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Re: Submarine Triton
Posted by: Platon Alexiades (IP Logged)
Date: March 13, 2015 08:49AM

Hello Jordi,

Although ALTAIR and ANDROMEDA were on A/S patrol during the night of 6/7 December they made no claim of sinking a submarine. The official history makes a mention that they might have sunk a submarine but documents of the period including exchanges between Supermarina and the Comando Supremo are silent about any claim. I could not find any report of depth charging in the ALTAIR and ANDROMEDA files neither in the antisubmarine files (six volumes at the Italian archives).
ALTAIR and ANDROMEDA had actually sailed from Brindisi at 1800/6 (before OLIMPIA was torpedoed) on routine A/S patrol in the Otranto Strait and I found no indication that they were actually diverted to assist OLIMPIA and they returned to Brindisi at 1035/6. Had they made contact with a submarine I suspect that they would have lingered longer in the area. In fact the torpedo boat CASTELFIDARDO was specifically sent to hunt the submarine but reported nothing. MAS boats also took part in the hunt but made no claims either.
The depth charging on 18 December 1940 by CLIO off Corfu is also bogus as she was in harbour at the time (at Trapani).
So we are left with the last hypothesis: Italian mines and it is the most plausible but where? There were a number of minefields in the area where TRITON was operating (between 40°N and 42°N in the Adriatic) and she could also have been victim of a drifting mine as many had been cut loose due to the bad weather. Finally as I always add: the loss might have been accidental.
I hope this answers your query.

Best regards,

Platon



Subject Written By Posted
  Submarine Triton Comas 03/13/2015 02:18AM
  Re: Submarine Triton Platon Alexiades 03/13/2015 08:49AM
  Re: Submarine Triton Comas 03/14/2015 01:25AM
  Re: Submarine Triton Platon Alexiades 03/13/2015 10:46AM


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