Italian submarine Barbarigo

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Barbarigo
Career
Launched:	12 June 1938
Commissioned:	19 September 1938
Fate:	sunk
Stricken:	16 June 1943
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,060 tons surfaced 1,313 tons submerged
Length:	73 m
Beam:	7.19 m
Draft:	5.1 m
Speed:	17.4 knots surfaced 8 knots submerged
Complement:	58
Armament:	8 x 533 mm torpedo tubes (4 bow, 4 stern), 2 x 100/47 mm gun, 4 x 13.2 mm machine guns

The Barbarigo was a World War II Italian Marcello-class submarine, serving with the Regia Marina until its sinking in 1943.

Named after a Venetian noble family whose members included two doges, the Barbarigo was launched on 12 June 1938 as part of the first series of nine Marcello-class ocean-going submarines powered by CRDA diesel engines.

On 10 June 1940, when Italy declared war on the Allies, the Barbarigo, under the command of C.C. Giulio Ghiglieri, was based at Naples and already on patrol off Cape Bengut, and later carried out patrols between Cape de Gata and Cape Falcon. In August she was sent with other submarines to the newly established Atlantic base at Bordeaux. Once in the Atlantic she attacked with her deck gun the British merchantman Aquila, which managed to escape although damaged. A few days later an armed ship was attacked by torpedo, but the Barbarigo was detected and depth charged without effect.

During September 1940 the Barbarigo was refitted at the Bordeaux naval base. On 14 October she commenced a patrol of the northwestern Atlantic, being bombed by a Sunderland flying boat. Later she was reassigned further north, and during the return voyage was advised of the presence of an aircraft carrier and escort. In poor weather the Barbarigo launched a torpedo against a smaller naval unit, probably a destroyer, and heard an explosion but could not verify the result of the attack - there is no British record of the attack.

On 10 February 1941 the Barbarigo left for a new mission west of Ireland with the Bianchi, Otaria and Marcello, but was not able to make contact with convoy OB.288. During this mission the Marcello was lost.

After maintenance work, in May the Barbarigo attacked the British merchantman Manchester Port, but despite having hit the ship with a torpedo, one of the Barbarigo's diesel engines broke down and the ship escaped. On 25 May Captain Ghiglieri was informed of the position of the German battleship Bismarck, immobilized and under attack by Allied ships. Barbarigo, the only Axis boat in the area, moved to intercept two cruisers, but, due to the weather conditions, could not attack. On the 27th, having received news of the sinking of the Bismarck and low on fuel, the Barbarigo returned to base. This marked the end of Italian submarine activity in the northern Atlantic.

The next patrol was in the central Atlantic, west of the Strait of Gibraltar, the Barbarigo sinking the British merchant ship Macon by both torpedo and the deck gun, and later the British motor tanker Horn Shell with torpedoes.

The next few missions, the seventh, eighth and ninth, were uneventful.

On the 23 January 1942 the Barbarigo, under the command of Enzo Grossi, sank the Spanish neutral ship Navemar. The ship was returning from Cuba where it had delivered a large group of Jewish refugees.

In April the Barbarigo was sent on a mission to the coastal waters of Brazil. She attacked with torpedoes and the deck gun the Brazilian merchant ship Comandante Lyra, leaving it in a sinking condition. However, it was later towed to safety after sending emergency messages which were picked up by the American Task Force 23 including the cruisers USS Milwaukee and USS Omaha and the destroyers USS Moffett and USS Mc Dougal. The Barbarigo, near the Rocas Atoll, sighted warships and launched two torpedoes. The sinking of a battleship of the California class was claimed and published, causing an immediate rebuttal (after the war, it was revealed that the mysterious 'battleship' was instead the cruiser Milwaukee which had not even been damaged).

The Barbarigo was transferred to a new area 300 miles NE of Rocas Atoll, and intercepted and sank the British merchant ship Chalbury.

On 29 August 1942, during air attacks, the crew of the Barbarigo shot down an aircraft, at the cost of aft gunner Carlo Marcheselli who was killed.

On 2 October, while en route to Brazil, the Barbarigo was rerouted to Freetown, Liberia. In a repeat of the California embarrassment, a battleship of the Mississippi-class was claimed sunk. The ship was actually the British corvette HMS Petunia which was also not even damaged.

On 8 October, the Barbarigo was relocated off Cape Verde, returning to Bordeaux eleven days later in triumph.

The 12th mission began on 24 January 1943. While en route to the assigned area off Brazil, the crew sighted the Spanish merchant ship Monte Igueldo which was damaged with a torpedo. While she was sinking the Barbarigo was attacked by an American Catalina flying boat which dropped three bombs, missing the target.

On 2 March the Barbarigo sank with torpedoes the Brazilian passenger ship Alfonso Penna. On the following day the American motor ship Stag Hound was sunk with torpedoes. The next day the submarine received orders to leave the area of operations and on 11 March transferred 25 tonnes of diesel fuel to the submarine Torelli.

The Barbarigo was then converted into a transport submarine for commercial exchange of goods between Germany and Japan. The deck guns were removed, the ammunition magazines turned into additional fuel tanks, the attack periscope removed, and a great part of the on board comforts, including one of the heads, removed to give space to cargo. The boat left port on 16 June 1943 with three Italian military personnel aboard assigned to a base in the Far East, and 130 tonnes of war material. After navigating along the security route off Bordeaux, the Barbarigo and her sister ship the Torelli parted. The Barbarigo failed to make any further contact, and Allied records have not shed any light on her disappearance. This was the end of the operational life of one of the most famous, though controversial, submarines of the Italian Atlantic fleet.

[edit] References

• Regia Marina
• Erminio Bagnasco, Submarines of World War Two, Cassell & Co, London. 1977 ISBN 1-85409-532-3