Pier Capponi (CP)
Capponi

Type	Ocean going
Class	Mameli (3)
Laid down	27 Aug 1925	Cantieri Navale Tosi di Taranto, Taranto
Launched	19 Jun 1927
Commissioned	19 Jan 1929
End service
Stricken
Loss date	31 Mar 1941
Loss position	38° 32'N, 15° 19'E
History
Fate	Torpedoed and sunk on 31st March 1941 south of Stromboli in position 38°32N, 15°19'E by British submarine HMS Rorqual.

Commands

Commander	Date from	Date to	Command notes
T.V. Romeo Romei	4 May 1940	20 Sep 1940
T.V. Romeo Romei	14 Oct 1940	31 Mar 1941

Ships hit

	Date	Commander	Ship hit	Type	GRT	Nat.	Loss type
1.	22 Jun 1940	T.V. Romeo Romei	Elgö	Cargo ship	1,888		Sunk

Patrols and events

	Commander	Date	Time	Port	Arr. date	Arr. time	Arr. port	Miles	Description
	Romei, Romeo	3 Jun 1940	1045	Augusta	3 Jun 1940	1625	Messina	67	Passage Augusta-Messina.
	Romei, Romeo	10 Jun 1940	1923	Messina	10 Jun 1940	2020	Messina	7	Exercises.
1	Romei, Romeo	17 Jun 1940	1825	Messina	26 Jun 1940	0900	Messina	1114	Sailed via north coast of Sicily for patrol between Pantelleria and Tunisian coast and northeast of Cefalù.
		20 Jun 1940	0045	37° 05'N, 11° 40'E (0) Approximately. 15-20 miles from Cape Bon.	An unknown submarine was sighted on the port side; Pier Capponi turned away to prepare the torpedo tubes for an attack, but contact was lost. This was probably the French salvage vessel Monge which arrived at Bizerta at 0500 hours on the 20th, after a patrol in the Gulf of Gabès.
		22 Jun 1940	0132 2200/21 (e)	36° 59'N, 11° 12'E	The submarine first sighted a freighter from a distance of 6,000 metres on a SSE course at 0035 hours and turned toward her while increasing speed. At 0058 hours, the distance had decreased to 2,500 metres. Pier Capponi was now proceeding at 15 knots to gain a favourable attack position and at 0132 hours a torpedo (533mm) was fired from a bow tube at a range of 1,000 metres. It missed. The target was the Swedish Elgö (1888 GRT, built 1918) on passage Tunis to Sfax with general cargo (asphalt, etc.).
		22 Jun 1940	0135 0002-0015 (e)	36° 59'N, 11° 12'E	The submarine fired twenty-three rounds with her deck gun, scoring several hits.
		22 Jun 1940	0145 0015 (e)	36° 59'N, 11° 12'E	The submarine fired a second torpedo (533mm) from a bow tube at a range of 1,000 metres, it missed.
		22 Jun 1940	0150	36° 59'N, 11° 12'E	A stern shot (533mm) was now fired from 900 metres. A hit was claimed, but was not confirmed from Swedish sources.
		22 Jun 1940	0201	36° 59'N, 11° 12'E	A fourth torpedo (450mm) was fired from a bow tube from a distance of 700-800 metres, which hit the target squarely and she sank in three minutes. One crew member was killed and three were wounded, the twenty-one survivors reached the Tunisian coast.
		25 Jun 1940	2225	38° 10'N, 14° 18'E	An unidentified vessel was seen and later believed to be an enemy submarine. Pier Capponi turned away for a stern shot (533mm), which was fired from 500-1,000 metres. It missed. The "submarine" was probably a Sicilian fishing vessel as no enemy submarine operated in the area.
	Romei, Romeo	4 Jul 1940	1140	Messina	4 Jul 1940	1900	Augusta	67	Passage Messina-Augusta.
2	Romei, Romeo	5 Jul 1940	0200	Augusta	13 Jul 1940	1447	Messina	955,3	Patrolled southeast of Malta.
		11 Jul 1940	2340	36° 30'N, 14° 55'E	At 2330 hours, the submarine sighted three large enemy ships escorted by four destroyers, steering 140° at 20 knots. Range was closed to 1,500 metres and at 2340 hours, two torpedoes (533mm) were fired from No. 3 and No. 4 bow tubes, angled at 25° and 30° to starboard, at three seconds interval, at a battleship of the MALAYA class. They missed. At 0137 hours, the submarine surfaced and made an enemy report. British records do not show the presence of a squadron in this area at this time. The battle fleet was much farther to the east on its way to Alexandria.
		12 Jul 1940	0640 AM (e)	(0) SE of Malta.	Shortly after 0600 hours, the submarine sighted a minesweeper coming from the west and made a recognition signal, but the reponse was repeatedly by the same signal. The range had closed to 100 metres; it was now clear the vessel was British and Pier Capponi opened fire with her Breda machine guns. In fact, there were two armed trawlers in the vicinity, HMT Coral and HMT Jade and they opened fire on the submarine which was hit by one round on the stern while a machine gun round pierced the conning tower (later it was found to be completely flooded when the submarine reached the bottom at 97 metres).
		12 Jul 1940	0640+	(0) SE of Malta.	As the submarine was moving away on the surface at full speed, she fired a torpedo (450mm) from a stern tube set at a depth of one metre to discourage the pursuit. The trawler kept on firing. At 0659 hours, the coastal battery at Point Delimara opened a very accurate fire forcing the submarine to submerge. At 0840 hours, the hydrophones indicated that the enemy had abandoned the chase.
	Romei, Romeo	5 Aug 1940	1140	Messina	5 Aug 1940	2027	Messina	85,5	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	7 Aug 1940	0820	Messina	7 Aug 1940	1035	Messina	20	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	10 Aug 1940	0800	Messina	10 Aug 1940	1032	Messina	18	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	11 Aug 1940	0710	Messina	11 Aug 1940	1030	Messina	17	Exercises.
