Italian submarine Sciré (1938)

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Sciré
Career
Commissioned:
Fate:	Sunk 1943
Stricken:
General characteristics
Displacement:	698 tons surfaced 866 tons submerged
Length:	60.18 m
Beam:	6.45 m
Draft:	4.6 m
Speed:	14 knots surface 7.5 knots submerged
Complement:	46
Armament:	4 torpedo tubes forward 2 torpedo tubes aft 12 533 mm torpedoes on board 100 mm/47 cal deck gun

The Italian submarine Sciré (1938) was an Italian 600-Serie Adua-class submarine, which served during World War II in the 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 human torpedoes (maiali).

The Sciré 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 Queen Elizabeth. All six torpedo-riders were captured.

During one of these missions, on 10 August 1942, Sciré sank, damaged by depth charges dropped by HMS Islay in Haifa bay, about 11 km from the harbour.

The wreck of the Sciré, laying at a depth of 32 meters, became a popular diving site and Shayetet 13 training location. In 1984 a joint Italian-Israeli Navy ceremony was performed, in which the forward section was removed from the submarine and sent to Italy to become part of a memorial.

See also Italian submarine Sciré for all the submarines bearing the same name.

[edit] External links

• SUB.net Italia - Sciré missions

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