Ammiraglio Caracciolo (CC)
Caracciolo

Type	Ocean going
Class	Cagni (18)
Laid down	13 Oct 1939	Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico, Monfalcone
Launched	16 Oct 1940
Commissioned	1 Jun 1941
End service
Stricken
Loss date	11 Dec 1941
Loss position	32° 09'N, 25° 19'E
History
Fate	Depth charged on 11th December 1941 off Bardia, Libya by the destroyer HMS Farndale. Forced to surface and scuttled in position 32°09'N, 25°19'E to avoid capture.

Commands

Commander	Date from	Date to	Command notes
C.C. Benedetto Luchetti	1 Jun 1941	30 Sep 1941
C.C. Alberto Agostini	1 Oct 1941	20 Nov 1941
C.C. Alfredo Musotto	27 Nov 1941	11 Dec 1941

Ships hit

No ships hit by this submarine.

Patrols and events

	Commander	Date	Time	Port	Arr. date	Arr. time	Arr. port	Miles	Description
		15 Apr 1941		Monfalcone	15 Apr 1941	1100	Monfalcone		Change moorings? towed by the tug Taurus.
		5 May 1941		Monfalcone	6 May 1941	1440	Monfalcone		Exercises.
	Luchetti, Benedetto	17 Sep 1941	0803	Monfalcone	17 Sep 1941	1606	Monfalcone	39	Exercises.
	Luchetti, Benedetto	29 Sep 1941	0855	Monfalcone	29 Sep 1941	1900	Fiume	129	Passage Monfalcone-Fiume.
	Agostini, Alberto	3 Oct 1941	1350	Fiume	3 Oct 1941	1858	Fiume	46	Exercises. Upon her return, she slightly damaged her bow while attempting to moor alongside the quay.
	Agostini, Alberto	4 Oct 1941	0836	Fiume	4 Oct 1941	1817	Fiume	107	Diving trials, reached 104 metres.
	Agostini, Alberto	7 Oct 1941	0929	Fiume	7 Oct 1941	1305	Fiume	19	Exercises.
	Agostini, Alberto	8 Oct 1941	0839	Fiume	8 Oct 1941	1245	Fiume	24	Exercises.
	Agostini, Alberto	16 Oct 1941	0904	Fiume	16 Oct 1941	1151	Fiume	15	Exercises.
	Agostini, Alberto	18 Oct 1941		Fiume	18 Oct 1941		Fiume		Sortie (presumably for exercises) but damaged her screw after a collision with the tug Belroire.
		18 Oct 1941		(0) At Fiume.	While shifting position in the port of Fiume, Ammiraglio Caracciolo collided with the tug Belroire and damaged a propeller.
	Agostini, Alberto	22 Oct 1941	0806	Fiume	22 Oct 1941	1240	Pola	60	Passage Fiume-Pola.
	Agostini, Alberto	25 Oct 1941	0940	Pola	25 Oct 1941	1640	Pola	50	Exercises escorted by the auxiliary Salvore.
	Agostini, Alberto	26 Oct 1941	0810	Pola	26 Oct 1941	1809	Pola	55	Trials escorted my the torpedo boat Audace and the auxiliary Grado.
	Agostini, Alberto	27 Oct 1941	1230	Pola	27 Oct 1941	1812	Pola	16	Exercises.
	Agostini, Alberto	28 Oct 1941	0847	Pola	28 Oct 1941	1502	Pola	47	Exercises with the submarine Galatea, escorted by the auxiliary Verbano and the torpedo boat Audace.
	Agostini, Alberto	29 Oct 1941	0908	Pola	29 Oct 1941	1310	Fiume	60	Passage Pola-Fiume.
	Agostini, Alberto	30 Oct 1941	0837	Fiume	30 Oct 1941	0904	Fiume	3	Exercises.
	Agostini, Alberto	31 Oct 1941	0916	Fiume	31 Oct 1941	1525	Fiume	15	Exercises escorted by the auxiliary Abbazia.
	Agostini, Alberto	11 Nov 1941	0945	Fiume	11 Nov 1941	1200	Fiume		Exercises with the destroyer Da Mosto.
	Agostini, Alberto	12 Nov 1941	1000	Fiume	12 Nov 1941	1700	Fiume		Trials with the destroyer Da Mosto.
	Agostini, Alberto	15 Nov 1941	0855	Fiume	15 Nov 1941	1655	Fiume		Trials.
	Agostini, Alberto	18 Nov 1941	0834	Fiume	18 Nov 1941	1529	Pola	72	Passage Fiume-Pola and exercising with the destroyer Da Mosto to test her sonar.
	Agostini, Alberto	19 Nov 1941	0810	Pola	19 Nov 1941	1630	Pola		Exercises.
	Agostini, Alberto	21 Nov 1941	1630?	Pola	21 Nov 1941	1630	Pola		Exercises then docked.
	Musotto, Alfredo	27 Nov 1941	2145	Pola	29 Nov 1941	1029	Taranto	496	Passage Pola-Taranto.
1	Musotto, Alfredo	5 Dec 1941	1445	Taranto	10 Dec 1941	1830 or 1845	Bardia		Supply mission to Bardia (122 tons of fuel [7,000 tins of 20 litres of petrol], 16.5 tons of ammunition, 1.6 ton of food supplies). Carried only eight torpedoes for this mission.
		8 Dec 1941	0700 (e)		As Caracciolo was lost during this patrol. the following attack could not be reconstructed in great details. At about 0700 hours, a Blenheim (No. 7407) of 55 Squadron piloted by Squadron Leader Pirie sighted a submarine who submerged immediately. The aircraft attacked but the bombs overshot by 150-200 feet. This was Caracciolo and she apparently escaped damage.
