On May 24, 1915 Italy entered World War I on the Allied side. The Italian fleet quickly succeeded in gaining control of the Adriatic Sea. For most of the War the majority of the Austro-Hungarian Navy stayed in port.

The Italian submarine fleet took on its share of the work at hand. Italian submarines attacked Austrian and German merchant and naval vessels. Enclosed is a partial list:

ATROPO sank the Austrian transport ALBANIEN July 4, 1916;

SALPA sank the Austrian destroyer MAGNET on August 2, 1916 in the harbor of Pola, which the Italians had penetrated;

F-7 sank 2 Austrian ships - the ocean liner PELAGOSA on 27 Feb, 1918 & the transport ship EUTERPE August 11, 1918;

ARGONAUTA sank an Austrian destroyer of the HUSZAR Class on July 3, 1918; F-12 sank the Austrian submarine U-20 on July 4, 1918.

The Italians suffered their share of losses too. The submarine PULLINO (named after the famous engineer) ran aground on July 31, 1916 on a rock in the Gulf of Fiume. Its crew was captured and its Captain, Nazario Sauro was hanged by the Austrians. The Italians lost six other submarines during World War I. They include:

MEDUSA, torpedoed by an Austrian submarine on June 10, 1915;
NEREIDE, sunk by the Austrian submarine U-5;
JALEA, sunk by mine on August 17, 1915;
BALILLA, sunk on July 14, 1916 by Austrian torpedo boats 65F and 66F;
W-4 was sunk by mine on August 4, 1917.

PART III

The interwar period was a time of great expansion for the Italian Armed Forces as a whole, and particularly for the submarine arm of their navy. The driving impetus behind this was the Facist dictator Benito Mussolini, who wished to dominate the Mediterranean and realized that the only way to achieve this was to build a big navy. Mussolini often referred to the Mediterranean as 'MARE NOSTRUM" or "OUR SEA" as it translates from Latin. The ancient Romans referred to the Mediterranean in this way.

The Italian Submarine Fleet continued to grow until by 1938 it totaled 114 boats, making it the second largest submarine force in the world, after the Soviet Union's sub fleet. Of the Italian submarines, 60 of them (52.6%) were between 1 and 4 years old, making the majority of them very new and of fairly good performance. Yet the boats, particularly the older ones, had their share of defects. They tended to be a few knots slower in both surface and submerged speed, maneuvered poorly on the surface (particularly at slow speed), and took too long in submerging when compared to some of their foreign contemporaries. They also lacked radar and some subs had serious defects with the air conditioning system when submerged, which could lead to problems with buildup of poisonous fumes.

The speed problem was alleviated somewhat when newer boats entered service during World War II.

On the PLUS side, Italian submarines had good armament, a good cruising range (for the larger vessels), and were crewed by dedicated and well-trained officers and men.

A most impressive display of Italian submarine efficiency came on May 5, 1938 during REVIEW "H" which was held for the visiting German dictator, Adolf Hitler, in the Bay of Naples when 81 submarines in 9 rows of 9 boats each surfaced simultaneously, fired their deck guns, cruised for a little while, and submerged again simultaneously. The subs were also accompanied by other units of the Italian Fleet, namely two battleships, 19 cruisers and groups of destroyers, flotilla leaders, torpedo boats and motor torpedo boats.

Hitler was quite impressed with the review and a German Naval officer accompanying him was heard to remark: "If only we had a fourth of them." referring to the large Italian submarine fleet. At that time, the German submarine force was still very small, and it must be kept in mind that the Kriegsmarine entered World War II on September 1, 1939 with only 56 submarines - and only 22 of these had the range to fight in the Atlantic.

But for the Italian Navy submarine force, its greatest test was to lie in the near future. It would be a time of triumphs and defeats in which men and machines were to be pushed to the utmost limits of endurance.

(continued in KTB #112 with PART IV)