Shipbucket

the plan was to cruise not only through the Med Sea with only the top of the turret emerged but the immersion time was tooooooooo long. It is not a problem of brave submariner but the aircraft were having enough time to see and bomb such units.
This project was definetely closed but the Italian submarines made several missions from Bordeaux till Japan and back. During summer 1943 was planned to transfer U-boote VII type to Italians and use the Italian submarine for transportation but then comes Sept. 8th...

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Lazer_One


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This was not a military design. In 1934 in Italy the danger of war was against Jugoslavia and France, and the fleet af italian tankers may transport only half of the oil needed by the country (about 2 millions tons).

So the oil may be imported for 1.4 million tons from the Black Sea, passing the Dardanelli Straits, and 600 thousands tons from the Persian Gulf, passing the Suez Channel, and using about 50 tankers ships with italian flag, and the same number of other countries.

So, a naval blockade will be very dangerous for Italian economy.

The project for the 'petroliera sommergibile' was a proposal for refuelling Italy with the routes for Liverpool from Naples (2396 miles), Lisboa Naples (1426 miles) or Valencia Naples (721 miles), every submerged tanker will go seven times a year at Liverpool, 9 to Lisboa, 13 to Valencia.

So, eonomical and technical problem plagued the project: 10 ships, with a cost of as many as 20 traditional tankers, will transport 400.000 tons a year, only the 10 per cent of Italian needing.

So in 1937 the projects were abandoned.