Qualla: Italian Submarine Guglielmotti (1938)

Italian Submarine Guglielmotti (1938): Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At 7:20 in the morning on 17 March 1942, the British submarine HMS Unbeaten surfaced in the Tyrrhenian Sea and her lookouts counted about a dozen Italian survivors swimming in the water. The ship that had been there minutes earlier was the Regia Marina submarine Guglielmotti, torpedoed while on passage to Cagliari. Before Unbeaten could pick anyone up, a patrolling aircraft forced her to crash-dive. When an Italian torpedo boat arrived hours later and searched the area, only one body was recovered. Of the 61 men aboard Guglielmotti, there were no survivors. The submarine had come home from the Indian Ocean to die a few miles from the Italian coast.

Italian Submarine Guglielmotti (1938): A Brin-class for Mussolini's Navy

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Guglielmotti was built by Cantieri Navali Tosi di Taranto and launched in 1938 as one of five Brin-class submarines - improved versions of the preceding Archimede class. She displaced 1,000 tonnes surfaced and 1,254 tonnes submerged, was 72.47 meters long with a beam of 6.68 mete...

Italian Submarine Guglielmotti (1938): Rescue at Barr Musa Chebir

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Her first war mission, beginning 21 June 1940, was a rescue. Another Italian submarine had run aground on the deserted island of Barr Musa Chebir in the Red Sea; her crew had scuttled her and taken refuge on the island. Guglielmotti left Massawa that day and reached the island th...

Italian Submarine Guglielmotti (1938): The Atlas Torpedoing

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 6 September 1940, patrolling south of the Farasan Islands for British convoy BN-4, Guglielmotti sighted two ships at around 15:00. One was too distant. The other, a 30-year-old Greek-flagged tanker named Atlas of 4,008 gross register tons, was straggling behind the convoy on p...

Italian Submarine Guglielmotti (1938): Bordeaux by the Long Way

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By January 1941 it was clear that Italian East Africa would fall. Rather than lose the submarines based at Massawa to British capture, the Regia Marina decided to send them home - the long way. There was no way through the Suez Canal in British hands, so the boats had to circumna...

Italian Submarine Guglielmotti (1938): The Crew Who Did Not Come Home

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

From Bordeaux, Guglielmotti sailed on 22 September 1941 for the Mediterranean, passed Gibraltar on 30 September, and reached Messina without incident on 16 October. She operated in the central Mediterranean for the next five months. On 17 March 1942, heading for Cagliari in Sardi...