Italy:
Oriani-class destroyer
Vincenzo Gioberti explodes after being torpedoed by Royal Navy submarine HMS Simoon on 9 August 1943
On 9 August 1943
Gioberti set sail from La Spezia, under the command of the frigate captain Carlo Zampari (on his first war mission), with the destroyers
Mitragliere and
Carabiniere, escorting the VIII Division (light cruisers
Garibaldi and
Duca d'Aosta) directed to Genoa. At 18:24 the formation was spotted off Punta Mesco by the British submarine HMS Simoom, which launched four torpedoes against the
Garibaldi; it managed to avoid them with the maneuver but the
Gioberti, who was behind the cruiser, performed a wrong maneuver (it increased its speed but remained on the same course) and, hit by two torpedoes, it broke in two pieces: the stern blew up, the bow continued for a few hundred meters before swerving to starboard and sinking in turn, about five miles by 210° from Punta Mesco. After the attack 171 survivors of
Gioberti were recovered by some MAS (armed torpedo motorboats) and other units that left from La Spezia.
(From Ugo Gerini)
The real number of casualties including dead and missing is unknown but may have been up to 95.