USN & Italy:
Contemporary propaganda artwork of the claimed sinking of the battleship USS Maryland by submarine
Barbarigo, May 1942
On 20 May 1942 Capitano di Corvetta
Enzo Grossi, commander of the submarine
Barbarigo (assigned to
BETASOM and operating in the Caribbean Sea), claimed to have fired two torpedoes at a "
Maryland- or
California-type battleship", and to have seen her sink after the said torpedoes were heard detonating. Over the objections of his direct superior, BETASOM commander
Romolo Polacchini (skeptical of such a claim), the claim was taken at face value by Italian and German propaganda. Grossi would be promoted to Capitano di Fregata and decorated with a
Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Militare.
In October, he would again claim a similar feat, saying his submarine had sunk a "
Tennessee-type battleship", and he would be again promoted (to Capitano di Vascello), decorated with another MOVM and named to replace Polacchini in command of BETASOM.
After the war, access to American documents proved that the claims were unfounded (as the American media had said during the conflict, mocking the Italian assertions): instead, Grossi had attacked without success much smaller ship, the old cruiser USS
Milwaukee in the first case and the corvette HMS
Petunia.
Two enquiries of the Marina Militare, in 1949 and 1962, took note of the facts above, and revoked Grossi's promotions and decorations.