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Italian submarine Barbarigo

Barbarigo 1.jpg
Barbarigo
History
Italy
Name: Barbarigo
Builder: CRDA
Launched: 12 June 1938
Commissioned: 19 September 1938
Fate: Presumed sunk, c. 17-19 June 1943
General characteristics
Class and type: Marcello-class submarine
Displacement:
  • 1,060 long tons (1,080 t) surfaced
  • 1,313 long tons (1,334 t) submerged
Length: 73 m (239 ft 6 in)
Beam: 7.19 m (23 ft 7 in)
Draught: 5.1 m (16 ft 9 in)
Propulsion:
Speed:
  • 17.4 knots (20.0 mph; 32.2 km/h) surfaced
  • 8 knots (9.2 mph; 15 km/h) submerged
Complement: 58
Armament:
  • 8 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (4 bow, 4 stern)
  • 2 × 100 mm (3.9 in)/47 guns
  • 4 × 13.2 mm (0.52 in) machine guns

The Agostino Barbarigo was an World War II Italian Marcello-class submarine. It was built by the Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico, and was commissioned on 19 September 1938.

After early peacetime training activity, and two fruitless missions in the Mediterranean Sea, the Barbarigo was assigned to the Atlantic theater, reaching its base in Bordeaux on 8 September 1940 after an unsuccessful patrol.

From October 1940 to May 1941 she went on three missions around Irish waters, which obtained only the damaging of a merchantman. On July, she sailed to the west of the Strait of Gibraltar and obtained its first successes, sinking the British ship Macon (5135 tls) on 25 July and then the oiler Horn Shell (8272 tls), before turning for port. On 22 October the Barbarigo sailed again, under the command of Capitano di Corvetta Enzo Grossi, but the patrol was unsuccessful. On the next patrol, the submarine met a lighted ship, but Grossi torpedoed and sank her nonetheless (it was the neutral Spanish ship Navemar), on 23 January 1941.

Afterwards, the Barbarigo was sent to Brazilian waters, departing Bordeaux on 30 April. She was responsible for the first Brazilian war action of World War II; she attacked the Brazilian merchant ship Comandante Lyra on 18 May 1942, without sinking her, and she was chased by Brazilian aero-naval forces for five days. The submarine managed to escape two attacks by Brazilian B-25 aircraft.

On 20 May, the Barbarigo met the cruiser USS Milwaukee and the destroyer USS Moffett; wrongly recognizing the former as a Maryland-class battleship, Grossi fired two torpedoes at the cruiser. With himself and his crew convinced to having seen and felt the battleship being struck and sinking, the Barbarigo sailed away, while the American ships had not even been aware of the attack. Grossi reported his sinking, and, despite the doubts and misgivings of BETASOM commander Romolo Polacchini, the action was widely publicized on Italian and German press; Grossi was awarded with a Gold Medal of Military Valour and promoted to Capitano di Fregata (Commander). On its way home, the Barbarigo attacked and sank the ship Chalbury (4836 tls), between 28 and 29 July.


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