Italian submarine Lafolè
Italian submarine "Lafolè" was an built for the Royal Italian Navy ("Regia Marina") during the 1930s. It was named after a "massacre at Lafolè", an ambush set up by Somalis on November 25, 1896, against a travelling Italian party near a village of Lafolè. Design and description. The "Adua"-class submarines were essentially repeats of the preceding . They displaced surfaced and submerged. The submarines were long, had a beam of and a draft of . For surface running, the boats were powered by two diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a  electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the "Adua" class had a range of at , submerged, they had a range of at . The boats were armed with six internal torpedo tubes, four in the bow and two in the stern. One reload torpedo was carried for each tube, for a total of twelve. They were also armed with one deck gun for combat on the surface. The light anti-aircraft armament consisted of one or two pairs of machine guns. Construction and career. Upon entering the service, in December of 1938 she was assigned  to Leros as part of the V Submarine Group. Later re-assigned to Tobruk as part of the 62 Squadron (VI Submarine group) under command of Piero Riccomini. After the declaration of war on June 10, 1940, "Lafolè" along with other submarines from the 62 Squadron was posted to Sollum to protect the harbors of Cyrenaica from a possible British attack. Later on she was sent off to Tobruk on an offensive mission. On June 20, 1940, she returned to the base without any sightings. On July 3, 1940, "Lafolè" along with other submarines patrolled along the Gaudo–Derna line . On July 7–8, 1940, she detected ongoing large anti-submarine activity, but could not locate the enemy units. On July 14 1940, she returned to the base, again without sighting any enemy units. During September of 1940, she was involved in defensive missions in the Gulf of Taranto. On October 8, 1940, "Lafolè" left Taranto for her new area of operation east of Gibraltar along the coast of Morocco. On October 15, 1940, she arrived in her designated patrol area, southeast of the island of Alboran and north of Cape Three Forks, close to Melilla. On October 20, 1940, at  approximately 11:00 "Lafolè" sighted 2 British destroyers, and , 12 miles north of Cape Three Forks. Enemy ships were moving slowly, conducting what looked like a submarine search, and apparently unaware of "Lafolè"'s presence. Captain Riccomini closed in to within 500 meters and fired one aft torpedo at the target. Captain Riccomini, of course, couldn't possibly know that the British were fully aware of his submarine's presence. Two days earlier, was sunk not far from "Lafolè"s location. Among the documents captured from were coordinates of "Lafolè". The British immediately sent out a search group composed of six destroyers  (, , , and 2 others) to hunt for the submarine. While "Lafolè" was closing in on two "unsuspecting" British destroyers, a third one, , was rapidly approaching the submarine from her back, and thus closing the trap on unsuspecting boat. Once captain Riccomini fired his torpedoes, all three ships immediately counterattacked with depth charges. The first barrage damaged electric motors and pumps, bent the propeller shafts and caused flooding. "Lafolè" could no longer maintain the depth, and started continuously surfacing and submerging, yet the crew managed to keep her down for the next seven hours. At 18:30 "Lafolè" has surfaced one last time , and going full force rammed the submarine. The collision was so violent, that it threw out several men out of submarine. Second in command Giuseppe Accardi, and 8 more men were the only survivors, captain Riccomini, 3 officers and 35 other men all went down with the submarine. "Lafolè" sank in the position . Captain Riccomini was posthumously awarded Silver Medal of Military Valor for his bravery and leadership in combating superior enemy forces.