Italian submarine Axum

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Career Regia Marina Ensign
Laid down:
Launched:
Commissioned:
Fate: Scuttled
Stricken:
General Characteristics
Displacement: 698 tons surfaced
866 tons submerged
Length:
Beam:
Draft:
Speed: 14 knots (26 km/h) surfaced
7.5 knots (14 km/h) submerged
Complement: 46
Armament: 4 torpedo tubes forward

2 torpedo tubes aft
12 533 mm torpedoes on board
100/47 mm deck gun

Italian submarine Axum was an Italian 600-Serie Adua class submarine, serving the Regia Marina during World War II. It was named after holy city in Ethiopia.

It was built in CRDA shipyard, in Monfalcone.

Axum, member of the 7th Group - 71st Squadron of the submarine fleet, was still operating on 8 September 1943, when Allies and Italy signed the armistice. Axum arrived in Malta the day after the armistice, and started to fight with the Allies. On 29 December 1943, during a mission near Morea, it run aground, and was scuttled.

[edit] Major events

Axum operated to intercept and block, on 12 August 1942 Allied convoy to Malta (Operation Pedestal) north of Bizerta, Tunisia. It succeeded in sinking, with a single salvo of four torpedoes, Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Cairo, and damaging cruiser HMS Nigeria and the oil tanker SS Ohio.

[edit] External links


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