The R-class or ''Romolo''-class submarine was a group of submarines built for the

Royal Italian Navy The ''Regia Marina'' (; ) was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy (''Regno d'Italia'') from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the Italian constitutional referendum, 1946, birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the ''Regia Marina'' ch ...

(''Regia Marina Italiana'') during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. They were designed as

blockade running A blockade runner is a merchant vessel used for evading a naval blockade of a port or strait. It is usually light and fast, using stealth and speed rather than confronting the blockaders in order to break the blockade. Blockade runners usual ...

transport submarines for transporting high-value cargo from

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

to Japan and vice versa. Axis-occupied Europe lacked

strategic material Strategic material is any sort of raw material that is important to an individual's or organization's strategic plan and supply chain management. Lack of supply of strategic materials may leave an organization or government vulnerable to disru ...

s such as

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, ...

and some commodities such as

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, a ...

Design and description

The R-class submarines displaced surfaced and submerged. The submarines were long, had a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy * Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy ** Laser beam * Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized g ...

of and a

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a ves ...

of . They had a cargo capacity of . Chesneau, p. 307 For surface running, the boats were powered by two

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

s, each driving one

propeller shaft A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...

. When submerged each propeller was driven by a

electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate forc ...

. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the R class had a range of at ; submerged, they had a range of at .Bagnasco, p. 166 The boats were only armed for self-defense with three light anti-aircraft guns. Some boats may have been equipped with a pair of internal

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed abo ...

s in the bow and stern.

Boats

Twelve boats were ordered, but only two were completed, by Tosi: * ''Remo'', named after Remus, launched 28 March 1943 – Sunk by the British submarine HMS ''United'' 15 July 1943 in the

Gulf of Taranto The Gulf of Taranto ( it, Golfo di Taranto; Tarantino: ; la, Sinus Tarentinus) is a gulf of the Ionian Sea, in Southern Italy. The Gulf of Taranto is almost square, long and wide, making it the largest gulf in Italy, and it is delimited by t ...

* ''Romolo'', named after

Romulus Romulus () was the legendary founder and first king of Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus and his contemporaries. Although many of these ...

, launched 21 March 1943 – Sunk by Allied aircraft near Augusta 18 July 1943. The remaining 10 hulls were scuttled incomplete and scrapped after the war. The sail of submarine R12 is now exhibited as a monument on the seafront of

Gaeta Gaeta (; lat, Cāiēta; Southern Laziale: ''Gaieta'') is a city in the province of Latina, in Lazio, Southern Italy. Set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta, it is from Rome and from Naples. The town has played a consp ...

Notes

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Sommergibili
Marina Militare website {{WWII Italian ships R class submarines, Italian R class Ships built by Cantieri navali Tosi di Taranto Merchant submarines

Design and description

Boats

See also

Notes

Bibliography

External links