R.Smg. Comandante CAPPELLINI

By Cristiano D'Adamo

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Operational Life - Part II

1942
The official Italian documentation does not specify the departure date of the seventh mission, but what is known is that on May 11th, the Cappellini, while on patrol in position 19 33N 26 48W, intercepted a convoy of 9 ships. Two of the escort units subjected the boat to an intense hunt, but in spite of the damages inflicted, the boat was able to continue on. 

On the 19th, the Cappellini located an isolated unit of convoy OS.27 (England - Western Africa) and sank it. It was the Swedish motor-ship Tisnaren of 5.747 t. Constructed by the shipyards "Götaverken A/B of Gothenburg" in Sweden in 1918, the Tisnaren belonged to the shipping company "Transatlantic Rederiaktiebolaget". The position of the attack was given at 03° 38' to N 32° 01' W, while the ship sank in position 03 N 33 W; there were no casualties and the 40 crewmembers were later rescued. 
At daybreak of May 24th, the boat, then in position 03° 59' S 35° 01' W, located a naval formation which, due to distance, could not be attacked. This formation, for sure, was the same one met from the Barbarigo in the famous action against the Milwaukee and the Moffett. 

Two days later, while it was searching for a steamship previously signaled by the Archimede, the Cappellini was attacked by an American Catalina based in Natal. At this point, having exhausted the fuel reserve, the boat began the along journey back to base. 
The night of May 31st, in position 00° 45' S 29° 45' W the Cappellini hit with four of the six torpedo launched the British fleet tanker Dinsdale of 8.250 t. The captain gave a vivid report of this action. The combat was along, in fact, although it had begun in the late evening the 31st, the oil tanker did not sink until 06:12 of the following morning. The Dinsdale , previously named Empire Norseman, was launched on April 11th, 1942 and was completing its maiden voyage. The tanker was built by Harland & Wolff, Govan, and there is no information regarding casualties. The Cappellini continued on, reaching Bordeaux (actually Le Verdon) on June 19th, 1942.

The experience of the summer of 1942, especially in the waters off Brazil, had convinced the Italian command that, because of the considerable increase of antisubmarine activity, it was no longer opportune to send submarines in the Antilles and in Brazil. Instead, it was thought that traffic off Guinea and Congo would be an easier prey. 

In this period, the availability of Italian submarines was much limited, and the arrival of new units could not be expected. In fact, the situation was deteriorated to such point that, for the August mission off Congo, only four boats were available: Cappellini, Barbarigo, Archimedes and Bagnolini. 

The Cappellini, at the commando of the T.V. Mark Revedin, left base on August 21st, 1942. After approximately twenty days into the mission, the boat reached the assigned zone just off Freetown. After only three days, on September 13th, the boat received orders to move at maximum speed to approximately 240 miles for NNE of the Island of Ascension in position 05° 05' S 11° 28' W where, the previous day, a U-Boot had sunk the passenger ship Laconia. After the sinking, the German commander realized that the British ship had on board a large number of Italian prisoners of war. The U-Boot, U.156, recovered some of the shipwrecked P.O.W. and also called in other boats (U.506 and U.507) for help. The Cappellini arrived in the area on September 16th after a fast run of approximately 700 miles. The episode of the Laconia is not only sad, but also tragic and therefore we will leave the historical narration of it to another time. 

With the aid of French units just arrived in the area, nearly all the shipwrecked were transferred aboard the neutral ships, but 6 Italians and 2 prisoners of war remained aboard the Cappellini. Because of excessive use of diesel fuel, the original operational plan had to be abandoned and the boat began the return trip to base. During this phase, the submarine sighted a British steamboat that was not attacked because of a breakdown with to one of the two thermal engines. The boat arrived at the base, without further incidents, on October 17th, 1942. 

The Cappellini, after the necessary maintenance work and still under the command of T.V. Mark Revedin, took again to the sea from La Pallice on December 26th, 1942. Before this mission, the boat was equipped with a Metrox of German construction. This device, nicknamed "beaver", allowed for the detection of radio waves emanated from enemy radars. Initially, the device allowed the German and Italian boats to avoid sudden aerial attacks, often carried out in the middle of the night by special Allied airplanes. Subsequently, it was discover that the radio waves released by the Metox helped the Allied located with precision the boats, therefore it was immediately ordered to disable them. Two days after departure, the Cappellini succeeded in avoiding a submarine, probably one of the British boats always in ambush off the French ports. 

