Italian Submarine Neghelli

Italian submarine ''Neghelli'' was an built for the Royal Italian Navy (''Regia Marina'') during the 1930s. It was named after a town of Negele in Ethiopia.

Design and description

The ''Adua''-class submarines were essentially repeats of the preceding . They displaced surfaced and submerged. The submarines were long, had a beam of and a draft of .Chesneau, pp. 309–10

For surface running, the boats were powered by two diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the ''Adua'' class had a range of at , submerged, they had a range of at .Bagnasco, p. 154

The boats were armed with six internal torpedo tubes, four in the bow and two in the stern. 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

''Neghelli'' was launched on 7 November 1937 in OTO's shipyard in La Spezia and commissioned on 28 February 1938. After an endurance training in the Dodecanese, ''Neghelli'' was assigned to Leros. In May of 1940 she was reassigned to 15th Squadron (I Submarine Group) based at La Spezia. Her commander at the time was Carlo Ferracuti.

At the outbreak of hostilities she immediately was sent on a mission to the west part of the Gulf of Genoa and returned on 14 June 1940 without encountering any enemy traffic.

On 1 August 1940 ''Neghelli'' together with , , , (later replaced by ), and was sent to form a barrier north of Cape Bougaroun following departure from Gibraltar of the British Force H. There were ongoing British operations "Crush" and "Hurry" in progress at this time. Italian submarines stayed on patrol until 9 August, however, Force H passed north of the area patrolled by Italian submarines, and they were not able to detect it. On 5 August 1940 at approximately 18:50 ''Neghelli'', while located west of Asinara, was attacked by an enemy submarine. ''Neghelli'' managed to avoid two torpedoes by maneuvering.

In December 1940 she was sent on a new mission to patrol an area 45 miles north of Marsa Matruh until Christmas. Two more submarines, and , were also deployed in the same area to intercept British naval forces sent to attack Italian ports on the coast of Cyrenaica.

On 13 December 1940, at 20:22 while patrolling on the surface in an area 45 miles north of Marsa Matruh in the position , she sighted a British cruiser thought to be . ''Neghelli'' closed in and at 20:36 fired a spread of four torpedoes, stayed on the surface to observe the results. One torpedo hit the target, which turned out to be . The cruiser opened fire in the direction of the submarine, forcing her to dive and move away. was damaged and was forced to return to Alexandria for repairs which lasted until 20 January 1941 and didn't return to action until late March 1941.

''Neghellis heroics were reported in the war bulletin no. 191 of 15 December 1940, claiming the sinking of the British cruiser. Captain Ferracuti was decorated with a Silver Medal of Military Valor for this attack.

On 14 January 1941 ''Neghelli'' departed from Leros for an offensive mission targeting traffic in and out of Piraeus. No news were heard from her since the departure. From the British documents released after the war, it appears that on 19 January 1941 ''Neghelli'' first attacked Greek destroyer ''Psara'' early in the morning, then at 11:53 she attacked British convoy AS-12 heading from Piraeus to Alexandria. Convoy AS-12 was composed of steamers ''Clan Cumming'', ''Clan MacDonald'' and ''Empire Song'' escorted by the anti-aircraft cruiser , destroyers , , and . One of ''Neghelli'' 's torpedoes struck the steamer ''Clan Cumming'' (7264 GRT) in the position , near the San Giorgio island, causing serious damage and forcing her to return to Piraeus escorted by . The remaining destroyers counterattacked with depth charges, and finally was able to hit the submarine, which sank with all hands 40 miles northeast of Falkonera.

Notes

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Neghelli
Adua-class submarines
World War II submarines of Italy
Lost submarines of Italy
Maritime incidents in January 1941
World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
1937 ships
Ships built by OTO Melara
Ships built in La Spezia
Submarines lost with all hands
Submarines sunk by British warships