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Despite the awful Japanese behavior, many Italian submariners in the Indian Ocean kept fighting for several months. The Italian boats were transferred to the German U-Boat command in Penang and continued operating with a mixed Italian-German crew. After the German surrender, on May 8th 1945, about 20 sailors kept fighting along the Japanese (5).. For the record, the Torelli operated in Japanese waters until August 30th, 1945 and was even able to shoot down an American B-25 Mitchell, the last success of a “Japanese” naval vessel in War World Two.
1: The minelayer Lepanto was built in 1927. It had a displacement of 1,040 tons, a speed of 15 knots and was armed with two 120mm guns, (2 ) 40mm machine guns and 80 depth charges. The gunboat Ermanno Carlotto was built in 1923. It had a displacement of 318 tons, speed of 13.5 knots and was armed with two 76 mm guns and 4 machineguns.
2: The first German ship able to break through the Allied blockade was the Weserland (6,500 tons), under commander Krage who on December 28th, 1940 sailed from Kobe with a load of rubber, wolfram, felt, vegetable oil, tea, coffee and pharmaceutical products. The Waserland crossed the Pacific, Cape Horn, the Atlantic and arrived in Bordeaux on April 4th, 1941 after 98 days at sea. At the outbreak of war, 14 German and 2 Italian ships were locked in the Japanese ports of Yokohama, Osaka and Sasebo and in the Manchurian port of Dairen.
Smg. Cappellini
3: Between 1942 and 1943 the shipyard Tosi designed and built two large transport submarines, the Romolo and the Remo, originally developed to reach the Far East. These two submarines (from 2,210 to 2,606 tons) were able to transport 610 tons of goods and had a range of 12,000 km. The Romolo and Remo were the only two of 12 units planned and were lost upon their first cruise, one sunk by airplanes and the second one by an enemy submarine.
4: During the second half of May 1943, just after the end of some structural work, the first Italian transport submarine left Bordeaux followed by a few others. The fate of these vessels was a sad one; Two, the Tazzoli and the Barbarigo, disappeared at sea after their departure, probably sunk by Allied planes. The Giuliani and the Torelli, caught on September 8th in Penang, Malaya were captured by German forces. The apparent disaster which had stricken the Italian forces did not impede the Japanese from capturing in Penang 355 tons of war material coming from Germany, equivalent to 55% of the total load of the 6 Italian vessels. On the other hand, the Germans never received the 377 tons of rubber and the 184 tons of felt already loaded on the Italian submarines. As a matter of fact, the Germans did not want to sail these worn down vessels back to Bordeaux.
Gunboat Lepanto in China
4a – 4b: The Italian submarines based at Betasom which underwent transformations were actually seven.: Cappellini, Tazzoli, Finzi, Giuliani and Bagnolin, Barbarigo, and Torelli. The Tazzoli and the Barbarigo were sunk. The Cappellini, which had arrived in Penang on September 10th, 1943, was captured by the Germans and renamed U.IT.24. After May 8th, 1945 this unit was transferred to the Japanese who named it I.503. The Giuliani, which had arrived in Singapore in late summer 1943, was captured by the Germans and renamed U.IT.23. This vessel with a mixed Italian and German crew was sunk in the Malacca Strait in 1944 by the British submarine Tallyho. The Finzi, which in September 1943 was still in Bordeaux waiting for the completion of some repair work, was incorporated into the German Navy with the name U.IT.21. The vessel was never utilized as a transport and was sunk by the German in Bordeaux on August 25th, 1944 just before the arrival of Allied forces.
ROUTE MAP OF THE ERITREA, RAMB1 AND RAMB II
Article and images courtesy of Alberto Rosselli
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