Italy:
Submarine
Luigi Torelli beached near the harbour of Santander (Spain), on 8 June 1942
The
Luigi Torelli left the advanced base of La Pallice (France) on the afternoon of 2 June 1942, for a patrol in American waters. On the night between 3 and 4 June, she had the misfortune of becoming the first Axis submarine targeted by aircrafts using the
Leigh Light, that allowed the crew to illuminate a submarine whose presence had been signalled by radar.
A Vickers Wellington of the 172nd Squadron (ES986, called "F for Freddie") found the Italian submarine some seventy nm N of Gijon. After a first pass, in which the aircraft failed to spot the submarine, there is a discrepancy between the reports of the Italian commander and the Wellington crew: the former claimed to have thought the aircraft to be German, but had nonetheless prepared for a dive; the British airmen instead said that the submarine fired bengalas to be recognized. In any case, the second attack met its mark, and four Mk 8 depth bombs fell all around the
Torelli; the lucky thing is that the bombs (three, as the fourth was a dud) did not detonate immediately, as the submarine was diving, but at a lower depth, therefore the damage was serious but not fatal. In fact, it was so serious that the dive was immediately countermanded, as diving meant no longer getting back up to the surface; in any case, the Diesel engines stopped working for lack of air, the rudder and the compass out of order, a cloud of chlorine gas in the batteries' room and a fire.
The captain ordered to make for Saint-Jean-de-Luz, as the crew worked to repair the damages; further aircrafts were seen, but the
Torelli was not spotted thanks to the fog. However, having to set the course manually and the lack of proper charts led to a wrong maneuver, and the submarine ended up beaching on a reef near Capo Penas, on the Spanish coast.
The submarine was towed into the small port of Aviles, and there was brought to beach again to avoid having it founder; the Spanish authorities were asked for some days, to allow for more than emergency repairs, but on 6 June from Madrid came the order to set sail by midnight, otherwise the submarine would be interned. Therefore, at 2330h the submarine, with just enough work done to restore its buoyancy but unable to dive, left the port; as expected, the next days it was once more attacked by Allied aircrafts; the luck of the
Torelli held on, but just barely, and further damage was inflicted.
It was necessary once more to double back, and on 7 June at noon the submarine reached Santander, where it was brought to beach on a shoal; despite everything, the battered boat entered with the battle flag flying and the crew (minus the losses suffered) on the deck.
Repairs began once more, helped by specialized crew sent from occupied France (some, without papers, hiding in the trunk of the car); the damage was considerable, with the batteries completely gone, the radio destroyed, and the hull seriously compromised. It took a month to put things in order somewhat. Meanwhile, at the diplomatic level, another battle was going on, with the Allies accusing Spain of too much leeway in letting a belligerent ship stay so long, and Italy pointing out that the second attack had been performed in Spanish waters.
The submarine then left with a trick. As the plan of the Spanish authorities was to tow the submarine, once out of the drydock, into the inner harbour (from where it would have been unable to leave without tugs), the captain chose to flee as soon as they were let out of the dock, on 14 July; asking to make a turn to see how the boat handled after repairs, and thus to let go of the tugs, the submarine made for the open sea, with a Spanish gunboat not opening fire, uncertain on what to do. The two Spanish officers on board, furious, were disembarked onto a fishing boat, and the
Torelli made for Bordeaux as best as she could (the compass was still out of order). Protected by the dark of the night, on 15 July the battered submarine was home once again, after an epic odyssey.
As Ensign Girolamo Fantoni (later an admiral in the MMI) said, "
the Torelli
entered the books on the 'aircraft vs submarine' battles as the first boat to be lit up and attacked with the Leigh Light, but made all efforts to avoid the role of 'first victim' as well. And she made it."
