Italian submarines in World War Two
Italian Commanders
Renato Scandola
| Born | 9 Nov 1916 | Castelfranco (Bologna) | |
| Died | 1995 | (78) | Bologna |
| Ranks
Decorations
|
Career information
In May 1940, served as S.T.V. officer on the light cruiser DA BARBIANO.Promoted to T.V. on ?
CORALLO (T.V. C.O.): from 14.06.1942 to 17.06.1942.
DESSIÈ (T.V. C.O.): from 17.06.1942 to 13.08.1942 (wounded during an air attack in error by German JU-88, replaced by First Officer).
NEREIDE (T.V. C.O.): from 27.03.1943 to 13.07.1943 (sunk, Scandola survived as PoW).
Commands listed for Renato Scandola
| Submarine | Type | Rank | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corallo (CO) | Coastal / Sea going | T.V. | 14 Jun 1942 | 17 Jun 1942 |
| Dessiè (DE) | Coastal / Sea going | T.V. | 17 Jun 1942 | 13 Aug 1942 |
| Nereide (NE) | Coastal / Sea going | T.V. | 27 Mar 1943 | 13 Jul 1943 |
Ships hit by Renato Scandola
| Date | Submarine | Ship hit | Type | GRT | Nat. | Loss type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 12 Aug 1942 | Dessiè | Deucalion? | Cargo ship | 7,516 |  | Damaged? |
War patrols listed for Renato Scandola
| Submarine | Date | Time | Port | Arr. date | Arr. time | Arr. port | Miles | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Corallo (CO) | 14 Jun 1942 | 1755 | Trapani | 17 Jun 1942 | 1150 | Trapani | 318 | Patrolled west of Malta between 36°20' N and 36°40' N, and between 12°20' E and 13°40' E, to intercept an enemy convoy. Uneventful. Heard only H.E. and distant explosions. | |
| 2. | Dessiè (DE) | 18 Jun 1942 | 0000 | Trapani | 21 Jun 1942 | 1705 | Augusta | 586 | Patrolled near La Galite, between 37°20'N and 37°45'N, and between 09°40'E and 10°20'E, but was recalled. Uneventful. At 0545 hours on the 21st, the torpedo boat Abba was met and escorted Dessiè, Aciaio and Alagi back to Augusta. | |
| 19 Jun 1942 | 1920 | (0) Near La Galite. | At 1920 hours, a Catalina aircraft was sighted at a distance of 8,000 metres. The aircraft did not sight the submarine and Dessiè remained on the surface. | |||||||
| Dessiè (DE) | 26 Jun 1942 | 0031 | Augusta | 27 Jun 1942 | 0655 | Trapani | 297 | Passage Augusta-Trapani. | ||
| Dessiè (DE) | 1 Jul 1942 | 0834 | Trapani | 1 Jul 1942 | 1510 | Trapani | 44 | Trials. | ||
| 3. | Dessiè (DE) | 16 Jul 1942 | 0130 | Trapani | 27 Jul 1942 | 1743 | Trapani | 829 | Patrolled in area K.2 (off Ras Mustafa), between 36°53'N and 36°57'N, and between 11°12'E and the Tunisian coast. Uneventful. | |
| 18 Jul 1942 | 1755 | (0) Off Kelibia (Tunisia). | At 1755 hours, the Italian steamer Saturno (5,022 GRT, built 1914) was sighted proceeding independently to Tripoli. T.V. Scandola observed that the torpedo-boat escort (Orione) was not present. | |||||||
| Dessiè (DE) | 4 Aug 1942 | 1403 | Trapani | 4 Aug 1942 | 1810 | Trapani | Exercises. | |||
| Dessiè (DE) | 10 Aug 1942 | 0856 | Trapani | 10 Aug 1942 | 1152 | Trapani | 25 | Trials. | ||
| 4. | Dessiè (DE) | 11 Aug 1942 | 1220 | Trapani | 14 Aug 1942 | 0830 | Trapani | 352 | Sailed with Ascianghi and Alagi for patrol, between 37°20'N and 38°00'N, and between 10°00'E and 10°40'E, in the Sicilian Channel and off the Tunisian coast to operate against the PEDESTAL convoy. | |
