Italian submarine Sciré (1938)

Italian submarine Sciré (1938)

The Italian submarine "Sciré" (1938) was an Italian 600-Serie "Adua"-class submarine, which served during World War II in the Regia Marina. It was named after the northern part of Ethiopia, at the time Italian East Africa.

At the beginning of the war, "Sciré" was commanded by Junio Valerio Borghese, and based in La Spezia. Early in the war, it was modified to carry two human torpedoes ("maiali").

The "Sciré" accomplished many missions inside enemy waters. Among these, the most important was carried out on 3 December 1941. "Sciré" 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, "Sciré" reached Alexandria in Egypt, and its manned torpedoes entered the harbour and sank a tanker and the British battleships HMS "Valiant" and "Queen Elizabeth". All six torpedo-riders were captured.

During one of these missions, on 10 August 1942, "Sciré" sank, damaged by depth charges dropped by HMS "Islay" in Haifa bay, about 11 km from the harbour.

The wreck of the "Sciré", laying at a depth of 32 meters, 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.

See also Italian submarine "Sciré" for all the submarines bearing the same name.

External links

* [http://www.subnetitalia.it/decimascireenglish.htm SUB.net Italia - Sciré missions]


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