Italian submarine Guglielmotti (1938)
Guglielmotti was a built for the Royal Italian Navy ("Regia Marina") during the 1930s. Design and description. The "Brin"-class submarines were improved versions of the preceding . They displaced surfaced and submerged. The submarines were long, had a beam of and a draft of . The class was partially double hulled. 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 "Brin" class had a range of at , submerged, they  had a range of at . The boats were armed with eight internal torpedo tubes, four each in the bow and stern. They carried a total of 14 torpedoes. They were also armed with one deck gun for combat on the surface. The gun was initially mounted in the rear of the conning tower, but this was re-sited on the forward deck later in the war in the surviving boats and the large conning tower was re-built to a smaller design. The light anti-aircraft armament consisted of one or two pairs of machine guns. Construction and career. "Guglielmotti  was built by Tosi shipyard in Taranto, laid down on 3 December 1936, and launched on 11 September 1938. She was named after Father Alberto Guglielmotti, a renowned Italian theologian, historian and a scholar of the history of the Italian Navy. Upon her commission, Guglielmotti" was assigned together with , , and , as well as the older and to the 44th Squadron based at Taranto. During 1939 "Galileo Galilei" and "Galileo Ferraris" were moved to a different location and the 44th Squadron was renamed to 41st Squadron. During June 21-29, 1939 she undertook a training cruise from Naples to Lisbon, under  the command of captain Folco Bonamici. Her task was to investigate conditions at the Strait of Gibraltar, and experiment with the transfer to the Atlantic and to optimize navigation time and performance. She started her return trip on July 3, and came back to Naples on 8 July 1939. In the following months, she underwent extensive training and performed exercises. In 1940 "Guglielmotti" was reassigned to the 81st Squadron (VIII Submarine Group) based at the Red Sea port of Massawa. Her commander at the time was captain Carlo Tucci. Her first war mission was to retrieve the men of who  ended up stranded on the deserted island of Barr Musa Chebir after their submarine ran aground and was scuttled. "Guglielmotti" left Massawa on June 21, 1940, and picked up all 21 men next day at 12:45 and then returned to Massawa. On July 26 1940, she was sent together with destroyers and to search for two Greek merchants or a British merchant according to other sources, that had been reported as coming from Suez and heading south but the ship had never been found. She returned to Massawa on July 31. During 21-25 August 1940 she performed another mission  in the Red Sea without sighting any vessels. On September 6, 1940 "Guglielmotti" while on patrol, searching for the British convoy BN-4 south of the Farasan Islands, at about 15:00 sighted two ships. One was too far away, but the other was close and in a good position for an attack. This was a 30 year old tanker "Atlas" (4008 GRT) sailing under the Greek flag from Abadan to Suez, straggling behind the convoy BN-4. "Guglielmotti" closed in to within 700 meters and launched two torpedoes. The tanker was hit by both on starboard side opening a large hole from  which the oil started flowing into the sea. The crew abandoned the ship, and rowed towards Aden. Since the tanker did not appear to be sinking, captain Tucci ordered to launch another torpedo, which missed the ship. The fourth torpedo was then launched which hit the ship and broke her into two. "Atlas" sank in the position . On September 20, 1940 "Guglielmotti" and were sent to intercept British convoy BN-5, but they could not locate it. On October 20-21, 1940 "Guglielmotti" and 'Galileo Ferraris' were sent to intercept British convoy BN-7 consisting of 31 merchants escorted by light cruiser  HMNZS "Leander", destroyer and 5 sloops. Despite all the efforts, the submarines could not locate the convoy. In January 1941, when it became clear that Italian East Africa would eventually fall, it was decided to send submarines to Bordeaux to try to save them from either destruction or capture by the British. All submarines were modified for the journey: their fuel tanks were enlarged, some torpedoes, gun ammunition were removed as well as some non-critical items. On March 3-4, 1941 "Guglielmotti" under command of captain Gino Spagone left Massawa together with "Archimede" and headed to Bordeaux, in the  occupied part of France. After circumnavigating Africa, and being refueled and restocked by the German tanker "Northmark" on her way, she finally arrived at Bordeaux on May 6, 1941. "Archimede" arrived at Bordeaux on 7 May, 1941. Overall, "Guglielmotti" traveled in 66 days to conclude another war patrol. Upon her arrival, "Guglielmotti" underwent maintenance and repairs which kept her out of operation until September 1941. On September 22, 1941, she sailed from Bordeaux to return to the Mediterranean. On September 30, 1941 "Guglielmotti" traveled through the Strait of Gibraltar, and on October 16, 1941, she arrived in Messina without any  incidents. From November 1941 through February 1942 she was at the Arsenal of Taranto undergoing maintenance and upgrades. As part of the procedure, her 100/43 mm Mod. 1927 gun was replaced with a more modern /47 caliber piece. After the work was finished, on March 15, 1942, "Guglielmotti" under command of captain Federico Tamburini departed from Taranto to her new base in Cagliari. At 6:33 on March 17 the British submarine patroling off Capo dell'Armi detected her over the hydrophones and two minutes later sighted "Guglielmotti" 2200 yards away. After maneuvering to assume a better firing position, at 6:40 HMS  Unbeaten launched four torpedoes. After a minute and 40 seconds an explosion was heard, and "Guglielmotti" sank quickly in the position , about 15 miles south of Cape Spartivento taking the majority of the crew down with her. At 7:20 HMS "Unbeaten" surfaced, observed there were a dozen survivors in the water, and approached to pick them up. However, a plane was sighted, and the submarine crash dove to avoid being detected and left the area. In about three hours a torpedo boat arrived, and launched a depth-charge attack at the place of sinking, but the British submarine was already  far away. Of the twelve survivors seen in the water by "Unbeaten", "Francesco Stocco" found and recovered only a corpse. There were no survivors among the 61 men of the crew.