General Sanjurjo in 1938 |
|
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Archimede |
| Builders: | Franco Tosi |
| Operators: | Regia Marina Spanish Navy Royal Navy |
| Built: | 1930-1934 |
| In service: | 1933-58 |
| Completed: | 4 |
| Lost: | 1 |
| Retired: | 3 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Submarine |
| Displacement: | 970 tons (surface) 1239 tons (submerged) |
| Length: | 70.5 m |
| Beam: | 6.87 m |
| Draught: | 4.12 m |
| Propulsion: | (surfaced/submerged) diesel / electric , 2 shafts 3,000 hp / 1,100 hp (820 kW) |
| Speed: | 17 / 8 knots (surfaced/submerged) |
| Range: | 10,500nm at 8 knots (15 km/h) |
| Complement: | 55 |
| Armament: | 2 x 100mm guns 2 x 13.2mm machine guns 8 x 21" torpedo tubes (4 bow, 4 stern) |
The Archimede class were a group of submarines built for the Italian Navy in the early 1930s. The boats fought in the Spanish Civil War (under nationalist flag) and in World War II. Under Spanish colors, these boats were known as the General Mola class, and remained in service until 1959.
The ships were designed by the firm Cavallini and were a partially double hulled design. They were an enlarged version of the Settembrini class submarine with ballast tanks rearranged, greater range, fuel and torpedo capacity for ocean service. Like most of the later ocean-going submarines of the Italian navy, their deck armament consisting of two 100 mm guns was conceived to deal with armed merchantmen in surface combat.[1] That was the case of the Marcello class submarine Capellini, which between 5 and 14 January 1941 sank the British steamers Shakespeare and Eumaeus off Cabo Verde after a protracted gunfire action.[2] Another example occurred when the Brin class Torricelli faced three British destroyers and a sloop while surfaced in the Red Sea. Before being sunk, the submarine hit the sloop and damaged the destroyer HMS Khartoum. Khartoum exploded near Perim after a torpedo fault set a fire that reached her magazines later that day.[1][3][4] They also mounted two 13.2 mm anti-aircraft machine guns.[5] The number of torpedoes was increased from 12 on the Settembrini class to 16.[6]
All boats were built by the shipyard of Franco Tosi at Taranto, between 1930 and 1934.
Torricelli and Archimede took part of the Spanish Civil war under Italian flag since 1936, carrying out undercover operations. Eventually both submarines were secretly delivered to the Spanish rebel navy on April 1937.[7]
| Ship | namesake | Launched | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archimede | Archimedes | 10 December 1933 | During the second half of 1936 she operated in Spanish waters covertly. Transferred to the Spanish nationalist navy in April 1937, renamed General Mola. She sank the Republican transport Cabo Palos on 26 July 1937 and the Dutch freighter Hanna on 2 January 1938.[8] Also damaged beyond repair the Greek Lena on 30 March.[9] Stricken in 1959[5] |
| Galileo Ferraris | Galileo Ferraris | 11 August 1934 | Sunk 25 October 1941 off Gibraltar by the combined action of a RAF PBY-5A Catalina flying boat and the destroyer HMS Lamerton at the position |
| Galileo Galilei | Galileo Galilei | 19 March 1934 | On 16 June 1940, she sank the Norwegian tanker James Stove off Aden, in the Red Sea. Captured two days later by the British armed trawler HMS Moonstone. Commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS X2, scrapped in 1946 |
| Torricelli | Evangelista Torricelli | 27 March 1934 | She torpedoed and disabled the Republican cruiser Miguel de Cervantes in 1936, still under Italian flag. Transferred to the Spanish nationalist navy in April 1937, renamed General Sanjurjo. She sank the transport Ciudad de Barcelona on 30 May 1937 and the British steamer Endymion near the position on 21 January 1938.[10] Stricken in 1959[5] |
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