Italian submarine fates

Ships hit by Italian submarines

Type	Cargo ship
Country	British
Built	1937	GRT	6,803

Date of attack	27 Feb 1941	Time	0516 0315 (e)
Fate	Sunk by submarine Michele Bianchi (C.C. Adalberto Giovannini)
Position of attack	53° 50'N, 14° 35'W
Complement	71 (53 dead and 18 survivors)
Convoy	OB 290
Notes	At 0447 hours, a dark vessel was sighted zigzagging. At 0516 hours, a torpedo (533mm, S.I. type) was fired from a stern tube at 600 metres. It hit the vessel with a loud explosion under the aft mast and she sank. This was the British *Baltistan* (6,803 GRT, built 1937) who was identified by the submarine from her SOS. She had been with convoy O.B. 290, but her position gave her as 90 miles ahead of the convoy. Fifty-one were killed. Eighteen of the twenty survivors were rescued by the destroyer HMS Brighton and landed on 4th March 1941 at Plymouth, but two had died and were buried at sea.