Name Archimede class In service 1933–58 | Built 1930–1934 Completed 4 | |
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Builders Cantieri navali Tosi di Taranto Operators Regia Marina
Spanish Navy
Royal Navy | ||
The Archimede class were a group of submarines built for the Italian Navy in the early 1930s. The boats fought in the Spanish Civil War (under nationalist flag) and in World War II. Under Spanish colors, these boats were known as the General Mola class, and remained in service until 1959.
Contents
Design
The ships were designed by the firm Cavallini and were a partially double hulled design. They were an enlarged version of the Settembrini-class submarine with ballast tanks rearranged, greater range, fuel and torpedo capacity for ocean service. Like most of the later ocean-going submarines of the Italian navy, their deck armament consisting of two 100 mm guns was conceived to deal with armed merchantmen in surface combat. That was the case of the Marcello-class submarine Comandante Cappellini, which between 5 and 14 January 1941 sank the British steamers Shakespeare and Eumaeus off Cabo Verde after a protracted gunfire action. Another example occurred when the Brin-class submarine Torricelli faced three British destroyers and a sloop while surfaced in the Red Sea. Before being sunk, the submarine hit the sloop and damaged the destroyer HMS Khartoum. Khartoum exploded near Perim after a torpedo fault set a fire that reached her magazines later that day. They also mounted two 13.2 mm anti-aircraft machine guns. The number of torpedoes was increased from 12 on the Settembrini class to 16.
Boats
All boats were built by the shipyard of Franco Tosi at Taranto, between 1930 and 1934.
Torricelli and Archimede took part of the Spanish Civil war under Italian flag since 1936, carrying out undercover operations. Eventually both submarines were secretly delivered to the Spanish rebel navy on April 1937.