Ugolino Vivaldi and the Sinking of British Submarine Oswald

[barnsey]

Do any Italian members have any information, photos, documents on the Ugolino Vivaldi and the sinking of the British submarine HMS Oswald on August 1st 1940.

I attach the document written by the Captain of the Ugolino Vivaldi, his diagrams and a photo of the damage she received when she rammed Oswald.

David

[bezukhov]

I found something, don't know if it will be useful. I don't post the story of the ship because I think you can find it in various sites on the net.

I only report this from naval-history.net, just to reassume the action:

Submarine OSWALD (Lt Cdr D. A. Fraser) was sunk by Italian destroyer VIVALDI off Calabria. VIVALDI was part of an anti-submarine sweep of destroyers DA NOLI, USODIMARE, DA RECCO, PESSAGNO, which departed Augusta 1 August. Three ratings were lost with OSWALD, but the remainder of the crew, Fraser, Lt G. R. Marsh, Lt M. D. Pope, Lt M. S. Hodson, Warrant Engineer G. Mitchell and forty seven ratings, were rescued by VIVALDI and made prisoners of war.

curiosity: I found a brief history of Joseph Cahalane, stoker on HMS Oswald, POW in Italy, written by the family who helped him to escape after 8sept 1943. If you're interested in, i can translate it.


greetings,
michele

[barnsey]

I found a brief history of Joseph Cahalane, stoker on HMS Oswald, POW in Italy, written by the family who helped him to escape after 8sept 1943. If you're interested in, i can translate it.

greetings,
michele

Hello Michele, thank you very much for your reply, the photos and interest.

I presume that the Vivaldi photo entering Taranto was on her return from sinking Oswald?

Yes I would very much like your translation as well as the original to add to my documents.

David :)

[bezukhov]

Hi barnsey

just to know how to better help you, do you read italian? do you need I translate the interesting text you posted? (from what book is taken? I want to have it!!:))
And, personal question to make me know what I have to search, what are your interests in this topic? (relatives, searching for a person, technical characteristic of the ship or submarine, ecc).

I'm working to get the story I mentioned, meanwhile I suggest you this book: "Home by Christmas" by Ian English, tells the story of about 600 english sailors, POW in Italy and escaped after 8sept 1943 from "Campo 49" in Fontanellato, with the help of local population.

Greetings
Michele

[bezukhov]

Just a clarification about the photo: yes, surely Vivaldi is entering the Taranto harbour, but I don't think it was taken immediately after the action and the reason is this: if you look at the men, they wear a dark uniform (the winter uniform), while the action took place the first day of August. I think if this picture was taken that day, they should wear summer (white) uniform.

Let me know what you think about it!
Michele

I include the first example of white uniform I found...

[barnsey]

Hello again Michele,

There was something wrong with the website yesterday and it would not accept my reply to you ...

First thank you for the infomation you have given me so far.

I have a great deal of information on the incident with Ugolino Vivaldi and the loss of HMS Oswald. The Captain of Oswald was my training officer on my pre sea training ship HMS Worcester (similar in some respects to your Amerigo Vespucci). He was a very much respected man and he was also a very experienced submariner. His subsequent court martial in 1946 was a travesty of justice devoid of technical evidence to refute the conjecture of which the trial was based upon. I am in the midst or writing a book on the sinking, the trial and the outcome.

I am ashamed to say do not read or speak Italian but do have two very good Italian friends here in NZ who have translated for me...

I will put a few more items on this posting but if you are really interested then I could burn a cd with very much more and post it to you ...

Sorry, I do not have the name of the book from which the Italian description came from...

David