Italian submarines in World War Two
Acknowledgements
This work would not have been possible without the patience and kindness of the staff at the Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare (Italian Naval Archives). I must express my grateful thanks to:
At the Ufficio Storico:
Capitano di vascello Francesco Loriga (former Capo Ufficio Storico)
Capitano di vascello Giosuè Allegrini (former Capo Ufficio Storico)
The late Capitano di fregata Domenico Rotolo (former Capo Sezione Archivi)
Capitano di fregata Ennio Chiffi (former Capo Sezione Archivi)
Capitano di fregata Claudio Rizza (former Capo Sezione Archivi)
Sig, Marco Cormani
Sig. Franco Senatore
Sig. Romeo Perini
Sig.ra. Rita Micheli
At the Fototeca (Photographic Section of the USMM):
The late Primo Maresciallo Vincenzo Fiorillo (Capo Fotografo):
Capo Salvatore Grasso
For the biographical section, I have relied substantially on the work “Uomini dell Marina 1861-1946” by Admirals Paolo Alberini and Franco Prosperini (USMM, Rome: 2015). Special thanks to Admiral Giuliano Manzari for reviewing the manuscript and making invaluable suggestions and corrections.
The staff at the National Archives, London [TNA]
The staff at the National Archives, Washington, DC [NARA]
The staff at the Service Historique de la Défense (Marine) (Vincennes) [SHD]
The staff at the Hellenic Naval Archives (Athens)
The staff at the Ottawa National Archives
Mr Robert M. Coppock (now retired) and Ms Kate Tildesley of the Naval Historical Branch at the Ministry of Defence (London and Portsmouth)
George Malcolmson at the Submarine Museum (Gosport)
Many web sites also provided useful information. However, it would be impossible to enumerate them all but I would like to point out the following:
http://www.aidmen.it
http://www.benjidog.co.uk
http://www.betasom.it
https://comandosupremo.com
http://conlapelleappesaaunchiodo.blogspot.com
http://www.convoyweb.org.uk
http://www.fold3.com
http://www.forum.axishistory.com
http://www.forum-marinearchiv.de
http://www.marina.difesa.it
http://www.miramarshipindex.nz
http://www.rnsubs.co.uk
http://www.naval-history.net
http://www.plimsollshipdata.org
http://www.regiamarina.net/
http://www.sixtant.net
http://www.sommergibili.com
https://southampton.spydus.co.uk
http://www.uboat.net
http://www.warsailors.com
http://www.wikipedia.org
http://www.xmasgrupsom.com
And many others.
I would also like to thank the following persons with whom I have had exchanges in various forums, conversations and personal correspondence:
Adrien Abraham
Georgios Apidianakis
Andrzej Bartelski
The late Franco Bargoni
Andres Biermann
Fabio Bisciotti
Massimo Bondone
Graziano Callegari
Domenico Clarizia
Lorenzo Colombo
Jordi Comas
Brian Corijn
Alain Croce
Ken Deshaies
Francis Dickinson
Francesco de Domenico
The late Theodor Dorgeist
Cristina Freghieri
The late Ken Gadsdon
Dimitri Galon
Daniele Gatti
Guido Gay
Marco Ghiglino
Geirr Harr
Martin Goretzki
Jan-Olof Hendig
Urs Hessling
Mark C. Jones
George Karelas
Rainer Kolbicz
Siri Lawson
George Mastrogiorgiou
Francesco Mattesini
Alfredo Moretti
Axel Niestlé
Danilo Pellegrini
Giovanni Pinna
Jonathan Pittaway
Gian Carlo Poddighe
Nicola Ragnoli
Thorsten Reich
Andrea Filippo Saba
David Sibley
David Smith
Giorgio Spazzapan
René Stenzel
Byron Tesapsides
Kostas Thoctaridis
Franco Vallone
Brian Viglietti
Thomas Weis
Allan West
Eric Wiberg
Eric Zimmerman
And many others…
Special thanks to Guðmundur Helgason and Brian Corijn of uboat.net to help set up the web pages, to Eric Zimmerman for sharing his incomparable knowledge of Allied Aircraft anti-submarine operations, Lorenzo Colombo for his remarkable blog “Con la pelle appesa a un Chiodo” and Giovanni Pinna for his assistance with the biographical notes, and to the late Dr. Andrés Gutiérrez and Dr. Alex Stratoudakis whose friendship spanned several decades.
Finally, I cannot thank enough my wife Viviane for her patience, her tireless work at the USMM and the editing of this work.
Platon Alexiades
Montreal, Canada