The Italian boats are called to participate in a rescue operation, in the middle of the war, unprecedented for submarines, under particularly difficult conditions and at a huge distance (over 5.000 miles, round trip) from their base.
It is known that the German Navy had sent some privateer cruisers and their support ships into the oceans. These units, which proved effective against isolated traffic, were themselves subjected to intense hunting by the British. Eventually even the most famous Germanic privateer, the Atlantis, after more than a year and a half of raids, is caught on November 22, 1941, about 350 miles north of Ascension Island by an English cruiser while refueling a U -Boote and scuttles without a fight. The British ship, fearing to be attacked by the submarine, immediately immersed, leaves without recovering the castaways.
At this point, the German naval command in France sends the supply ship Python to the rescue, which recovers, three days later, the highly selected Germanic crew. On 1 December, however, another English cruiser intercepts the second vessel, also self-sunk on the first salvo, while refueling two U-Bootes. The scene repeats itself: the British leave and the shipwrecked on boats and rafts, at the mercy of the waves in December in the middle of the Atlantic, are now 414. Taken in tow, within four days, by four German submarines that have flown into the area, they face dramatic weather conditions. There is no food or water for everyone and if the British returned it would be the end.
BETASOM, when requested, orders the immediate intervention of four ocean-going boats, Luigi Torelli (commander, corvette captain Antonio De Giacomo), Enrico Tazzoli (corvette captain Carlo Fecia di Cossato), Giuseppe Finzi (corvette captain Ugo Giudice) and Pietro Calvi (lieutenant captain Emilio Olivieri).
The units are set up in record time to embark each of 70 shipwrecked and set sail south, between 5 and 7 December 1941. The orders provide for the possibility of attacking isolated enemy traffic during the outward navigation, avoiding any war operation after embarkation of the shipwrecked.The meeting between the Italian and German submarines with towed launches takes place off the Cape Verde islands between 14 and 18 December, and the transshipment of part of the shipwrecked - in total 254 men, all placed below deck - immediately assisted, materially and morally (Ulrich Mohr, one of the Atlantis officers and author of the most famous book ever written on that ship, speaks of "great treatment" aboard the Tazzoli) - is happily accomplished , without losses, despite the sea strength 4-5. During the return navigation only Torelli, having sighted a convoy in the eastern area of the Azores, is attacked by the enemy units but manages to evade the British antisom fighter.
The four Italian units finally arrive in Saint Nazaire and land the shipwrecked, all safe and sound, between 24 and 29 December 1941. The two German boats that have embarked the rest of the crews of the two sunken ships are also able to return to the base. A story of sea and war, with a happy ending, between Christmas and New Year.
Source: Military Navy
