Re: italian submarin in the egyptian red sea
Posted by: Marcello ()
Date: March 20, 2013 02:11PM

There are a lot of italian submarines which are not "100% sure" but those two were smallish boats built for and operating in the mediterranean at the time of their loss and the odds of them somehow reaching the red sea outside a Cussler novel must be vanishingly small.
The captured italian boat (Galilei) was operated by the Royal Navy but it was supposed to have been demolished rather than scuttled. The surviving Red sea flotilla submarines were evacuated to Bordeaux in 1941 once the local position became untenable and quite frankly there would be no good reasons for axis submarines to push further north than the italians ever did without even the benefit of a local base. Italian subs were used for combat patrols in the Atlantic and for transport to and from the Far East. A couple of those (Barbarigo, Tazzoli) engaged in the latter duty were never heard of again but even in this case them sneaking up the Red Sea is something more out of a bad novel thasn a plausible explanation. They were also largish, 70-80m, to fit the bill.
My best guess would be to enquire whether the egyptian navy got some prewar vintage subs as part of some soviet aid package and how they were disposed of.



Subject Written By Posted
italian submarin in the egyptian red sea rayann 03/18/2013 11:35AM
Re: italian submarin in the egyptian red sea Marcello 03/19/2013 08:22PM
Re: italian submarin in the egyptian red sea rayann 03/20/2013 11:45AM
Re: italian submarin in the egyptian red sea Marcello 03/20/2013 02:11PM
Re: italian submarin in the egyptian red sea rayann 03/20/2013 03:15PM
egyptian (ex-URSS) submarine rayann 03/22/2013 12:21PM