Dennis Peter - British submarine vs Italian torpedo boat: Mediterranean 1940-43

Author

David Greentree graduated in History from the University of York before taking an MA in War Studies at Kings College London and qualifying as a lecturer in Further Education. In 1995 he accepted a commission in the Royal Air Force and has served in a variety of locations, including Afghanistan and Oman.

Illustrators

Ian Palmer is a highly experienced digital artist. A graduate in 3D design, he currently works as a freelance art director in the games and film industries, and he has illustrated books for Osprey for more than a decade. Ian completed the torpedo-boat and submarine profiles, weaponry plates and periscope views for this book.

Peter Dennis was born in 1950. Inspired by contemporary magazines such as Look and Learn he studied illustration at Liverpool Art College. Peter has since contributed to hundreds of books, predominantly on historical subjects, including many Osprey titles. A keen wargamer and modelmaker, he is based in Nottinghamshire, UK. Peter completed the cover artwork and battlescene artwork for this book.

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Osprey Publishing,

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-4728-1412-8 (PB)

ISBN: 978-1-4728-1414-2 (eBook)

eBook ISBN: 978-1-4728-1413-5 (ePDF)

Maps and diagrams by bounford.com

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Ted Nevill from Cody Images, Lorna Edwards, the authors cousin and niece of Leading Seaman George Bishop, the wireless operator on Uproar in 1942, and Capitano di Fregata Ennio Chiffi and the staff of the Ufficio Storico Marina Militare Italiana (USMM) for assistance with the research of images for the book. I had the pleasure to interview Captain M.L.C. Tubby Crawford, DSC and Bar, RN, who was first lieutenant on HMS Upholder and commanded HMS Unseen. I am also grateful to Mark Zumpe at Portsmouth Central library and David Campbell for providing source material. Sonia Polverigiani also assisted with translating from the Italian.

COVER ART In December 1942, the U-class submarine P 48 (above) was patrolling off Bizerte. Ardente (below) and Ardito, Ciclone-class torpedo boats, sailed from Palermo on 24 December escorting two merchant ships, XXI Aprile and Carlo Zeno. At 1120hrs on 25 December, 12 miles off Zembra Island in the Gulf of Tunis, a submarine asdic contact was obtained at 2,600 metres [2,845yd]; 12 depth charges were used and the senior officer in Ardente [Tenente di Vascello Rinaldo Ancillotti], after waiting for a quarter of an hour for the disturbed water to subside, then regained contact (quoted in Wingate 1991: 258). After the third attack with another 12 depth charges, the bridge sighted a confused boiling on the sea. Thinking that the submarine was about to surface, all guns were trained on this spot. But the boiling slowly subsided and when the echo from the submarine was again obtained, the targets position was stationary at a depth of 200 metres [650ft] (quoted in Wingate 1991: 258). Ardente made another attack with a further 12 depth charges; in total, 48 were used.

TITLE PAGE On board his first submarine, Young was amazed at the complexity of pipes, valves, electric wiring, switches, pressure-gauges, junction-boxes, above our heads and on every side of us (Young 2004: 19). He was told how air in the ballast tanks kept out the water and when we wanted to dive, the air would be let out of the vents which we could see along the tops of the tanks (Young 2004: 20). Here, the control room of a submarine from the training flotilla in Portsmouth in 1937 is shown. (Cody Images)

Editors note

In this book linear, weight and volume measurements are given in imperial units of measurement: nautical miles (referred to simply as miles), yards, feet, inches, long tons and pounds. The exception is weapons calibre, where metric is used in some cases, depending on the context. Cargo capacity of merchant shipping is given in gross register tons (GRT), a measurement of cubic capacity rather than of weight. The following data will help when converting between imperial and metric measurements:

1 nautical mile = 1.85km

1yd = 91.44cm

1ft = 30.48cm

1in = 2.54cm

1 long ton = 2,240lb/1.016 tonnes

1lb = 0.454kg

1 GRT = 4.64ft3/2.83m3

Imperial War Museums Collections

Many of the photos in this book come from the huge collections of the IWM (Imperial War Museums) which cover all aspects of conflict involving Britain and the Commonwealth since the start of the twentieth century. These rich resources are available online to search, browse and buy at

Imperial War Museums www.iwm.org.uk

Comparative ranks