Archimede-class submarine

The Archimede class were a group of four submarines built for the (Royal Italian Navy) in the early 1930s. The boats fought in the Spanish Civil War (under the Nationalist flag) and in World War II. In Spanish service, two boats were known as the General Mola class; these were taken out of service in 1959.

Design

The ships were designed by the firm Cavallini and were a partially double hulled design. They were an enlarged version of the with ballast tanks rearranged, greater range, fuel and torpedo capacity for ocean service. Like most of the later ocean-going submarines of the Italian navy, their deck armament consisting of two Template:Cvt guns was conceived to deal with armed merchantmen in surface combat.Template:Efn They also mounted two anti-aircraft machine guns. The number of torpedoes was increased from 12 on the Settembrini class to 16.

Boats

All boats were built by the shipyard of Franco Tosi at Taranto, between 1930 and 1934.

Torricelli and Archimede took part in the Spanish Civil war under the Italian flag since 1936, carrying out undercover operations. Eventually both submarines were secretly delivered to the Spanish nationalists in April 1937.

List of Archimede-class submarines

Ship	Namesake	Launched	Fate
/ Template:WbrGeneral Sanjurjo	Archimedes/Template:WbrJose SanjurjoTemplate:Efn	10 December 1933	During the second half of 1936 she operated in Spanish waters covertly as Archimede. Transferred to the Spanish nationalist navy in April 1937, renamed General Sanjurjo. She sank the Republican troop transport Ciudad de Barcelona on 30 May 1937 and the British near on 21 January 1938. Involved in an incident with HMS Torbay on 7 February 1943, during WWII, after the British submarine misidentified her as Italian. Stricken in 1959
	Galileo Ferraris	11 August 1934	Sunk 25 October 1941 off Gibraltar by the combined action of a RAF PBY-5A Catalina flying boat and the destroyer at the position
	Galileo Galilei	19 March 1934	On 16 June 1940, she sank the Norwegian tanker James Stove off Aden, in the Red Sea. Captured two days later by the British armed trawler . Commissioned into the Royal Navy as , scrapped in 1946
/ Template:WbrGeneral Mola	Evangelista Torricelli/Template:WbrEmilio MolaTemplate:Efn	27 March 1934	She torpedoed and disabled the Republican Miguel de Cervantes in 1936, still under Italian flag as Torricelli. Transferred to the Spanish nationalist navy in April 1937, renamed General Mola. She sank the Republican transport Cabo Palos on 26 July 1937 and the Dutch freighter Hanna on 2 January 1938. She also damaged beyond repair the Greek Lena on 30 March. Stricken in 1959

See also

• Italian submarines of World War II
• List of foreign ships wrecked or lost in the Spanish Civil War

External links

• Archimede Marina Militare website