Marconi class submarine

RM Da Vinci, the most successful Italian submarine in World War II
Class overview
Operators:	Regia Marina
In commission:	1940–1945
Completed:	6
Lost:	6
General characteristics
Type:	Submarine
Displacement:	1,195 long tons (1,214 t) (surfaced) 1,490 long tons (1,510 t) (submerged)
Length:	76.5 m (251 ft 0 in)
Beam:	6.81 m (22 ft 4 in)
Draught:	4.72 m (15 ft 6 in)
Propulsion:	Diesel-electric; 2 × CRDA diesel engines 2 × Marelli electric motors
Speed:	17.8 kn (33.0 km/h; 20.5 mph) (surfaced) 8.2 kn (15.2 km/h; 9.4 mph) (submerged)
Range:	Surfaced: 2,900 nmi (5,400 km; 3,300 mi) at 17 kn (31 km/h; 20 mph); 10,500 nmi (19,400 km; 12,100 mi) at 8 kn (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) Submerged: 8 nmi (15 km; 9.2 mi) at 8 kn (15 km/h; 9.2 mph); 110 nmi (200 km; 130 mi) at 3 kn (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph)
Test depth:	90 m (300 ft)+
Complement:	57
Armament:	8 × 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes (4 bow, 4 stern), 1 × 100 mm (3.9 in) gun, 4 × 13.2 mm (0.52 in) machine guns

The Marconi-class was a class of six submarines built for the Royal Italian Navy (Italian: Regia Marina). The submarines were all launched between 1939 and 1940, and all but one, Luigi Torelli, were lost in the Atlantic during the Second World War.

Luigi Torelli was commissioned into the Germany Kriegsmarine as UIT-25, and the Imperial Japanese Navy as I-504. Torelli shot down a B-25 Mitchell bomber while under Japanese flag near the very end of the war in the Pacific,^[1] allegedly the last success of a Japanese naval vessel in that conflict.^[2]

Class members

• edit] Notes
  1. ^ Willmott, H p (2009). The Last Century of Sea Power: From Port Arthur to Chanak, 1894-1922. Indiana University Press, p. 276. ISBN 0253352142
  2. ^ "Italian submarines and surface vessels in the far east: 1940-1945" by Alberto Rosselli

  References

  • Regia Marina
  • Erminio Bagnasco, Submarines of World War Two, Cassell & Co, London. 1977 ISBN 1-85409-532-3