Italian submarine Luigi Torelli

History
Italy
Name	Luigi Torelli
Namesake	Luigi Torelli
Builder	Oto (La Spezia, Italy)
Laid down	15 February 1939
Launched	6 January 1940
Commissioned	15 May 1940
Homeport	BETASOM, Bordeaux
Fate	Seized by the Japanese on 8 September 1943 and handed over to Nazi Germany on 10 September 1943
Service record as Luigi Torelli
Commanders:	C.F. Aldo Cocchia C.F. Primo Longobardo T.V. Antonio De Giacomo T.V. Augusto Migliorini T.V. Enrico Gropalli
Victories:	7 merchant ships sunk (42,968 GRT)
Nazi Germany
Name	UIT-25
Acquired	10 September 1943
Commissioned	6 December 1943
Fate	Incorporated into the Japanese Navy following the German surrender on 10 May 1945
Service record as UIT-25
Part of:	12th U-boat Flotilla December 1943 – September 1944 33rd U-boat Flotilla October 1944 – May 1945
Identification codes:	M 32 441
Commanders:	Oblt.z.S. Werner Striegler 6 December 1943 – 13 February 1944 16 February – 31 August 1944 Oblt.z.S. / Kptlt. Herbert Schrein (acting) September 1944 – February 1945 Oblt.z.S. Alfred Meier 25 November 1944 – February 1945
Operations:	3 patrols
Victories:	None
Japan
Name	I-504
Acquired	10 May 1945
Commissioned	14 July 1945
Fate	Captured by the U.S. Navy and scuttled on 16 April 1946
Service record as I-504
Commanders:	Kaigun-tai-i Shuzo Hirota 14 July – 30 October 1945 Kaigun-tai-i Chiaki Tanaka 30 October – 1 December 1945
Operations:	None
Victories:	None
General characteristics
Class and type	Marconi-class submarine
Displacement	1,195 tons (standard) 1,400t (full load)
Length	251 ft (77 m)
Beam	22.4 ft (6.8 m)
Draught	15.6 ft (4.8 m)
Propulsion	(surfaced/submerged) diesel / electric, 2 shafts 2,700 / 1,100 kW (3,600 / 1,500 hp)
Speed	33.0 / 15.2 km/h (17.8 / 8.2 kn) (surfaced/submerged)
Complement	57
Armament	1 × 100 mm (4 in) gun 4 × 13.2 mm (0.52 in) anti-aircraft 8 × 533 mm (21") torpedo tubes (4 bow, 4 stern) 12 torpedoes

Italian submarine Luigi Torelli was a Marconi-class submarine of the Italian navy during World War II. The vessel operated in the Atlantic from September 1940 until mid-1943, then was sent to the Far East. After Italy's surrender in 1943, the Luigi Torelli was taken over by Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, then, in the waning months of the war, the Japanese Imperial Navy. It was one of only two ships to serve in all three major Axis navies, the other being the Italian submarine Comandante Cappellini.

Construction

Luigi Torelli was built at the Oto shipyard in La Spezia, Italy. One of six boats of the Marconi-class submarine, which were laid down on 15 February 1939, Luigi Torelli was launched on 6 January 1940. Designed as an ocean-going vessel, she was intended for operations both in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic.

Service history

When Italy entered World War II in June 1940 the Luigi Torelli was still completing its training and shakedown period. Afterward, it conducted a short reconnaissance mission in the Gulf of Genoa, and was then dispatched to the Atlantic to Bordeaux in occupied France to serve in the Italian submarine flotilla there.

Between 11 and 29 September 1940, the Luigi Torelli was assigned to patrol an area just off the Azores Islands. On 5 October 1940, she reached Bordeaux. In the following weeks, the boat left port several times and made short practice missions.

On 15 January 1941 Luigi Torelli, under the command of Primo Longobardo, sighted a small convoy and sank the Greek vessel Nemea, the Norwegian vessel Brask and the Greek vessel Nicolas Filinis. A fourth vessel was also damaged, but escaped due to the foul weather. This was one of the few examples of an Italian submarine achieving great results while participating in a Wolfpack attack, according to Regia Marina Italiana. Two weeks later, the Luigi Torelli sank the British vessel Urla. In July 1941, she sank the Norwegian tanker Ida Knudsen. A year later, she sank the British vessel Scottish Star and the Panamanian motor tanker Esso Copenhagen.

