The ''Balilla'' class were the first submarines to be built for the Italian navy following the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. They were large ocean-going

cruiser submarine A cruiser submarine was a very large submarine designed to remain at sea for extended periods in areas distant from base facilities. Their role was analogous to surface cruisers, cruising distant waters, commerce raiding, and scouting for the bat ...

s designed to operate in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

based in Italy's East African colonies. The design was double-hulled and based on the German Type UE 2

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...

s, one of which, was supplied to the Italians as a war reparation. A auxiliary diesel engine was installed as an extra generator. During the war, the boats were stationed in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

in 1940 but proved too large to be effective patrol submarines. Their only success was the sinking of the British submarine by on 15 October 1940. After 1941 they were used as transport submarines to supply Italian forces in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. The surviving boats were scrapped after the war. One submarine, , was built for the

Brazilian Navy ) , colors= Blue and white , colors_label= Colors , march= "Cisne Branco" ( en, "White Swan") (same name as training ship ''Cisne Branco'' , mascot= , equipment= 1 multipurpose aircraft carrier7 submarines6 frigates2 corvettes4 amphibious war ...

to a modified design.

Design

The design of the ''Ballila'' class consisted of a strong double-hull which gave the ships a maximum diving depth of , though reached in

trials In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribun ...

. The boats displaced 1,427 tons surfaced and 1874 tons submerged. They were long with a beam of and a draught of . The boats were considered to have poor stability.Chesenau, p. 304 The submarines were powered by two Fiat diesels for surface cruising and two Savigliano electric motors for use while submerged driving two

shafts ''Shafts'' was an English feminist magazine produced by Margaret Sibthorp from 1892 until 1899. Initially published weekly and priced at one penny, its themes included votes for women, women's education, and radical attitudes towards vivisection, ...

. These created and respectively. The second diesel engine was for auxiliary purposes and for recharging the batteries, novel at the time of the boats construction. This gave the ships a speed of surfaced and submerged. However, the initial design called for the ability to reach speeds of surfaced and submerged; the subs never reached these marks. The ''Ballila''-class boats had a range of at . The ''Ballila'' class was armed with six

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 aboa ...

s with four located in the bow and two in the stern. The submarines carried a load of 16 torpedoes, with two reloads for each bow tube and one reload for each stern tube. The class was also armed with one 1924 model /27

calibre In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore match ...

deck gun A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret. The main deck gun was a dual-purpose ...

that was placed in a shielded mounting in the forward section of the conning tower. In 1934, the class underwent a refit that upgraded the

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

to a /45 calibre gun. The ships also received two machine guns placed two single mounts.Campbell, pp. 335–338

''Humaytá'' sub-class

''Humaytá'' was ordered by the Brazilian navy as a deep-diving submarine. Modifications to the standard ''Ballila'' design include the placement of the diesel and electric motors further forward, the elimination of the bow planes and a different distribution of the ballast tanks throughout the submarine. The submarine was longer at with a shallower draught, . The vessel displaced 1,390 tons surfaced and 1,884 tons submerged.Chesenau, p. 417 The submarine was powered by two Ansaldo diesels with one electric motor creating and respectively. This gave the ship a speed of surfaced and submerged. ''Humaytá'' differed in armament too. The submarine was equipped with the six torpedo tubes with four located in the bow and two in the stern. However, the vessel had only a deck gun and carried 16 mines.

Ships

All ships were built by

OTO Oto, Ōtō, or OTO may refer to: People * Oto (name), including a list of people with the name *The Otoe tribe (also spelled Oto), a Native American people Places *Oto, Spain, a village in the Valle de Broto, in Huesca, Aragon * Otorohanga, a to ...

in Muggiano. ''Humaytá'' was a modified version of this design built for the Brazilian Navy in 1927. The ship was retired in 1950.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links