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BETASOM
BETASOM (an Italian language acronym of ''Bordeaux Sommergibile'' or ''Sommergibili'') was a submarine base established at Bordeaux, France by the Italian '' Regia Marina Italiana'' during World War II. From this base, Italian submarines participated in the Battle of the Atlantic from 1940 to 1943 as part of the Axis anti-shipping campaign against the Allies. Establishment Axis naval co-operation started after the signing of the Pact of Steel in June 1939 with meetings in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and an agreement to exchange technical information. After the Italian entry into the war and the Fall of France, the Italian Royal Navy established a submarine base at Bordeaux, which was within the German occupation zone. The Italians were allocated a sector of the Atlantic south of Lisbon to patrol. The base was opened in August 1940, and in 1941 the captured French passenger ship was used as a depot ship before being returned to the Vichy French Government in June 1942. Admir ...
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Romolo Polacchini
Romolo Polacchini (May 20, 1897 – October 16, 1968) was an Italian admiral during World War II. Early life and career Romolo Polacchini was born in La Spezia in 1897 and attended the Italian Naval Academy in Livorno from November 6, 1911 to June 7, 1914, graduating as an Ensign. His first assignment was on the protected cruiser ''Etna''; he then served on the battleships ''Dante Alighieri'' and ''Andrea Doria'' during World War I, receiving his first a War Merit Cross. In 1918, with the rank of sub-lieutenant, he became the executive officer of the submarine ''H 3'', taking part in some missions in the Adriatic Sea.Erminio Bagnasco, Maurizio Brescia, ''I sommergibili italiani 1940–1943. Parte 1ª-Mediterraneo'', in ''Storia Militare Dossier'', nº 11, Parma, Ermanno Albertelli Editore, November–December 2013, p. 62. He remained in the submarine branch after the war; in 1923 he received his first command, the submarine ''N 3''. In 1924 he was assigned for a year to t ...
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Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture of the Gironde department. Its inhabitants are called ''"Bordelais"'' (masculine) or ''"Bordelaises"'' (feminine). The term "Bordelais" may also refer to the city and its surrounding region. The city of Bordeaux proper had a population of 260,958 in 2019 within its small municipal territory of , With its 27 suburban municipalities it forms the Bordeaux Metropolis, in charge of metropolitan issues. With a population of 814,049 at the Jan. 2019 census. it is the fifth most populated in France, after Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Lille and ahead of Toulouse. Together with its suburbs and exurbs, except satellite cities of Arcachon and Libourne, the Bordeaux metropolitan area had a population of 1,363,711 that same year (Jan. 2019 censu ...
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Angelo Parona
Angelo Parona (23 April 1889 – 14 May 1977) was an Italian admiral during World War II. Early life and career Parona was born in Novara, Piedmont, on 23 April 1889, son of Emilio Parona and Elena Tarella. He entered the Naval Academy in Livorno in 1906 and graduated in 1910 with the rank of Ensign. He participated in the Italo-Turkish war on board the armored cruiser ''Varese''; when Italy entered World War I, Parona, by then a lieutenant, was assigned to the ironclad battleship . During World War I, Parona initially took part in ground fighting on the Isonzo front with the Naval Brigade; he was awarded a Silver Medal of Military Valor for an action near Monfalcone in May 1916. Later in the war, he was given command of the submarine ''F 17'', distinguishing himself and receiving a Bronze Medal of Military Valor for an action against a convoy in the Adriatic Sea in July 1918. He remained in the submarine branch even after World War I; he was promoted to Lieutenant Comman ...
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Battle Of The Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allies of World War II, Allied naval Blockade of Germany (1939–1945), blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. The campaign peaked from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the German ''Kriegsmarine'' (Navy) and aircraft of the ''Luftwaffe'' (Air Force) against the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, United States Navy, and World War II United States Merchant Navy, Allied merchant shipping. Convoys, coming mainly from North America and predominantly going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of th ...
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Regia Marina
The ''Regia Marina'' (; ) was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy (''Regno d'Italia'') from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the ''Regia Marina'' changed its name to ''Marina Militare'' ("Military Navy"). Origins The ''Regia Marina'' was established on 17 March 1861 following the proclamation of the formation of the Kingdom of Italy. Just as the Kingdom was a unification of various states in the Italian peninsula, so the ''Regia Marina'' was formed from the navies of those states, though the main constituents were the navies of the former kingdoms of Sardinia and Naples. The new Navy inherited a substantial number of ships, both sail- and steam-powered, and the long naval traditions of its constituents, especially those of Sardinia and Naples, but also suffered from some major handicaps. Firstly, it suffered from a lack of uniformity and cohesion; the ''Regia Marina'' was a heterogeneous mix of equipment, standards and p ...
