Italy:
Submarine
Uebi Scebeli sinking and being evacuated, surrounded by RN destroyers, 29 June 1940
The
600-class submarine
Uebi Scebeli, on the morning of 29 June 1940, spotted a formation of British destroyers while en route to her patrol area; targeted by their guns, she dived, whereas HMS
Dainty, HMS
Defender and HMS
Ilex continued to attack with depth charges. Severely damaged, the Italian boat was forced to surface, again fired at with guns and MGs by the enemy destroyers close by.
The commander, Tenente di Vascello Bruno Zani, took notice that the boat was doomed, therefore ordered to scuttle her and abandon ship; as the crew went on deck to do so, the British destroyers ceased firing and lowered their boats, both to pick up the Italian seamen and to try and save the enemy boat.
Zani had the secret documents (among which the recent S.M. 19/S cipher book) thrown overboard, but he had the unwelcome surprise of seeing some of those book not sinking as they were meant to; a few were instead shoved in a cabinet of the surface tower, whose hatch was then locked, but a lot of documentation was picked up by the British. The attempt of two British officers, who went down to the control room, to stop the scuttling was instead a failure, and HMS
Dainty made things faster with a few more shells; the
Uebi Scebeli slipped beneath the waves at 35°29’ N 20°06’ E. There no losses in the Italian crew.
