Liuzzi-class submarine
The launch of Console Generale Liuzzi in 1939
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | Tosi Taranto |
| Operators: | |
| Built: | 1939-1940 |
| In service: | 1939-1944 |
| In commission: | 1939–1944 |
| Completed: | 4 |
| Lost: | 4 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Submarine |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 253 ft (77 m) |
| Beam: | 25 ft (7.6 m) |
| Draught: | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | |
| Complement: | 50 |
| Armament: |
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| Notes: | |
The Liuzzi-class was a class of four submarines built by Tosi in Taranto for the Royal Italian Navy (Italian: Regia Marina). The submarines were built in 1939 and began their Second World War service in the Mediterranean Sea, where Liuzzi was sunk. The three surviving boats were transferred to the BETASOM German submarine base at Bordeaux in 1940. After Tarantini was sunk, Bagnolini and Giuliani were selected for conversion to "transport submarines" in order to exchange rare or irreplaceable trade goods with Japan. Cargo capacity of 160 tons reduced reserve buoyancy from 20–25% to 3.5–6%; and armament was reduced to defensive machine guns.
Console Generale Liuzzi was launched 17 September 1939. Two weeks after the Italian declaration of war, Liuzzi was sunk by Royal Navy destroyers south of Crete on 27 June 1940.
Bagnolini (pennant number BI) was launched 28 October 1939 and completed on 22 December 1939. Bagnolini was at sea when Italy declared war, and torpedoed the cruiser HMS Calypso south of Crete on 12 June 1940. A second Mediterranean war patrol was unsuccessful. Bagnolini sailed on 9 September 1940 and passed the Strait of Gibraltar on 13 September for an Atlantic patrol to Bordeaux on 30 September. En route Bagnolini torpedoed the neutral Spanish freighter Gabo Tortosa. Bagnolini sank a single ship on its first BETASOM patrol before being damaged by anti-submarine patrols. A July 1941 patrol off Gibraltar and a patrol off the Azores from 18 January to 22 February 1942 were unsuccessful; and three patrols to the South Atlantic from 24 April to 28 June, from 15 September to 7 November 1942, and from 14 February to 13 April 1943 were similarly unproductive. After conversion to a German transport submarine, Bagnolini sailed as UIT-22 on 26 January 1944 and was sunk off the Cape of Good Hope by No. 262 Squadron RAF Consolidated PBY Catalinas on 11 March.
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