3	Romei, Romeo	30 Aug 1940	2245	Messina	4 Sep 1940	1500	Messina	722,5	Patrolled near Malta. Patrol plagued by defects.
		1 Sep 1940	2245	(0) Near Malta.	As the submarine was charging her batteries, a two-funneled destroyer was sighted at 1,200 metres. Perhaps it belonged to Force F from Gibraltar (operation HATS), which was detached to Alexandria. The attack was aborted when the destroyer turned toward the submarine, which had to take evasive action, but no depth charges were dropped.
	Romei, Romeo	16 Oct 1940	1035	Messina	16 Oct 1940	1845	Messina	72,5	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	20 Oct 1940	0835	Messina	20 Oct 1940	1553	Messina	75,2	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	22 Oct 1940	0845	Messina	22 Oct 1940	1900	Messina	85,3	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	24 Oct 1940	0845	Messina	24 Oct 1940	1711	Messina	72	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	25 Oct 1940	1515	Messina	25 Oct 1940	1701	Messina	20	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	5 Nov 1940	0825	Messina	5 Nov 1940	1655	Messina	72	Exercises.
4	Romei, Romeo	8 Nov 1940	1700	Messina	10 Nov 1940	1602	Augusta		Patrolled south-east of Malta in 35°30'N, 15°20'E.
		10 Nov 1940	0009 0010 (e)	35° 28'N, 15° 18'E (e) 35° 13'N, 15° 25'E	At 2354 hours on 9th November, an enemy formation was sighted which appeared to include two battleships similar to HMS Royal Sovereign and HMS Ramillies and an aircraft carrier, light cruisers and several destroyers. These were actually the battleships HMS Warspite and HMS Valiant with the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious escorted by the destroyers HMS Decoy and HMS Defender steering 300°. At 0009 hours on the 10th, three torpedoes (533mm) were fired from the bow tubes at a distance of 4,000 metres (the fourth bow tube had a 450mm torpedo with a range of only 2,000 metres and was thus not fired). Two hits were claimed but in fact all torpedoes missed. HMS Illustrious was on her way to launch the famous raid on Taranto on the night of 11/12th November. The same formation was also attacked at 1325 hours on the 10th by S.79 torpedo-bombers without result. As a battleship believed to be HMS Ramillies was later reported to enter Malta to refuel, the Regia Marina interpreted it that she was indeed torpedoed and damaged and Romei was awarded the Medaglia d'Oro.
	Romei, Romeo	11 Nov 1940	0841	Augusta	11 Nov 1940	1441	Messina	470,4	Passage Augusta-Messina [mileage from 8th November].
	Romei, Romeo	29 Nov 1940	1148	Messina	30 Nov 1940	0941	Naples	242	Passage Messina-Naples.
	Romei, Romeo	26 Jan 1941	0915	Naples	26 Jan 1941	1710	Naples	42	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	28 Jan 1941	0900	Naples	28 Jan 1941	1542	Naples	43	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	30 Jan 1941	0845	Naples	30 Jan 1941	1500	Naples	40	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	31 Jan 1941	1120	Naples	31 Jan 1941	1647	Naples	45	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	5 Feb 1941	0915	Naples	5 Feb 1941	1551	Naples	28	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	6 Feb 1941	1950	Naples	7 Feb 1941	1210	Naples	96	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	9 Feb 1941	1600	Naples	10 Feb 1941	1000	Messina	186,5	Passage Naples-Messina.
	Romei, Romeo	16 Feb 1941	0807	Messina	16 Feb 1941	1522	Messina	71,5	Exercises.
5	Romei, Romeo	23 Feb 1941	1331	Messina	23 Feb 1941	1759	Messina	45	Defensive patrol off Messina. Returned because of defects.
	Romei, Romeo	2 Mar 1941	0840	Messina	2 Mar 1941	1820	Messina	90	Exercises.
	Romei, Romeo	6 Mar 1941	1145	Messina	6 Mar 1941	1500	Messina	30	Exercises.
6	Romei, Romeo	7 Mar 1941	1338	Messina	11 Mar 1941	1600	Messina	692	Sailed for patrol east of Malta but returned because of defects.
		9 Mar 1941	1208	(0) East of Malta.	The submarine heard explosions. H.E. believed these to be from three destroyers conducting an A/S search. The enemy destroyers dropped depth-charges, but they were far from the submarine. More explosions were heard at 0725 hours on the 10th, but the submarine escaped by diving deep.
	Romei, Romeo	31 Mar 1941	1040	Messina	31 Mar 1941	1402 (UK)	Sunk with all hands	40	Sunk while on passage to La Spezia (was due at 0700 hours on 2nd April) by HMS Rorqual 17 miles south of Stromboli. Romei was posthumously awarded the Medaglia D'Oro.
		31 Mar 1941	1402 (e)	(e) 38° 32'N, 15° 19'E	Pier Capponi was on passage from Messina to La Spezia when she was observed proceeding on the surface by the submarine HMS Rorqual (Cdr. R.H. Dewhurst, DSO, RN). Five torpedoes were fired from a distance of 1,000 yards and the Italian submarine was hit by two of them and blew up. Five officers and thirty-three ratings perished, there were no survivors. She was due at La Spezia at 0700 hours on 2nd April. When she failed to arrive, the torpedo-boat Simone Schiaffino and seaplanes carried out a search from Messina, with no result.

40 entries. 32 total patrol entries (6 marked as war patrols) and 14 events.

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