Italian submarine Sciré (1938)
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| Career |  |
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| Commissioned: | |
| Fate: | Sunk |
| Stricken: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 698 tons surfaced 866 tons submerged |
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| Armament: | 4 torpedo tubes forward 2 torpedo tubes aft |
The Italian submarine Sciré (1938) was an Italian 600-Serie Adua class submarine, which served during World War II in Regia Marina. It was named after the northern part of Ethiopia, at the time Italian East Africa.
At the beginning of the war, Sciré was commanded by Junio Valerio Borghese, and based in La Spezia. Early in the war, it was modified to carry two maiali, and accomplished many missions inside enemy waters.
Among these, the most important was carried out on 3 December 1941. Sciré left La Spezia carrying three manned torpedoes. At the island of Leros in the Aegean Sea, it secretly loaded six crew for them: Luigi Durand de la Penne and Emilio Bianchi (maiale 221), Vincenzo Martellotta and Mario Marino (maiale 222), Antonio Marceglia and Spartaco Schergat (maiale 223). On 19 December, Sciré reached Alexandria in Egypt, and its manned torpedoes entered the harbour and sank a tanker and the British battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth. All six torpedo-riders were captured.
During one of these missions, on 10 August 1942, Sciré sank, damaged by diving bombs dropped by HMS Islay in Haifa harbour.
See also Italian submarine Sciré for all the submarines bearing the same name.
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