Italian submarine Enrico Toti

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Career
Commissioned:	September 19, 1928
Fate:	Retired from service and scrapped.
Retired:	April 2, 1943
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,368 tons surfaced 1,904 tons submerged
Length:	86.75 m
Beam:	7.8 m
Drought:	4.79 m
Speed:	17.5 knots maximum on surface with diesel engines 8.9 knots underwater with electric engines
Complement:	7 Officers, 70 seamen.
Armament:	6 x 21 inch torpedoes (4 fore, 2 aft), 1 x 4.7 inch main gun, 4 x 13.2 mm machine guns

The R.Smg. Enrico Toti was a Balilla class Italian submarine laid down on January 26, 1925 at the Odero-Terni-Orlando Naval Yard, located in Muggiano, La Spezia. She was one of four in her class, launched on April 14, 1928 and commissioned on September 19. Her name pays homage to Major Enrico Toti, a First World War combatant posthumously awarded the Italian Gold Medal. The submarine is notable as being the only Italian submarine to have sunk a Royal Navy submarine during the Second World War.

The name Enrico Toti would later be used for new class of Italian submarine (Toti class submarine), with the S506 Enrico Toti being laid down in 1965, launched in 1967, decommissioned in 1992 and preserved as a museum ship in Milan.

[edit] Service in the Second World War

During the Second World War the Enrico Toti was assigned to the Italian 4th Submarine Group’s 40th Squadron.

[edit] The sinking of HMS Triad

HMS Triad was a T class submarine of the Royal Navy that had set sail from Malta on October 9, 1940 under the command of Lieutenant-Commander G.S. Salt. On the night of October 15 at 38.16N, 17.37E, off the Gulf of Taranto, she encountered the Enrico Toti, commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Bandino Bandini.

Bandini, the officer on watch at the time, sighted the Triad on the surface at 0100hrs, and sounded battle stations on board the Italian submarine. Both submarines altered course until they were heading towards each other, with the Royal Navy submarine opening fire first with her deck gun.

While Italian accounts record that the British submarine scored zero hits, the Royal Navy records note one hit on the Enrico Toti’s conning tower and another on her bow. HMS Triad also fired one torpedo, which the Italian ship turned to avoid.

Bandini’s vessel opened fire on the British deck guns with her four 13.2 mm machine guns, preventing the Royal Navy personnel from operating their deck gun and driving them below decks. Accounts show that the two submarines passed within four feet, with HMS Triad cutting across the stern of the Italian vessel.

The Enrico Toti opened fire with a torpedo, however the distance was such that the torpedo failed to arm in time prior to impact and caused no damage to the opposing submarine. At this stage, Lieutenant-Commander Salt began to dive his ship, however she was sunk during this manoeuvre by two direct shell hits and possibly a further torpedo from the Enrico Toti. Time from first sighting until sinking was 30 to 45 minutes, there were no survivors picked up by the Italian submarine or any other vessels. For this action, the entire crew and their commander received an award.

The Enrico Toti subsequently became a training vessel, and was then used to transport supplies to Italian forces in North Africa. She was scrapped in 1943. Her commander, Bandini, retired from active service in 1949.

[edit] HMS Rainbow

It had been long believed that HMS Triad had been sunk by a mine, and that the ship sunk by the Enrico Toti was in fact HMS Rainbow, which was patrolling nearby and had not been in contact. However, research in 1988 by the Royal Navy came to the conclusion that HMS Rainbow had in fact been sunk in an accidental collision with the Italian Merchant ship Antonietta Costa five days prior to the sinking of the Triad, on October 10.

[edit] References

• Regia Marina article on the Enrico Toti, retrieved on March 10, 2007