Attack / Transport Diesel-Electric Submarine [ 1938 ]
Commissioned in 1938, Barbarigo fared better than her sister boats in World War 2 but her luck ran out on June 16th, 1943 when Allied warplanes took her down.
The Axis undersea force of World War 2 (1939-1945) wasn't all U-boats from Germany or I-series boats from Japan for the Italians managed one of the larger collection of submarines by the time the war arrived: 107 were in inventory when the first shots were fired. Control of Mediterranean waterways would be key to the Axis victory and the Italian Navy was under pressure to broadcast its authority to points reaching northern Africa and beyond and its submarine force would surely play a role in the action ahead.
Structurally the boat was given a length of 240 feet with a beam of 23.6 feet and a draught of 16.8 feet. Surface speeds reached over 17 knots while submerged speeds ran as high as 8 knots. The Barbarigo was a true "deep water", ocean-going submarine - not limited to coastal service as some other submarines deployed in the war.
Barbarigo was launched on June 12th, 1938 and formally commissioned for service in the Italian Navy on September 19th, 1938. War in Europe broke out on September 1st, 1939 with the German invasion of Poland and the Italian Navy went to work thereafter.
Barbarigo deployed to French Bordeaux for 1940 and centered her actions in the middle Atlantic from October onward but found little success beyond the sinking of "Navemar", a Spanish ship that stood as a neutral party in the war. In May of 1942, she engaged the Brazilian merchant Comandante Lyra but was chased off over the span of five days by Brazilian Navy aircraft - before the end of the year, many of her sister ships would be sunk. In October of 1942 she engaged the British corvette "Petunia", misidentifying it as an American battleship of importance.
With a new commander in place, the boat managed to claim three enemy ships during March of 1943. Following repairs, she was converted for service as a cargo-runner from German-held France to Japan in the hopes of being able to bring back much-needed war resources. However, the boat was attacked by Allied aircraft and presumed sunk in the Bay of Biscay on her first run out on June 16th, 1943 - bringing about an end to her limited legacy.
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Specifications
Imperial Japan; Kingdom of Italy; Nazi Germany Operators
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