Italian Submarine Scirè (1938)

Italian submarine ''Scirè'' was an , built in the 1930s which served during World War II in the Regia Marina. It was named after a northern region of Ethiopia, at the time part of Italian East Africa.

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

''Scirè'' was launched on 6 January 1938 in OTO's shipyard in La Spezia and commissioned on 25 April 1938.
At the beginning of the war, she was assigned to 15th Squadron (I Submarine Group) based at La Spezia and was under the command of Adriano Pini. On July 10, 1940, while on patrol in the western Mediterranean, French cargo ship ''SS Cheik'' (1058 GRT) was torpedoed and sunk by ''Scirè'' 54 nm from the Asmare Light, north of Sardinia.

In the summer of 1940 ''Scirè'' underwent a series of modifications allowing her to carry SLC. The size of the tower was reduced, her deck gun was removed, and 3 watertight cylinders were mounted on her deck instead to accommodate ''maiali''. These cylinders, each weighing 2.8 tons, could hold up depths down to 90 meters. On September 24, 1940 ''Scirè'', under command of captain Junio Valerio Borghese, sailed from La Spezia for her first special mission to be performed in Gibraltar. In the evening of September 29, upon reaching the Strait of Gibraltar, ''Sciré'' received an order from Supermarina to suspend the mission and return to the base as Force H had left the Mediterranean to operate in the Atlantic.

In 1940 ''Scire'' made its first foray into the Bay of Gibraltar with the intent of sabotaging the British ships in Gibraltar Harbour with three manned torpedoes. None of the three were successful with the most daring getting stuck 100 metres from . The crew were forced to withdraw and the explosion of the torpedo's only achievement was to tip off the defenders of Gibraltar Harbour. They organised for boats to drop small charges into the water each night that would have proved fatal to any diver in range of the shock wave.

''Scirè'' entered the Bay of Gibraltar again in September 1941 with better results than the previous time. On September 20, 1941, three tankers were attacked and ''Fiona Shell'' (2444 GRT, 1892) was sunk whilst other two ships, ''RFA Denbydale'' (8154 GRT / 17 000 t) and ''MS Durham'' (10893 GRT) were damaged. The Italians decided to create a permanent base in Spain eventually converting a ship called that was moored off Algeciras into a permanent base for naval sabotage.

''Scirè'' accomplished many missions inside enemy waters. Among these, the most important was the raid on Alexandria launched on 3 December 1941. ''Scirè'' left La Spezia carrying three manned torpedoes. At the island of Leros in the Aegean Sea, it secretly loaded six crew for them: Luigi Durand de la Penne and Emilio Bianchi (''maiale'' 221), Vincenzo Martellotta and Mario Marino (''maiale'' 222), Antonio Marceglia and Spartaco Schergat (''maiale'' 223). On 19 December, ''Scirè'' reached Alexandria in Egypt and its manned torpedoes entered the harbour. They sank the British battleships and ''Queen Elizabeth'' in shallow water and damaged the tanker ''Sagona'' and the destroyer ''Jervis''. All six torpedo-riders were captured and the battleships returned to service after several months of repairs.

In 1934 the Kirkuk-Haifa oil pipeline was completed and in 1939 a large refinery became operational in the port of Haifa, creating a strategic asset for the British and a magnet for ships during the war.

During a mission to launch manned torpedoes, on 10 August 1942, ''Scirè'' was depth charged by the British naval trawler in Haifa bay, about from the harbour. ''Scirè'' surfaced briefly before sinking during which time she was also shelled by 300 Coast Battery, Royal Artillery. ''Islay'' was captained by Lieutenant Commander John Clements Ross of North Shields, Tyne and Wear who was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions.

The wreck of ''Scirè'', lying at a depth of , became a popular diving site and Shayetet 13 training location. In 1984 a joint Italian- Israeli Navy ceremony was performed, in which the forward section was removed from the submarine and sent to Italy to become part of a memorial. Italian Navy divers also welded the access hatches shut to prevent divers from entering the wreck.Scirè: IANTD Expeditions to the WWII Italian Submarine Wreck
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References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scire
Adua-class submarines
World War II submarines of Italy
Lost submarines of Italy
Maritime incidents in August 1942
World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
1938 ships
Ships built by OTO Melara
Ships built in Livorno
Submarines lost with all hands
Submarines sunk by British warships