The Archimede class were a group of submarines built for the Italian Navy

Regia Marina

The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...

 in the early 1930s. The boats fought in the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

 (under nationalist flag) and in World War II. Under Spanish colors, these boats were known as the General Mola class, and remained in service until 1959.

Design

The ships were designed by the firm Cavallini and were a partially double hulled design. They were an enlarged version of the Settembrini class submarine with ballast tank

Ballast tank

A ballast tank is a compartment within a boat, ship or other floating structure that holds water.-History:The basic concept behind the ballast tank can be seen in many forms of aquatic life, such as the blowfish or argonaut octopus, and the concept has been invented and reinvented many times by...

s rearranged, greater range, fuel and torpedo capacity for ocean service. Like most of the later ocean-going submarines of the Italian navy, their deck armament consisting of two 100 mm guns was conceived to deal with armed merchantmen

Armed merchantmen

Armed merchantman is a term that has come to mean a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in long distance and high value...

 in surface combat. That was the case of the Marcello class

Marcello class submarine

The Marcello-class was a class of eleven submarines built by CRDA in Trieste for the Royal Italian Navy . The submarines were built from 1938 to 1939, and all eleven served in the Mediterranean at the start of the Second World War. After s 1940 sinking, the remaining boats were transferred to the...

 submarine Capellini, which between 5 and 14 January 1941 sank the British steamers Shakespeare and Eumaeus off Cabo Verde after a protracted gunfire action. Another example occurred when the Brin class

Brin class submarine

The Brin-class submarines were five Italian submarines that served in the Regia Marina during World War II. All ships were built by Tosi. Two boats were replacements for Archimede-class submarines secretly transferred to the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. The class were...

 Torricelli faced three British destroyers and a sloop while surfaced in the Red Sea

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...

. Before being sunk, the submarine hit the sloop and damaged the destroyer HMS Khartoum

HMS Khartoum (F45)

HMS Khartoum was a K-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, ostensibly named after the capital of Sudan, Khartoum.-History:Khartoum was launched on 6 February 1939. Her initial action occurred on 19 December 1939, during deployment in the Firth of Clyde, when she was subject to an unsuccessful torpedo...

. Khartoum exploded near Perim

Perim

Perim is a volcanic island strategically located in the Strait of Mandeb at the southern entrance into the Red Sea, off the southwestern coast of Yemen, at . It has a surface area of 13 square kilometers and rises to an altitude of 65 meters. The island has a natural harbour on its southwestern...

 after a torpedo fault set a fire that reached her magazines later that day. They also mounted two 13.2 mm anti-aircraft machine guns. The number of torpedoes was increased from 12 on the Settembrini class to 16.

Boats

All boats were built by the shipyard of Franco Tosi

Franco Tosi

Franco Tosi was an Italian engineer, known for his contributions to the steam engine technology.A native of Villa Cortese, near Milan, he was the son of Eugenio Tosi , and moved to Legnano in 1876, to become the manager of Cantoni-Krumm & C., where he led the development of the famous 3 hp and...

 at Taranto

Taranto

Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....

, between 1930 and 1934.

Torricelli and Archimede took part of the Spanish Civil war under Italian flag since 1936, carrying out undercover operations. Eventually both submarines were secretly delivered to the Spanish rebel navy on April 1937.

Ship	namesake	Launched	Fate
Archimede	Archimedes Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and an...	10 December 1933	During the second half of 1936 she operated in Spanish waters covertly. Transferred to the Spanish nationalist navy in April 1937, renamed General Mola Emilio Mola Emilio Mola y Vidal, 1st Duke of Mola, Grandee of Spain was a Spanish Nationalist commander during the Spanish Civil War. He is best-known for having coined the term "fifth column".-Early life:... . She sank the Republican transport Cabo Palos on 26 July 1937 and the Dutch freighter Hanna on 2 January 1938. Also damaged beyond repair the Greek Lena on 30 March. Stricken in 1959
Galileo Ferraris	Galileo Ferraris Galileo Ferraris Galileo Ferraris was an Italian physicist and electrical engineer, noted mostly for the studies and independent discovery of the rotating magnetic field, a basic working principle of the induction motor...	11 August 1934	Sunk 25 October 1941 off Gibraltar by the combined action of a RAF Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...  PBY-5A Catalina PBY Catalina The Consolidated PBY Catalina was an American flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s produced by Consolidated Aircraft. It was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. PBYs served with every branch of the United States Armed Forces and in the air forces and navies of many other...  flying boat and the destroyer HMS Lamerton at the position 37°07′0"N 14°19′0"W
Galileo Galilei	Galileo Galilei Galileo Galilei Galileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...	19 March 1934	On 16 June 1940, she sank the Norwegian tanker James Stove off Aden Aden Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a... , in the Red Sea. Captured two days later by the British armed trawler HMS Moonstone. Commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS X2, scrapped in 1946
Torricelli	Evangelista Torricelli Evangelista Torricelli Evangelista Torricelli was an Italian physicist and mathematician, best known for his invention of the barometer.-Biography:Evangelista Torricelli was born in Faenza, part of the Papal States...	27 March 1934	She torpedoed and disabled the Republican cruiser Miguel de Cervantes Almirante Cervera class cruiser The Cervera or Alfonso class were three light cruisers built for the Spanish Navy in the 1920s. The ships were built by Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval in Ferrol which had strong British links and were designed by Sir Philip Watts. The design was based on the British Emerald class cruiser,...  in 1936, still under Italian flag. Transferred to the Spanish nationalist navy in April 1937, renamed General Sanjurjo José Sanjurjo General José Sanjurjo y Sacanell, 1st Marquis of the Rif was a General in the Spanish Army who was one of the chief conspirators in the military uprising that led to the Spanish Civil War.-Early life:... . She sank the transport Ciudad de Barcelona on 30 May 1937 and the British steamer Endymion near the position 37°19′3"N 1°3′16"W on 21 January 1938. Stricken in 1959