Italian submarine fates

Ships hit by Italian submarines

Type	Armed trawler
Country	British
Built	1930	Tons	409

Date of attack	7 Feb 1943	Time	2212 2200 (e)
Fate	Sunk by submarine Platino (T.V. Vittorio Patrelli Campagnano)
Position of attack	37° 16'N, 6° 26'E
Complement	(no casualties, 2 survivors)
Convoy
Notes	At 2147 hours, four vessels were sighted approaching at a distance of 5,000 metres. Shortly after, they could be made out as two large merchantmen escorted by two vessels making only about 6 knots. Platino closed at reduced speed as the phosphorescence of the sea could betray her presence. At 2212 hours, four torpedoes were fired from the bow tubes (533mm, G7e type) at a range of 2,500 metres, aimed at the larger vessel described as a 10,000-ton freighter. Three minutes later, a hit was observed (giving a running range of 2,520 metres) and the vessel disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The target was the British armed trawler HMT Tervani (409 tons) and she was hit and sunk. Tervani was towing the French water tanker *Mory Mazout II* (762 GRT, built 1908), escorted by the armed trawlers HMT Achroite (FY.914) and HMT Arnold Bennett (FY.1939). There were only two survivors. The two trawlers chased the submarine and left *Mory Mazout II* unattended. She was found derelict by the destroyer HMS Bicester escorting convoy M.K.S.8 and she detached the corvette HMCS Kitchener to stand by. Eventually the water tanker was towed to Philippeville by the tug HMS Jaunty.