Leonardo da Vinci (Italian submarine, 1939)

Type

Submarine

Period

20th Century

Nation

Italy

Overview: Leonardo da Vinci was a Marconi-class ocean-going submarine of the Italian Regia Marina, built at the CRDA shipyard in Monfalcone and launched on 16 September 1939. Operating out of the BETASOM base in Bordeaux, occupied France, she became the top-scoring non-German submarine of the Second World War, sinking 17 ships totaling roughly 120,000 gross register tons. Specifications: The Marconi-class boats displaced about 1,195 long tons surfaced and 1,490 long tons submerged, measured 76.5 m (251 ft) in length with a 6.81 m beam and 4.72 m draught. Propulsion was diesel-electric, giving 17.8 knots surfaced and 8.2 knots submerged; armament comprised one 100 mm/47 deck gun, four 13.2 mm anti-aircraft guns, and eight 21-inch torpedo tubes (four bow, four stern) with 12 torpedoes carried, and a crew of 57. Service History: Dispatched to the Atlantic in 1940, da Vinci ran eleven war patrols out of Bordeaux, including a stint modified to carry a CA-class midget submarine for a planned raid on New York harbor that was ultimately not used operationally. Under her final commander, ace Gianfranco Gazzana-Priaroggia, her most successful and final patrol included sinking the troopship RMS Empress of Canada (carrying POWs and refugees) before she was lost with all hands on 24 May 1943, sunk by British forces in the Atlantic. Notable Facts: Da Vinci's captain, Gianfranco Gazzana-Priaroggia, is regarded as Italy's leading submarine ace of the war. The class name honors Guglielmo Marconi, and later Italian Navy vessels have also borne the "Leonardo da Vinci" name, including a Sauro-class submarine (1979) and, confusingly, a Gato-class boat briefly transferred from the US Navy — modelers should take care to distinguish the 1939 Marconi-class boat from these later namesakes.