I was asked these two questions about the Regia Marina. Can anyone help answer these?
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The two issues involve Italian submarine doctrine and convoys for an operational game in the Decision at Sea series.
1) It's commonly known that submarine doctrine when Italy entered the war was to assign their subs in the Med to rigid patrol areas, which they were not allowed to leave to pursue targets or for any other tactical reason. When did this doctrine change? English language sources just broadly generalize with verbiage like "by 1942," which isn't especially helpful. And what was the new doctrine?
The Royal Navy finally allowed access to their submarines' WWII logs in the last few years, and the information now available on Uboat.net for those subs is actually better than that for German subs. If similar info was available for Italian subs I could probably answer this question for myself, but it's not available anywhere I can access.
2) Italian convoys were small and usually escorted by only a couple destroyers or torpedo boats, occasionally with distant cover by larger forces. What were their original routes, how often did they sail, and when did they change? They do not seem to have regular designations like the Allies, but one does sometimes see letter designations in sources. How were they designated?
I have a complete list of dates and compositions for the arctic convoys that I did for PQ-17, as well as a complete list of east-west British convoys in the Med (and almost complete for north-south convoys to and from Greece). But all I have for the Italians is anecdotal evidence of the convoys that were attacked by the British, often with no dates/ports of departure or accurate composition. The aforementioned data on Uboat.net for RN Med sub patrols does include some information on the exact composition of Italian convoys the subs attacked which I have never seen elsewhere, clearly from Italian sources. I would like to compile a list of Italian convoys like I have for the Allies, at least as much as possible, so am hoping someone with access to these Italian sources might help with this.
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The two issues involve Italian submarine doctrine and convoys for an operational game in the Decision at Sea series.
1) It's commonly known that submarine doctrine when Italy entered the war was to assign their subs in the Med to rigid patrol areas, which they were not allowed to leave to pursue targets or for any other tactical reason. When did this doctrine change? English language sources just broadly generalize with verbiage like "by 1942," which isn't especially helpful. And what was the new doctrine?
The Royal Navy finally allowed access to their submarines' WWII logs in the last few years, and the information now available on Uboat.net for those subs is actually better than that for German subs. If similar info was available for Italian subs I could probably answer this question for myself, but it's not available anywhere I can access.
2) Italian convoys were small and usually escorted by only a couple destroyers or torpedo boats, occasionally with distant cover by larger forces. What were their original routes, how often did they sail, and when did they change? They do not seem to have regular designations like the Allies, but one does sometimes see letter designations in sources. How were they designated?
I have a complete list of dates and compositions for the arctic convoys that I did for PQ-17, as well as a complete list of east-west British convoys in the Med (and almost complete for north-south convoys to and from Greece). But all I have for the Italians is anecdotal evidence of the convoys that were attacked by the British, often with no dates/ports of departure or accurate composition. The aforementioned data on Uboat.net for RN Med sub patrols does include some information on the exact composition of Italian convoys the subs attacked which I have never seen elsewhere, clearly from Italian sources. I would like to compile a list of Italian convoys like I have for the Allies, at least as much as possible, so am hoping someone with access to these Italian sources might help with this.