Italy:
At the time of Italy's entrance into
World War II Galileo Galilei was stationed at the Italian base of Massawa on the
Red Sea being part of the Italian
Red Sea Flotilla.
On June 10, 1940 the submarine under command of captain Corrado Nardi was ordered to proceed to her area of operation near
Aden where she arrived on June 12.
In the early morning of June 16, while submerged, she intercepted Norwegian tanker
James Stove, about 12 miles south of Aden. After surfacing and ordering the crew to leave the ship,
Galileo Galilei fired three torpedoes that set the ship on fire and sank the tanker.
It is likely, the explosions were heard in Aden and the smoke column rising from the burning tanker was also observed, but no British ships or planes appeared and the submarine continued her mission unmolested until the afternoon of June 18 when a Yugoslavian steamer
Drava was spotted.
Galileo Galilei fired a shot across the bow ordering the ship to stop, but after seeing the ship was under a neutral flag, the steamer was allowed to leave.
However, the gunfire was heard by the
anti-submarine warfare trawler HMS Moonstone who fired a warning signal. At around 16:30, while the submarine was still on the surface, she was attacked by an enemy plane.
Galileo Galilei was forced to submerge but remained on station considering a rather weak response to her sighting.
When darkness fell, the boat resurfaced to recharge the batteries, but it was discovered by the British ship forcing the submarine to crash dive and go through a brief but intense depth-charge attack which did not cause any damage.
In the morning of June 19, while
Galileo Galilei was laying immobile on seabed, the first mild symptoms of methylchloride poisoning appeared in some crew members. Meanwhile, the submarine had been detected by
HMS Moonstone who launched another depth-charge attack.
Captain Nardi ordered the submarine to periscope depth, examined his adversary and noted their single 4-inch cannon and a pair of machine guns. Considering possible effects of methylchloride poisoning if the submarine continued staying submerged, and the modesty of trawler's armament, he decided to face
HMS Moonstone on the surface with his two 100 mm guns and two machine guns.
As the fight began, the bow gun's sighting mechanism on the
Galileo Galilei failed, greatly affecting the accuracy of shooting.
Moonstone also moved too fast for the submarine's crew to aim their cannons effectively.
After about ten minutes
Galileo Galilei was hit for the first time, wounding commander Nardi and killing several people around him. Shortly thereafter, the bow cannon was hit killing the gun crew including second in command. The cannon continued shooting, however, under command of Ensign Mazzucchi. The aft cannon soon jammed, and then another salvo from
Moonstone killed all those on the conning tower including Nardi. The bow cannon continued shooting until
HMS Kandahar arrived at the scene and Mazucchi, as the most senior on board the submarine, ordered
Galileo Galilei to stop shooting and surrender. The submarine had lost 16 men: commander Nardi, four other officers, seven NCOs and four sailors. The submarine was then towed into Aden by
Kandahar.
After her capture,
Galileo Galilei was berthed at Port Said and served as a generating station to charge the batteries of British submarines. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy in June 1942 as HMS
X2 (later changed to
P 711), and was operated as a training boat in the East. She was scrapped on 1 January 1946.
