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The Archimede class were a group of four submarines built for the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) in the early 1930s. The boats fought in the Spanish Civil War (under the Nationalist flag) and in World War II. In Spanish service, two boats were known as the General Mola class; these were taken out of service in 1959.
Design
The ships were designed by the firm Cavallini and were a partially double hulled design. They were an enlarged version of the Settembrini-class submarine with ballast tanks rearranged, greater range, fuel and torpedo capacity for ocean service. Like most of the later ocean-going submarines of the Italian navy, their deck armament consisting of two 100 mm (3.9 in) guns was conceived to deal with armed merchantmen in surface combat. They also mounted two 13.2 mm (0.52 in) anti-aircraft machine guns. The number of torpedoes was increased from 12 on the Settembrini class to 16.
Torricelli and Archimede took part in the Spanish Civil war under the Italian flag since 1936, carrying out undercover operations. Eventually both submarines were secretly delivered to the Spanish nationalists in April 1937.
During the second half of 1936 she operated in Spanish waters covertly as Archimede. Transferred to the Spanish nationalist navy in April 1937, renamed General Sanjurjo. She sank the Republican troop transport Ciudad de Barcelona on 30 May 1937 and the British Endymion near 37°19′3″N 1°3′16″W / 37.31750°N 1.05444°W / 37.31750; -1.05444 on 21 January 1938. Involved in an incident with HMS Torbay on 7 February 1943, during WWII, after the British submarine misidentified her as Italian. Stricken in 1959
On 16 June 1940, she sank the Norwegian tanker James Stove off Aden, in the Red Sea. Captured two days later by the British armed trawler HMS Moonstone. Commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS X2, scrapped in 1946
She torpedoed and disabled the Republican Almirante Cervera-classcruiserMiguel de Cervantes in 1936, still under Italian flag as Torricelli. Transferred to the Spanish nationalist navy in April 1937, renamed General Mola. She sank the Republican transport Cabo Palos on 26 July 1937 and the Dutch freighter Hanna on 2 January 1938. She also damaged beyond repair the Greek Lena on 30 March. Stricken in 1959
That was the case of the Marcello-class submarine Comandante Cappellini, which on 5 and 14 January 1941 sank the British steamship Shakespear and then engaged in gunnery with the cargo/passenger ship (additionally carrying 100 troops Eumaeus off Cabo Verde when two torpedoes failed to sink it. Another example occurred when the Brin-classsubmarineTorricelli faced three British destroyers and a sloop while surfaced in the Red Sea. Before being sunk, the submarine hit the sloop and damaged the destroyer HMS Khartoum but was sunk in the action. A torpedo fault later the day caused a fire which led to magazine explosion and Khartoum was beached at Perim but the cause is not attributed to the gun battle.
José Sanjurjo was one of the leaders of the nationalist uprising, he was killed in an aircraft accident in July 1936
Mola was the third of the leaders of the July 1936 military coup that started the civil war. After his death in an aircraft accident Franco was left as the leader of the Nationalists.
References
^ Bishop, Chris (2002). The Encyclopedia of Weapons of WWII: The Comprehensive Guide to Over 1,500 Weapons Systems, Including Tanks, Small Arms, Warplanes, Artillery, Ships, and Submarines. Sterling Publishing. p. 442. ISBN1-58663-762-2.
"Submarinos". Fuerza Naval (in Spanish) (84): 23. August 2009. Archived from the original on 2013-02-10. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
González Etchegaray, Rafael (1977). La Marina Mercante y el tráfico marítimo en la Guerra Civil (in Spanish). San Martín. p. Appendix 2. ISBN84-7140-150-9.
Further reading
Bagnasco, Erminio (1977). Submarines of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN0-87021-962-6.
Brescia, Maurizio (2012). Mussolini's Navy: A Reference Guide to the Regina Marina 1930–45. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN978-1-59114-544-8.
Regia Marina
Spanish Navy
Royal Navy