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Dandolo

1938 WORLD WAR 2

The Story of Dandolo

Between 1937 and 1938, before World War II (1939-1945), the Italian Navy built nine Marcelo-class diesel-electric attack submarines for the Italian Navy. The works are carried out by CRDA in Trieste. One of the sister ships became the Dandolo, which was launched on November 20, 1937.

Her construction was completed on March 25, 1938, and during the war, she was actively patrolling targets of enemy interest in Mediterranean waters.

The Dandolo was laid as a monohull and developed for seaworthiness. This gives her skills beyond coastal waters and great seaworthiness for the rigors of untamed seas. When commissioned by the Regia Marina, she and this class were considered one of the better submarines available in Italy.

At the time of construction, the ship displaces 1,080 tons when surfaced and 1,335 tons underwater. She measures 239.5 feet long, has a beam of 23.6 feet, and has a draft of 16.8 feet. Installed power includes 2 CRDA diesel engines and 2 CRDA electric motors, with a top speed of 17.5 knots on the surface and 8 knots underwater. Range is 2,500 nautical miles, 17 knots, 7,500 nautical miles, 9.5 knots (surfaced). Internally, it has 58 employees.

The armament consists of 8 x 533mm torpedo tubes, four of which point forward and four rearward. 2 x 100mm/47 caliber deck guns are installed for surface operations and 4 x 13.2mm anti-aircraft machine guns protect the ship from aerial threats.

Her early wartime patrols were inconspicuous, resulting in her being stationed outside the French port city of Bordeaux - allowing unimpeded access to Atlantic waters, on this battlefield, at this point in the war, Italian ships were more active than There are more German ships. On 26 August 1940, on a voyage to Bordeaux (via the Strait of Gibraltar), she attacked and sank the British freighter Irvington Court, claiming it had a load of over 5,000 gross tons.

During this time, she also managed to damage another ship. Dandolo arrived in the French port city on September 10.

On 31 January 1941, her sojourn in the Atlantic led to the creation of the British tanker Pizarro - a ship of over 1,300 gross tonnage. She left Bordeaux to return to the Mediterranean on June 26, 1941, and damaged a French tanker on November 4, 1941, and sank the Spanish freighter Castollo Oropesa on November 8. On July 16, 1943, she torpedoed the HMS Cleopatra, causing some damage but not sinking the enemy ship.

Dandolo was the only ship in her class to survive the entire war. She was sent to the United States after the Italian Armistice in September 1943, and was scrapped after the 1947-1948 war.