		8 Dec 1941	1357 (e)		As Caracciolo was lost during this patrol. the following attack could not be reconstructed in great details. At 1357(C?) hours, Blenheim 'Z' of 203 Squadron piloted by Squadron Leader Hoggarth sighted a submarine steering 058° at 8 knots. He immediately went to the attack but the submarine fired a green smoke signal, which was the recognition signal of the day until 1300 hours. The submarine was only 15 miles of Bombing Restriction lane and Hoggarth hesitated to attack. She opened fire with a machine gun and her flag was recognised to be Italian. As the aircraft turned to attack, the submarine crash-dived and disappeared. This was Caracciolo and during the firing of her machine gun, a cadet was accidentally killed. He was buried at sea. According to some testimonies, during the action his body fell in the control room. However, the personal diaries of First Officer Vittorio Spadoni reported that that he was eating at the time when he heard some shots and climbed to the bridge to find that the cadet had been killed during the air attack.
1b	Musotto, Alfredo	11 Dec 1941	0030	Bardia	11 Dec 1941	0430	Sunk	700	Return trip to Suda via 34°30'N, 24°10'E, with twenty-two passengers (including Italian General Guido Lami, four officers, seventeen other ranks and British PoWs). Sunk by HMS Farndale. She was to have loaded with petrol and returned to Cyrenaica. She was erroneously reported to have reached Suda at 0400 hours on 13th December.
		11 Dec 1941	0250 (e)	32° 09'N, 25° 19'E	As Caracciolo was lost during this patrol. the following attack could not be reconstructed in great details. At 0250 hours, Caracciolo attempted a stern attack on a convoy of three merchants ships escorted by a destroyer, but the torpedo misfired and the submarine was discovered. She reverted course, fired two torpedoes (450mm) from bow tubes and dived. This was the T.A. 2 convoy (code name BOSOM), consisting of the steamer Darien II (459 GRT, built 1892), escorted by the escort destroyer HMS Farndale and the minesweeping trawler Sotra (313 tons, built 1925), steering 123°, 7.5-8 knots. Darien II had been involved in carrying Jewish refugees to Palestine. She had been purchased for special operations by the SOE, before reverting to a more traditional role. A second escort destroyer, HMS Eridge, had been detached earlier to locate the rest of the convoy, about 20 miles to westward. A lookout on HMS Farndale sighted the submarine from about 3,000 yards and as the destroyer turned toward her, a torpedo fired from about a mile, missed ahead. At 0312 hours, having obtained an ASDIC echo, HMS Farndale dropped a pattern of 6 depth charges set at depths from 100 to 250 feet, but then temporarily lost contact. The attack had put out a number of lights. At 0352 hours, ASDIC contact was regained at the remarkable range of 3,300 yards and, a second pattern of 6 depth charges was released at the same depths. More light were put out and the electric motors of the submarine were disabled. Three minutes later, Caracciolo was brought to the surface and was about 1,000 yards from the destroyer. The submarine turned away at high speed (estimated at 18 knots) with HMS Farndale giving chase and firing with the forward 4" mounting and oerlikons. The destroyer increased speed to 23 knots, pulled ahead of the submarine and crossed her bows at 400 yards. Two 4" shells were direct hits and HMS Farndale dropped three depth charges just a few yards from the submarine. Caracciolo sank immediately. The destroyer had expended 25 S.A.P. 4" , 152 2-pdr, 138 20mm and 200 .303 rounds. Six officers, forty-two ratings and five passengers were rescued, including a German airman. Seventeen were killed. C.C. Musotto was not among the survivors and was awarded the Medaglia d’Argento al Valor Militare. Brigadier-General Guido Lami (who had been commanding the 5th Engineer Regiment) drowned. It was reported that twenty-two British PoWs were on board (? survived) but this was not confirmed?

28 entries. 27 total patrol entries (1 marked as war patrols) and 4 events.

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