The Torelli was the first submarine to be attacked by an Allied Vickers Wellington using the Leigh light, on the night of 3 June 1942 at roughly 70 miles (110 km) off the Spanish coast, suffering considerable damage but managing to reach the port of Avilés and, after an attempt to reach Bordeaux ended when an Australian Short Sunderland attacked the submarine and inflicted further damage upon it, it ended up in Santander; after emergency repairs, the submarine managed to exit the port (where the Spanish authorities intended to intern it) with a stratagem, and safely reached Bordeaux on July 15.

In 1943, the Luigi Torelli, after surviving at least two serious air attacks, was one of seven Italian submarines designated to be converted into transports. The Italian boats, due to their dimensions, were deemed better suited for long voyages to the Far East on missions to acquire precious and rare material. The Luigi Torelli left for the Far East on 14 June 1943. The operation was under German control but the Luigi Torelli retained its Italian crew.

The Luigi Torelli was one of three Italian submarines in the Far East in 1943 when the new Italian government agreed to an armistice with the Allies. Of the three, the Luigi Torelli, Comandante Cappellini and Giuliani and their crews were temporarily interned by the Japanese. The Luigi Torelli and two other boats then passed to German U-boat command and, with mixed German and Italian crews, continued to fight against the Allies. The Kriegsmarine assigned new officers to the Luigi Torelli, renamed her the UIT-25 and had her take part in German war operations in the Pacific.

Following the German surrender in 1945, the Luigi Torelli was again given a new name, the I-504, by the Japanese, and operated with the Imperial Japanese Navy until 30 August 1945. The Luigi Torelli and sister submarine Comandante Cappellini were the only two ships to fly the flags of all three main Axis powers during World War II.

As the I-504, Luigi Torelli's crew claimed to shoot down a B-25 Mitchell bomber while under the Japanese flag near the very end of the war in the Pacific, allegedly the last success by an Axis naval vessel in the conflict.

Fate

Captured by the U.S. in Kobe, Japan, at the conclusion of the war, the Luigi Torelli was scuttled by the US Navy in the Kii Strait on 16 April 1946.

Summary of raiding history

Ships sunk by Luigi Torelli

Patrol	Date	Ship	Flag	Tonnage	Notes
3rd	15 January 1941	Nemea	Greece	5,198	Freighter; 14 survivors from a crew of 31
3rd	15 January 1941	Brask	Norway	4,079	Freighter; 20 survivors from a crew of 32
3rd	16 January 1941	Nicolas Filinis	Greece	3,111	Freighter; 26 survivors from a crew of 29
3rd	28 January 1941	Urla	United Kingdom	5,198	Freighter; no casualties
5th	21 July 1941	Ida Knudsen	Norway	8,913	Tanker; 5 killed
8th	19 February 1942	Scottish Star	United Kingdom	7,224	Freighter; 4 killed from a crew of 73
8th	25 February 1942	Esso Copenhagen	Panama	9,245	Tanker; 1 killed from a crew of 39
Total:				42,968

References

• Erminio Bagnasco, Submarines of World War Two, Cassell & Co, London. 1977 ISBN 1-85409-532-3
• Giorgerini, Giorgio (2002). Uomini sul fondo : storia del sommergibilismo italiano dalle origini a oggi. Milano: Mondadori. ISBN 8804505370.
• Vincent O'Hara, Enrico Cernuschi: Dark Navy: The Italian Regia Marina and the Armistice of 8 September 1943 (2009). ISBN 1-934840-91-2
• Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger, eds. (1980). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.

External links

• photo
• World War II Archives Foundation
• Regia Marina, Luigi Torelli
• Stories and Battle Histories of the IJN's Submarines, February 10, 2010, IJN Submarine I-504: Tabular Record of Movement
• Comando Supremo: Italy at War, Italian submarines and surface vessels in the far east: 1940–1945
• Luigi Torelli Marina Militare website