“On the night of 10 August 1942, the Royal SMG Scirè, with 60 men on board including submariners and raiders, was preparing for the daring mission to force the port of Haifa, the main enemy naval base. Fatally intercepted by the British Islay unit, she was tragically hit and disappeared, together with all her crew, in enemy waters, thus gloriously ending her operational life."
On this narrative, last September 19th, on the occasion of their respective stops in the port of Haifa, in Israel, the crews of Nave Morosini and the submarine Scirè they remembered, in a simple but solemn ceremony on board the PPA, the victims of the sinking of the Royal submarine Scirè, which occurred precisely in the waters facing the same port on 10 August 1942 during the Second World War.
The Royal submarine Scirè, already a gold medal for military valor, is still remembered for the numerous exploits that distinguished him in his operational use in the Mediterranean between 1940 and 1942 and for the successful missions of forcing enemy bases, operating with the assault units of the Navy. The most important mission is Scirè he accomplished it on 19 December 1941, violating with great courage and skill the waters facing the port of Alexandria and carrying out the escape of the assault vehicles and operators who were thus able to attack and seriously damage the two English battleships Queen Elizabeth e Valiant, the cistern Sagona and the destroyer Jervis, imposing a very hard blow on the balance of the war then underway.
The ceremony, characterized by the reading of the history and deeds of the Royal submarine, was followed the following day by the deposition into the sea by the ship's crew Morosini, of a commemorative wreath on the exact spot of the sinking, in the coordinates 32° 54' N – 34° 57,6' E, where even today, 81 years later, the glorious wreck lies silently, at about 40 meters deep .
A simple but profound gesture, in memory of those who, by serving their country to the extreme, contributed to affirming the democratic values that are the basis of our society today, in an example of attachment to the country, which, through history and tradition preserves the indelible image of the sailors' courage over time.