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Italian Royal Navy
The ''Regia Marina'' (; ) was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy (''Regno d'Italia'') from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the ''Regia Marina'' changed its name to ''Marina Militare'' ("Military Navy"). Origins The ''Regia Marina'' was established on 17 March 1861 following the proclamation of the formation of the Kingdom of Italy. Just as the Kingdom was a unification of various states in the Italian peninsula, so the ''Regia Marina'' was formed from the navies of those states, though the main constituents were the navies of the former kingdoms of Sardinia and Naples. The new Navy inherited a substantial number of ships, both sail- and steam-powered, and the long naval traditions of its constituents, especially those of Sardinia and Naples, but also suffered from some major handicaps. Firstly, it suffered from a lack of uniformity and cohesion; the ''Regia Marina'' was a heterogeneous mix of equipment, standards and p ...
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Enzo Grossi
__NOTOC__ Enzo Grossi (São Paulo, Brazil, 20 April 1908 - Corato, 11 August 1960); was an officer in the Regia Marina (Italian Navy) during World War II. Life and the ''Barbarigo'' affair During World War II he commanded the submarines ''Medusa'' and '' Barbarigo''. While commanding the latter, Grossi claimed that on May 20, 1942 he attacked and sank a ''Maryland''-class battleship. He also claimed that he had likewise torpedoed and sank a ''Mississippi''-class battleship on October 6, 1942. These attacks, widely publicized in Italy, gained him two Gold Medals of Military Valour and two promotions, respectively to ''Capitano di Fregata'' and to ''Capitano di Vascello'', despite the doubts of his immediate superior, BETASOM commander Romolo Polacchini. On 29 December 1942, Grossi replaced Polacchini as commander of the Italian submarines in the Atlantic Ocean. After the Armistice of Cassibile, he joined the Repubblica Sociale Italiana, remaining to command the Atlantic base. ...
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San Marco Regiment
The 1st San Marco Regiment (Italian: ''1° Reggimento San Marco''), located in Brindisi, is an amphibious formation of the Italian Navy. They are the Italian marines. Until the middle of the 1990s the unit was known as the San Marco Battalion (''Battaglione San Marco''), until it was expanded beyond battalion size because of the new geopolitical situation after the end of the Cold War and an increasing number of international missions, after as the ''San Marco Regiment''. In 2013 it became part of the San Marco Marine Brigade as 1st San Marco Regiment. History Marines of Italy was created as ''Fanti da Mar'' in 1550 in the Republic of Venice. The San Marco Regiment traces its history back to the La Marina Regiment, formed in 1713. During the Wars of Italian Independence the Italian Marines were known as the Fanteria Real Marina, units of specially selected sailors who were skilled marksmen. The regiment also played an important role in Peking during the Boxer Rebellion and ...
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Barracks
Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are usually permanent buildings for military accommodation. The word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes, and the plural form often refers to a single structure and may be singular in construction. The main object of barracks is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training, and ''esprit de corps''. They have been called "discipline factories for soldiers". Like industrial factories, some are considered to be shoddy or dull buildings, although others are known for their magnificent architecture such as Collins Barracks in Dublin and others in Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Vienna, or London. From the rough barracks of 19th-century conscript armies, filled with hazing and illness and ba ...
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La Pallice
La Pallice (also known as ''grand port maritime de La Rochelle'') is the commercial deep-water port of La Rochelle, France. During the Fall of France, on 19 June 1940, approximately 6,000 Polish soldiers in exile under the command of Stanisław Sosabowski arrived at La Pallice, from where they were evacuated to Great Britain - thus able to go on fighting till the end of the war. Under the Nazi Occupation of France, La Pallice was used as a U-boat base () from October 1941 when the 3rd U-boat Flotilla was moved there from its base in Kiel. La Pallice was subject to the allied siege of La Rochelle in 1944–45, which ended with the capitulation of Germany. The large submarine base built at that time still stands largely is not in use. It was used as a backdrop for the film ''Das Boot'' (1981) and ''Raiders of the Lost Ark ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story b ...
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Depot Ship
A depot ship is an auxiliary ship used as a mobile or fixed base for submarines, destroyers, minesweepers, fast attack craft, landing craft, or other small ships with similarly limited space for maintenance equipment and crew dining, berthing and relaxation. Depot ships may be identified as tenders in American English. Depot ships may be specifically designed for their purpose or be converted from another purpose. Function Depot ships provide services unavailable from local naval base shore facilities. Industrialized countries may build naval bases with extensive workshops, warehouses, barracks, and medical and recreation facilities. Depot ships operating within such bases may provide little more than command staff offices,Lenton (1975) pp.391-394 while depot ships operating at remote bases may perform unusually diverse support functions. Some United States Navy submarine depot ships operating in the Pacific during World War II included sailors with Construction Battalion ratings ...
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Dry Dock
A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, and repair of ships, boats, and other watercraft. History Greco-Roman world The Greek author Athenaeus of Naucratis (V 204c-d) reports something that may have been a dry dock in Ptolemaic Egypt in the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator (221-204 BC) on the occasion of the launch of the enormous '' Tessarakonteres'' rowing ship. It has been calculated that a dock for a vessel of such a size might have had a volume of 750,000 gallons of water. In Roman times, a shipyard at Narni, which is still studied, may have served as a dry dock. Medieval China The use of dry docks in China goes at least as far back the 10th century A.D. In 1088, Song Dynasty scientist and statesman Shen Kuo (1031–1095) wrote in his '' Dream Pool Essays'': Rena ...
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