| 12 Aug 1942 | 1938 1956 or 2058? (e) | 37° 38'N, 10° 25'E | At 1900 hours, the smokes of the convoy were sighted on the horizon. Ten minutes later, fourteen merchant ships and ten destroyers could be counted. They were steering 110° at 14 knots. At 1938 hours, four torpedoes (533mm) were fired at 3-second intervals from the bow tubes, at a distance of 1,800 metres. After 100 seconds, two hits were heard. Between 1956 and 2127 hours, Dessié was hunted and escaped to a depth of 90 metres; 120 depth charges were counted, but none were near enough to cause damage. There was no opportunity for an attack with the stern tubes as it was hoped. There is no absolute certainty that Dessié hit anything with this salvo. Some accounts credit her with hitting Deucalion (7,516 GRT, built 1930) but she was near-missed at 1315 hours by a bomb and damaged. Later, she was hit by a torpedo bomber and sunk at 2120 hours in 270° - Cani Rocks - 5 miles. Brisbane Star is also reported to have been torpedoed by aircraft at 2058 hours. Was she damaged earlier? There was great confusion in these hours and it is difficult to properly assess what transpired. At 2212 hours, Dessié surfaced and witnessed two vessels on fire. | |||||||
| 13 Aug 1942 | 1755 | 37° 35'N, 10° 24'E (0) Off Tunisian coast. | At 1755 hours, Dessié was attacked in error by four German Junker 88 bombers despite her frantic signals. They each dropped four bombs. They missed by about 50 metres. At 1935 hours, the submarine was attacked once again by German aircraft, this time she was narrowly straddled and damaged by near-misses. T.V. Scandola, three officers and three ratings were wounded, one rating was killed. The submarine had to abort her patrol. | |||||||
| Nereide (NE) | 5 May 1943 | 0905 | Brindisi | 5 May 1943 | 1630 | Brindisi | 14 | Trials. | ||
| Nereide (NE) | 5 May 1943 | 1330 | Brindisi | 5 May 1943 | 1850 | Brindisi | 11 | Exercises. | ||
| Nereide (NE) | 5 May 1943 | 1330 | Brindisi | 5 May 1943 | 1850 | Brindisi | 11 | Trials. | ||
| Nereide (NE) | 14 May 1943 | 0905 | Brindisi | 14 May 1943 | 1630 | Brindisi | 14 | Exercises. | ||
| Nereide (NE) | 16 May 1943 | 0920 | Brindisi | 16 May 1943 | 1350 | Brindisi | 9,5 | Trials. | ||
| Nereide (NE) | 17 May 1943 | 1425 | Brindisi | 18 May 1943 | 1340 | Taranto | 172 | Passage Brindisi-Taranto. | ||
| Nereide (NE) | 4 Jun 1943 | 1651 | Taranto | 4 Jun 1943 | 2232 | Taranto | 31 | Sonar exercises with the torpedo boats Sagittario and Monzambano and the corvette Gabbiano. | ||
| Nereide (NE) | 5 Jun 1943 | 1450 | Taranto | 5 Jun 1943 | 1945 | Taranto | 46 | Sonar exercises with the torpedo boat Monzambano. | ||
| Nereide (NE) | 6 Jun 1943 | 1700 | Taranto | 6 Jun 1943 | 1954 | Taranto | Exercises. | |||
| Nereide (NE) | 7 Jun 1943 | 0532 | Taranto | 7 Jun 1943 | 1730 | Taranto | Exercises. | |||
| Nereide (NE) | 8 Jun 1943 | 0527 | Taranto | 8 Jun 1943 | 1555 | Taranto | Exercises with corvette Gabbiano (sonar) and the tug Portovecchio. She was escorted out by the auxiliary Claretta. | |||
| Nereide (NE) | 12 Jun 1943 | 0908 | Taranto | 13 Jun 1943 | 0110 | Taranto | Exercises with steamer Nesazio escorted by the auxiliary Claretta. | |||
| Nereide (NE) | 14 Jun 1943 | 0951 | Taranto | 14 Jun 1943 | 1510 | Taranto | Exercises. | |||
| Nereide (NE) | 25 Jun 1943 | 2235 | Taranto | 1 Jul 1943 | 0815 | Pozzuoli | 511 | Passage Taranto-Pozzuoli. | ||
