Italian Submarine Gemma

Italian submarine ''Gemma'' was a built for the Royal Italian Navy (''Regia Marina'') during the 1930s. Her name in Italian means a gemstone or jewel.

Design and description

The ''Perla''-class submarines were essentially repeats of the preceding . The modifications that were made compared to the boats of the previous series were mostly of upgrade nature. Among them were enlargement of the false tower at the top, more modern engines, installation of a radiogoniometer that could be controlled from inside the ship. Improvements and the installation of new air conditioning equipment meant a slight increase in displacement, and increase in the fuel stowage also increased the autonomy of these boats compared to the previous series.Pollina, p.155 Their designed full load displacement was surfaced and submerged, but varied somewhat depending on the boat and the builder. The submarines were long, had a beam of and a draft of to .Bagnasco, p. 153Pollina, pp.152-153

For surface running, the boats were powered by two diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft with overall power of . When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the ''Perla'' class had a range of at , submerged, they had a range of at .Bagnasco, p. 153

The boats were armed with six internal torpedo tubes, four in the bow and two in the stern. One reload torpedo was carried for each tube, for a total of twelve. They were also armed with one deck gun for combat on the surface. The light anti-aircraft armament consisted of one or two pairs of machine guns.

Construction and career

''Gemma'' was built by CRDA at their shipyard in Monfalcone, laid on 7 September 1935, launched on 21 May 1936 and completed on 8 July 1936.

After delivery, ''Gemma'' was assigned to the 35th Squadron (III Submarine group) based at Messina. After a brief training, she carried out a long endurance cruise in the Dodecanese in the fall of 1936. She repeated the same endurance cruise in the Dodecanese in 1937.''Gemma'' at Monfalcone Naval Museum
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From August 27 through September 5, 1937 ''Gemma'', under command of captain Carlo Ferracuti, carried out a secret mission in the Strait of Sicily during the Spanish Civil War. She made three attempts to attack during this mission, but no actual attacks happened due to impossibility to identify the targets with certainty. Upon completion she returned to Augusta.

In 1938, ''Gemma'' together with were assigned to the Red Sea base of Massawa in Eritrea. In the spring of 1939 ''Gemma'' and performed a cruise in the Indian Ocean to test the performance of the class in terms of sailing and operational capability in warm seas and during the monsoon season. The results were disappointing: it was discovered that stormy sea prevented the use of submarine's armament and made it very difficult even to remain at a periscope depth. There were also reports of malfunctioning air conditioning system, and leaks of chloromethane were reported. In the fall of 1939 she came back to the Mediterranean and was assigned to the 14th Submarine Squadron (I Submarine group) based at La Spezia. In 1940 ''Gemma'' was reassigned to the 13th Submarine Squadron (I Submarine Group), but was operating from Leros.

After Italy's entrance into World War II, ''Gemma'', under command of Guido Lanza Cordero di Montezemolo, was sent to patrol off Chios. She returned to her base on June 15 without encountering any traffic.

From June 30 through July 8, 1940 ''Gemma'' patrolled off Sollum, and returned to her base without sighting any enemy ships.

From August 7 through August 16, 1940 she patrolled off Crete, but again without any success.

On September 30, 1940, ''Gemma'' sailed to her area of operation, located in the northern section of the Strait of Kasos, just east of Crete. was deployed to the south of ''Gemma'', in the center of the Strait of Kasos, and further south, another submarine, under command of captain Alberto Avogadro di Cerrione, was deployed. ''Gemma'' arrived in the area on October 1 and was supposed to remain on station until October 8, but in the evening of October 3 she was ordered to patrol further east in the strait between Rhodes and Karpathos. On October 6, a new order was sent to ''Gemma'' telling her to return to the base, but due to a mix-up the message was never received by ''Gemma'' and she remained on her station. On October 7, ''Tricheco'' had a sick crew on board and had to return to Leros. On her return voyage she had to pass near the eastern coast of Karpathos, thus crossing an area where ''Gemma'' was stationed. Due to a mix-up and delay in communication, ''Tricheco'' was unaware of ''Gemma''s location.

At 1:15 on Oct. 8, ''Tricheco'' sighted in the dark a silhouette of a submarine on the surface. Since it was impossible to recognize the nationality of a submarine at night, it was a normal practice to consider all unknown submarines enemies, unless a presence of a submarine was communicated to the captain. At 1:21 ''Tricheco'' launched two torpedoes from a short distance against an "enemy" ship. ''Gemma'' was hit by both torpedoes right in the middle and immediately sank with the entire crew in the position just off the coast of Karpathos.
Captain Cordero di Montezemolo, four other officers, and 39 other crew members went down with the boat.Giorgerini, p. 263

Initially the disappearance of ''Gemma'' was attributed to British anti-submarine activity, as the October 8th radio news reported the loss of two enemy submarines with several survivors captured which gave families some hope. However, soon the coincidence between ''Tricheco''s attack and the disappearance of ''Gemma'' became all too obvious. ''Gemma'' was declared as lost, and her crew was declared dead, rather than missing.

Notes

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gemma
Perla-class submarines
World War II submarines of Italy
Lost submarines of Italy
Maritime incidents in October 1940
World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
1936 ships
Ships built by Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico
Ships built in Monfalcone
Ships lost with all hands
Friendly fire incidents of World War II
Submarines sunk by submarines
Ships sunk by Italian submarines