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R.Smg. Scire` |
by Cristiano D'Adamo |
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| The Italian submarine Scirč was a vessel of the class "600" series "Adua".
This type of submarine was built for short cruises and was protected by a single hull and
a false keel. This class of vessels obtained good results during W.W. II; they were robust
and maneuverable, but their surface speed was too slow. Some participated in the Spanish
Civil War.
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| On July 10th, 1940, under the command of Captain Pini, the
unit was credited with the sinking of the 1,058 t. French steamer Cheick. The Scirč and
her twin boat "Gondar" had different operational lives from the rest of the
series. In August 1940, the unit underwent important structural modifications for the
installation of cylindrical containers for the transport of sub-attack crafts of the
S.L.C. (Siluro a Lenta Corsa), the famous "maiale" , and
her command was transferred to Commander Borghese. Later, the conning tower was modified similarly to the German U-Boots, removing the highly visible enclosed deck and lowering the periscopes' sleeves. The 100/47 gun was removed and a new A.A. machine gun added. The unit was fitted with three cylinders, one forward and two aft. Each cylinder could carry a single S.L.C. The Scirč and the Gondar were almost identical, but the forward cylinder of the latter did not have reinforcement rings thus allowing for the two units to be properly identified. Despite her notoriety, there actually are very few pictures of the Scirč, and of the few, many were manually retouched.
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| Between September 24
and October 3, and once again from October 21
to November 3 1940 it operated in two missions against the British naval base of
Gibraltar. A new mission took place on May 15th
1941 and it was repeated on September 10th,
this time achieving some results. The most important mission was the one of December 19th, 1941 when human torpedoes
launched by the Scirč sank the battleships Queen Elisabeth and Valiant, the tanker Sagona
and the destroyer Jervis in the shallow waters of the port of Alexandria.
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| Later, Borghese relinquished the command of his submarine to
Commander Zelich. After having left La Spezia on July 27th, 1942, the Scirč reached Leros
from which she then headed towards the British port of Haifa. The unit left Leros on the 6th
of August and waited at sea for information from a German reconnaissance unit;
communication was lost thereafter. According to British records, the Scirč was lost on
August 10th just outside the port of Haifa in Palestine where it was intercepted by the
British torpedo-boat Isley and sunk with all men aboard. The bodies of two
swimmers, Captain Chersi and P.O. Del Ben were washed ashore and buried in the local
cemetery.
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| Between September 2 and 28, 1984 the Italian rescue ship Anteo recovered the remains of 42 of the 49 crew members and 11 operators aboard at the time of her lost. Parts of the hull, previously removed during a recovery attempt, are now displayed at the "Sacrario delle Bandiere" in Rome, and the naval museums in La Spezia and Venezia. The Scirč was one of only three Italian vessels to receive the Gold Medal for Valor. |
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