| 29 Jun 1943 | 0639 | (0) Near Cape Dell'Armi. | At 0639 hours, an aircraft was seen and the submarine dived. | |||||||
| 29 Jun 1943 | 0827 | (0) Near Cape Dell'Armi. | At 0827 hours, an aircraft was seen and the submarine dived. | |||||||
| 30 Jun 1943 | 1805 | At 1805 hours, an aircraft was seen and the submarine dived. | ||||||||
| 1 Jul 1943 | 0450 | (0) Near Naples. | At 0450 hours, in foggy weather, a submarine was sighted. As T.V. Scandola had not been informed of Italian submarines in the area, Nereide was prepared for action. Torpedoes and the deck gun were ready to fire when the submarine appeared to be Italian. At 0459 hours, visual signals were exchanged and were also answered by a second submarine who was following. These were probably Nichelio and Wolframio who had sailed from Pozzuoli for Portoferraio. | |||||||
| 5. | Nereide (NE) | 7 Jul 1943 | 0105 | Pozzuoli | 13 Jul 1943 | 0730 | Sunk | Patrolled south of Sardinia in 38°55'N, 09°25'E until 10 July, when ordered to patrol 40 miles east of Augusta. Sunk by HM destroyers Echo and Ilex 40 miles east of Augusta. Twenty-nine survivors. At 0007 hours on the 14th, MARICOSOM, unaware of her loss, ordered her to occupy the northern half of zone 81 [between 37°15'N and 37°20'N, and between 15°20'E and 15°40'E]. | ||
| 12 Jul 1943 | 1746 | 37° 30'N, 15° 10'E (0) Approximate position. Near Catania. | This attack lacks details as Nereide did not return from this patrol. At 1746 hours, a squadron of ten destroyers was sighted and three torpedoes (533mm, G7e type) were fired from bow tubes at 4,500 metres. Two destroyers were claimed to have been hit. These were probably units from the 5th Destroyer Flotilla. | |||||||
| 13 Jul 1943 | 0500 (e) | (e) 37° 25'N, 16° 07'E | At 0220 hours, Nereide was cruising on the surface when she was detected at a range of 10,200 yards by the radar of the light cruiser HMS Euryalus and, almost simultaneously, by the radar of the light cruier HMS Cleopatra. The warships were proceeding in company with the destroyers HMS Echo and HMS Ilex (this was Force Q). 0232 hours, the submarine came in sight and HMS Euryalus opened fire with star shells at a range of 5,800 yards, while the two destroyers were sent to the attack. At 0335 hours, HMS Ilex obtained an ASDIC contact. Depth charging followed: 0338 hours: HMS Ilex (5 DCs set at 100 feet). 0343 hours: HMS Ilex (2 DCs at 150 and 300 feet) 0344 hours: HMS Echo (5 DCs at 150, 250 and 350 feet) 0354 hours: HMS Ilex (5 DCs at 150, 250 and 350 feet) 0431 hours: HMS Ilex (5 DCs at 150, 250 and 350 feet) 0440 hours: HMS Ilex (5 DCs at 350 and 550 feet) 0444 hours: HMS Echo (5? DCs at 350 and 550 feet) 0448 hours: HMS Ilex (5 DCs at 350 and 550 feet) 0455 hours: HMS Echo (5? DCs at 150, 250 and 350 feet) The submarine suddenly surfaced. HMS Echo opened fire and scored a 4.7" hit abaft the conning tower with her second salvo. The destroyer then crossed ahead the submarine to deliver four depth charges set at 50 feet. The submarine rolled over and sank stern first. HMS Echo picked twenty survivors (five officers, including T.V. Scandola, and fifteen ratings). HMS Ilex picked up seven ratings. Twenty-one ratings were killed or missing. | |||||||
28 entries. 23 total patrol entries (5 marked as war patrols) and 10 events.