On September 8 evening, CORMORANO was off Bastia on ASW duty, APE was at Portoferraio and FOLAGA at La Spezia (USMM "La Marina dall'8 settembre 1943 alla fine del conflitto"). The three corvettes were a part of the 2a Squadriglia Corvette, 7° gruppo Antisom based at La Maddalena.
At Gaeta there was the 1a Sqdr Corvette Antisom, Sottogruppo Antisom Gaeta, with GABBIANO, GRU, PELLICANO, IBIS (actually at Porto Conte near Alghero) (Francesco Mattesini, "La Marina e l'8 settembre", 2° vol., USMM 2002, however this author also wrongly includes PERSEFONE and CAMOSCIO, both of which were under repair and fell into German hands at La Spezia and Livorno respectively).
On Sept. 9, CORMORANO cooperated with ALISEO off Bastia (while APE remained at Portoferraio). Both ships were then ordered first to go to La Maddalena and later, on learning of the German takeover there, diverted to Portoferraio.
GABBIANO & PELLICANO left Gaeta on Sept. 9 and went to Montecristo (and GRU to Ponza), while IBIS stayed at Porto Conte all the time. On Sept. 11, GABBIANO & PELLICANO went from Montecristo to Bastia.
On Sept. 10, 3 corvettes from Portoferraio, FOLAGA (which had reached Elba coming down from La Spezia), APE & CORMORANO were ordered by amm. Nomis di Pollone to make a sortie in the Piombino Channel, in the course of which the action with the 5 German MFPs took place.
O'Hara and Cernuschi are therefore mistaken in placing this action at Terracina, near Gaeta, which would have been in any case the operating area of the 3 other corvettes above mentioned, GABBIANO, PELLICANO, GRU.
As Platon Alexiades rightly remarks, this was a period of great confusion.

P.S. Erminio Bagnasco's "La Guerra sul Mare" confirms the location at Sept. 8 of all the corvettes as illustrated above, and adds some other units operating from La Maddalena plus a few more under refit or repair.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2010 03:13AM by de domenico.