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Mystery Photoby Cristiano D'Adamo |
| In September 2001, I came in possession of a previously unknown picture of an Italian submarine. The early identification was relatively easy: the three crewmembers wore distinctly Italian uniforms and the upper part of the cunning tower was uniquely Italian. Identifying the boat in question appeared to be just a matter of matching some of the elements in the picture – deck gun, deck, cunning tower, periscope, and antennae – with existing pictures and or diagrams.
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| Unfortunately, a unique construction element that could have allowed me to immediately identify the boat was visually obstructed. Both the sailor walking forward on one side, and part of the gun on the other side, obscured the lower part of the cunning tower. I used the openings in the cunning towers (sort of windows) as the primary identifier. Several submarine classes had a similar design: the early Cagni, early Marconi, early Bagnolini, early Brin, early Marcello (including the Cappellini), Foca, Argo, 600, Micca, Glauco, etc., practically, this specific design element was so common that an accurate identification was not possible. In reality, I was mistaken, because eventually the cunning tower did help me identify the boat in question.
Next, I focused on the periscope. If this, as I assumed, was one of the Italian submarines operating in the Atlantic, they all initially displayed a very visible periscope housing, almost a precursor of today’s sail. The picture showed a smaller periscope housing, thus this could have been a later picture of a Marconi, but the only three boats which retained the windowed design (Da Vinci, Torelli and Baracca) had a relatively large ledge surrounding the upper part of the cunning tower (to divert sea water away in foul weather); In the picture, this element was missing. I then look at the Bagnolini class, but once again the ledge was missing, and the same issue arose with the classes Brin and Marcello, although the submarine Dandolo and the later Cappellini (1943) were a match. The deck gun was undoubtedly a 120 mm caliber 45, thus I assumed that it must have been one of the Calvi class boats. I then realized that the position of the support for the antennae and the number of windows did not match. I sorted through numerous additional pictured and none matched: I had found the mystery boat. Time went on and, while researching footage of the Italian submarine fleets at the National Archives, I came across a strange listing for a war movie titled “Submarine Attack” (released in Italy with the title “La Grande Speranza”, and in Germany as “Die große Hoffnung”). |
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| I researched the movie and found very little about it. Eventually, a Canadian company had a reproduction (re-edition) for sale, and I was able to procure copy of it. After a long wait, the videocassette finally arrived in late March. The movie, dated 1954, was in English and after a fairly long introduction, it showed a submarine attacking a freighter and sinking it. The boat in question could not be easily identified, but it was small and did not appear to be Italian. |
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| Following the sinister attack, the boat surfaced and began picking up the few survivors. The boat utilized for the filming on the surface was different from the one seen surfacing: it was much larger. Later, one of the survivors of the shipwreck, clearly exhausted, came to rest on the deck gun, while a petty officers held on to him an a sailor offered him a cigarette. On the cunning tower, an officer stood guard: it looked very familiar. I pulled the picture out of my archive and it was a perfect match! |
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| So the mystery picture was solved: this was a stage snapshot of a movie. The actual frame is not in the movie, but this is understandable since it was taken with a hand-held camera (black and white film) instead of the 35 mm video camera (color film). Utilizing Erminio Bagnasco and Achille Rastelli invaluable “Sommergibili in Guerra” (Submarines in War) I was able to identify the submarine in question as the R.12, one of the uncompleted transport submarines of the R class (Romolo and Remo). |
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| The hull in question (it was never completed) was renamed GR.523 and used in the ports of La Spezia, Venice and later Ancona, as fuel depot. This submarine, captured by the Germans, renamed UIT.3 and later scuttled, was re-floated in 1946. Going back to the picture, one clearly recognizes the cunning tower, even though during the filming of the movie there were changes made. Naturally, the R. Class was not equipped with a deck gun, so this was a cinematographic addition. |
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| For those interested in the movie, it should be said that it was a low budget production (understandable considering the period) by the Independent International Picture Corporation. It starred Lois Maxwell, a prolific 27-year-old Canadian actress and Renato Baldini, an emerging Italian actor. The movie was produced and directed by Duilio Coletti with the collaboration of the famous Marc’Antonio Bragadin. Although at the beginning of the movie it is stated that the facts depicted actually took place, I have to caution viewers interested in historically accurate movies that the screenplay took plenty of liberties. Furthermore, the internal scenes were probably shot in a studio and the quality of the reconstruction is, at best, very poor. I am afraid that “Das Boot” remains the unchallenged submarine movie “par excellance”. One more interesting point; the sound track was scored by the famous Nino Rota, and the movie is dedicated to all who died aboard the 91 Italian submarines lost in World War II. |
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