The War At Sea
On January 14th 1941, Italian submarine Comandante Cappellini sighted British cargo ship SS Eumaeus in the Atlantic Ocean at 08:30 hours.
At 09:00 hours, she fired two bow torpedoes at the range of 700 meters; one of them might have hit, but failed to detonate. The British ship returned fire with her deck guns. The Italians maintained a distance of 2,500 meters while firing her deck guns. At 09:40 hours, her aft gun broke down, but the forward gun continued to fire. At 09:50 and 09:55 hours, the Italian submarine was hit by two shells, one of which fatally wounded Tenente Danilo Stiepovich, who would die of his wounds at 16:00 hours.
After being hit at least 44 times, SS Eumaeus was stopped. At 10:09 hours, the Italian submarine fired a bow torpedo, hitting the target under the forward mast, sinking her. Of the 91 crew members and 265 passengers (100 of whom were military servicemen destined for Shanghai, Republic of China), 33 were killed during the attack. Comandante Cappellini suffered one killed and eight wounded in this attack.
Detecting British warships nearby, the Italian submarine turned away. At 11:22 hours, as she was in the process of diving, a British Walrus aircraft of No. 710 Squadron FAA from seaplane tender HMS Albatross attacked with three 100-pound bombs, causing serious damage; the Italian commanding officer would soon decide to end the war patrol early due to the damage suffered.
Meanwhile, 63 survivors were picked up by trawlers HMT Bengali and HMT Spaniard which arrived at the site of the sinking at 13:15 hours. Destroyer HMS Isis, destroyer HMS Encounter, and trawler HMT Pict arrived at 20:00 hours and picked up an additional 242 survivors.
The War At Sea
On January 14th 1941, Italian submarine Comandante Cappellini sighted British cargo ship SS Eumaeus in the Atlantic Ocean at 08:30 hours.
At 09:00 hours, she fired two bow torpedoes at the range of 700 meters; one of them might have hit, but failed to detonate. The British ship returned fire with her deck guns. The Italians maintained a distance of 2,500 meters while firing her deck guns. At 09:40 hours, her aft gun broke down, but the forward gun continued to fire. At 09:50 and 09:55 hours, the Italian submarine was hit by two shells, one of which fatally wounded Tenente Danilo Stiepovich, who would die of his wounds at 16:00 hours.
After being hit at least 44 times, SS Eumaeus was stopped. At 10:09 hours, the Italian submarine fired a bow torpedo, hitting the target under the forward mast, sinking her. Of the 91 crew members and 265 passengers (100 of whom were military servicemen destined for Shanghai, Republic of China), 33 were killed during the attack. Comandante Cappellini suffered one killed and eight wounded in this attack.
Detecting British warships nearby, the Italian submarine turned away. At 11:22 hours, as she was in the process of diving, a British Walrus aircraft of No. 710 Squadron FAA from seaplane tender HMS Albatross attacked with three 100-pound bombs, causing serious damage; the Italian commanding officer would soon decide to end the war patrol early due to the damage suffered.
Meanwhile, 63 survivors were picked up by trawlers HMT Bengali and HMT Spaniard which arrived at the site of the sinking at 13:15 hours. Destroyer HMS Isis, destroyer HMS Encounter, and trawler HMT Pict arrived at 20:00 hours and picked up an additional 242 survivors.