1943
On January 10th, 1943 the boat arrived in the area of operations NW of the Islands of Cabo Verde 

Having failed to locate enemy traffic, the boat headed towards the northern coasts of Brazil where, in the previous days, the Tazzoli had scored several successes. Unfortunately, the hunt off the coast of Brazil first, and the French Antilles later, did not reveal any traffic, and on the February 8th the boat begun the long journey back to base. The 24th, while on the surface, the Cappellini was attacked of the Azores Islands by a Catalina which launch a cluster of bombs while the boat was performing a crash dive. On March 4th, the Cappellini arrived in Bordeaux after the unfruitful mission, which had added further wear and tear to the already aging vessel. 

Following negations with the Germans, the Torelli was one of the seven submarines designated to be transformed into transports. Supposedly, the idea of transforming these vessels originated with C.V. Enzo Grossi, then commander of the base, who had realized that these submarines were no longer fit for offensive operations. Grossi made a proposal to Adm. Donitz: in exchange for the 7 Italian submarines, the German would transfer 7 newly constructed U-boat to the Italian Navy. Although it could appear that the proposal was preposterous, it was actually warmly welcomed especially because the Germans were producing a boat a day, but did not have enough personnel to man them. 


As part of the final agreement reached between the two navies, the Krisgmarine transferred seven U-boats of the class VII-c (designated by the Italians as class S) in exchange of an equivalent number of Italian boats which, due to their dimensions, were better suited for the long voyage to Japan. Of the seven vessels, only five began the journey. This operation was completely under German control, and the boats were assigned a German name, but retained their Italian crew. Of the five boats, the Tazzoli was lost son after its departure, while the Barbarigo was lost probably soon after. Both losses were never documented and remain a mystery to these days. 

The Cappellini, under the command of C.C. Walter Auconi sailed for Japan on May 11th, 1943. The cargo, of approximately 95 tons, consisted of ammunitions, aluminum in bars, steel, replacement parts, and others. Because of the overload of the Lange quantity of diesel fuel aboard, the boat left the base with a buoyancy factor of approximately 3,5% and therefore extremely low. In fact, the boat was so overload that it left port with only the bow and the cunning tower outside of the water.

The various submarines assign to these transport missions receive new names; the Cappellini was called "Aquila III". In spite of several aerial attacks, always readily avoided, the boat reached Saipang on July 9th, 1943. According to the official report, the boat reached port with the fuel tanks completely empty.


July 12th, 1943 - The Cappellini photographed from the Eritrea.
(Photo courtesy Erminio Bagnasco and Achille Rastelli)
The following day, the 10th, the boat moved to Singapore under the escort of the colonial sloop Eritrea (C.F. Mario Jannucci). This last mission is meticulously described by C.C. Auconi in a memorandum presented in July 1948. On August 25th, the boat was ready for the return voyage, but the German command decided to withhold it in order to make it travel in tandem with the Giuliani. On September 8th, (actually the morning of the 9th), having received news of the armistice signed by the Italian government, the Japanese immediately took control of the boat, thus concluding its operating life in the Regia Marina. 

Eventually, the crew was captured and interned in a Japanese P.O.W. camp. Later on, a good part of the crew (not the offices) decided to continue fighting along the German, and the submarine was manned by a mix crew of German and Italian sailors. On September 10th, the boat was incorporated in the Krigsmarine and assigned the nominative UIT.24. The command of the boat was assigned to Oberleutnant-zur-See Heinrich Pahls, who kept it until May 1945. During this period, the boat conducted six missions as part of 12th flotilla (Bordeaux), and later the 33rd Flotilla (Flensburg). 

Kii Suido
At the surrender of Germany, May 10th 1945, the boat was incorporated into the Japanese navy with the nominative I-503 where it continued to operate until the end of the conflict. The Cappellini, eventually, was captured by the United States and sank in the deep waters off Kobe (Kii Suido) on April 16th, 1946.

English version edited by Laura K. Yost

 

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