Italian submarine fates

Ships hit by Italian submarines

Type	Cargo ship
Country	Vichy French
Built	1935	GRT	1,518

Date of attack	14 Mar 1942	Time	2056 1955 (e)
Fate	Sunk by submarine Mocenigo (C.C. Paolo Monechi)
Position of attack	37° 16'N, 5° 05'E
Complement	29 (2 dead and 27 survivors)
Convoy
Notes	At 1530 hours, a 5,000-ton tanker was observed zigzagging steering between 50 and 140°. The vessel appeared to leave the route assigned to French traffic. At 2056 hours, a stern torpedo (450mm) was fired from a distance of 1,500 metres. It hit the vessel on the port side. The tanker took a list before sinking very quickly. This as the Vichy French *Sainte Marcelle* (ex-Norwegian Vigoer, 1518 GRT, built 1935, she had been seized at Casablanca in June 1940) who had sailed from Marseilles for Tunis on 7th March. There were two men killed, and twenty-seven survivors. Following this mistake, the Pétain government stopped its adherence to the "Paris Protocols" which included the supply of trucks and other goods to Axis forces in North Africa.