. 20 m

Type A was a miniature submarine of the Italian Navy , which was designed during the First World War in July 1915 and produced in small series.

Development history

Development and construction took place under the direction of General Ferrati in the underwater weapons factory San Bartolomeo in La Spezia . The construction contract initially comprised two prototypes of a boat intended for closer coastal defense in the vicinity of important harbors. The boat should be suitable for rail transport.

After the completion and sea trials of the two prototypes, four more boats were ordered. The boats were given the designations A 1 to A 6 . A 1 was put into service on December 5, 1915 and A 6 on March 3, 1916. Their empty weight was 31 t, 37 t when in combat. The single-hulled boat was equipped with a non-retractable rigid periscope and its technical equipment was very primitive. The four crew members suffered from an enormous lack of space and the operation of the boat turned out to be extremely difficult. The armament consisted of two 45 cm torpedoes , which were mounted in a drainage frame in the forecastle immediately in front of the tower structure .

The original plan was that the boats should cross in front of the ports of Brindisi and Valorna. Due to their short range, however, A 2 and A 4 were sent to Bari and A 3 , A 5 and A 6 to Venice . A 1 remained in La Spezia as a test and training boat.

Calls

The three boats in Venice were intended for an attack on the Austrian maritime units anchored in the port of Trieste . To do this, they should be brought into the operational area on board a carrier ship and then run towards the enemy under their own power. However, due to the boats' short range, they would not have made the way back and the plan was dropped. The boats were then moved to Ancona , but were not used again during the war. They were temporarily decommissioned and transferred to Venice in January 1918 and scrapped.

The two boats in Bari, A 2 and A 4 , were also not used by the enemy. They were temporarily decommissioned in January 1917 and replaced by two Type B boats . In November 1917, the two boats were also moved to Ancona, decommissioned and scrapped. The training boat A1 was decommissioned on July 29, 1917 and then scrapped.

literature

• Harald Fock: Naval small weapons. Manned torpedoes, small submarines, small speedboats, explosives yesterday - today - tomorrow. Nikol, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-930656-34-5 , pp. 38-39.