Italy:
The wreck of the submarine
Jantina, sunk in 1941 by HMS Torbay, recently discovered by Greek divers in the Aegean Sea
Jantina (named after a species of sea slug), one of the seven boats of the Argonauta class, “600-ton” series of Mediterranean submarines, had been built in La Spezia in 1930-1933 and at the outbreak of World War II was stationed in Leros, in what was then Italian Dodecanese, as part of the 52nd Submarine Squadron, Fifth Submarine Group.
After carrying out six uneventful patrols in the Eastern Mediterranean, on 27 June 1941, during her seventh war patrol,
Jantina unsuccessfully attacked the Australian sloop HMAS
Parramatta off Marsa Matruh, Egypt.
Parramatta, saved by her low draught (the torpedo passed under the hull), counterattacked with depth charges, soon joined by destroyer HMAS
Stuart and later by aircraft. The hunt lasted nearly two days, and
Jantina was eventually able to escape and return to Leros, but not without having suffered serious damage. As this could not be repaired with the limited means available in that overseas base, in the early hours of 5 July 1941
Jantina sailed from Leros, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Vincenzo Politi, bound for Naples, via Corinth and Messina, where she would be repaired. As the damage prevented the boat from submerging,
Jantina would have to remain on the surface for the entirety of her passage.
In the late afternoon of the same day,
Jantina was sighted by submarine HMS
Torbay (Lieutenant Commander Anthony Cecil Capel Miers) off the island of Mykonos. As the sun was setting, the British boat fired six torpedoes; the crew of
Jantina spotted two torpedo tracks, but it was too late for an evasive maneuver. Both torpedoes struck their target, and
Jantina sank in less than a minute. Of a crew of 48, only six (Ensign Michele Giadrossi and five ratings) survived, by swimming to nearby Mykonos.
Jantina lies at a depth of 103 meters.
