In summer she returned to the Caribbean, but in nearly three months found only two victims. Over a two-month period she sank six Allied merchant ships. In February 1942 Tazzoli made her most successful raiding patrol, to the Caribbean as part of Operation Neuland. With her sister ships Calvi and Finzi she brought home over 200 survivors, a journey of several thousand miles and regarded as an epic of maritime rescue. In December 1941 Tazzoli was involved in the rescue of the crews from the German commerce raider Atlantis and the supply ship Python, both sunk by British cruisers in the South Atlantic. Tazzolis next patrols, to the Azores in the spring and to West Africa in the summer were more successful, claiming three victims in each case.

During this period Tazzoli was commanded by Carlo Fecia di Cossato, one of Italy's foremost naval officers. The BETASOM boats were assigned to long-distance patrols into the mid and south Atlantic, in a bid to spread the commerce war further afield. Operations during the autumn and winter of 1940 showed the Italian vessels were ill-suited to conditions in the North Atlantic, so the spring 1941 saw a change in strategy by Admiral Donitz, the German U-boat Commander ( BdU). In December Tazzoli operated off the British Isles in company with five other Italian boats, but saw little success. In October she was assigned to BETASOM, the Regia Marina's task force in the Atlantic campaign. Italy's entry into World War II in June 1940 found Tazzoli in operations in the western Mediterranean. During her patrol off Cartagena on 13–27 January 1937, the submarine missed a ship with two torpedoes. During the Spanish Civil War, she unsuccessfully attacked a Republican destroyer off Cartagena with four torpedoes on 27 December. Construction and career Įnrico Tazzoli, named after Enrico Tazzoli, was laid down by Odero-Terni-Orlando at their Muggiano, La Spezia shipyard in 1932, launched on 14 October 1935 and completed the following year. Their anti-aircraft armament consisted of two twin-gun mounts for 13.2-millimeter (0.52 in) machine guns. They were also armed with a pair of 120-millimeter (4.7 in) deck guns, one each fore and aft of the conning tower, for combat on the surface. The boats were armed with eight 53.3-centimeter (21 in) torpedo tubes, four each in the bow and in the stern for which they carried a total of 16 torpedoes. On the surface, the Calvi class had a range of 11,400 nautical miles (21,100 km 13,100 mi) at 8 knots (15 km/h 9.2 mph) submerged, they had a range of 120 nmi (220 km 140 mi) at 3 knots (5.6 km/h 3.5 mph). They could reach 16.8 knots (31.1 km/h 19.3 mph) on the surface and 7.4 knots (13.7 km/h 8.5 mph) underwater. When submerged each propeller was driven by a 900-horsepower (671 kW) electric motor. įor surface running, the boats were powered by two 2,200- brake-horsepower (1,641 kW) diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. Their crew numbered 77 officers and enlisted men. They had an operational diving depth of 90 meters (300 ft). The submarines were 84.3 meters (276 ft 7 in) long, had a beam of 7.7 meters (25 ft 3 in) and a draft of 5.2 meters (17 ft 1 in). They displaced 1,549 metric tons (1,525 long tons) surfaced and 2,061 metric tons (2,028 long tons) submerged. The Calvi class was an improved and enlarged version of the preceding Balilla-class submarine cruisers. She was lost on her first voyage in this role. Enrico Tazzoli was converted in 1943 to be a submarine transport for blockade-running between Europe and the Far East. She operated in the Atlantic during the Second World War and was second only to the submarine Leonardo da Vinci as the highest scoring Italian submarine of the conflict.

Completed in 1936, she played a minor role in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939 supporting the Spanish Nationalists. 2 × twin 13.2 mm (0.52 in) machine gunsĮnrico Tazzoli was one of three Calvi-class submarines built for the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) during the 1930s.

Mobile history civil war submarine