Marcello-class submarine

The Marcello class was a group of ocean-going diesel-electric submarines built for the Italian Regia Marina in the late 1930s. Nine boats were built in 1937 and 1938 by Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico, and two similar boats built in 1939 at La Spezia by Oto Melara are sometimes counted as part of the class, which makes eleven in all. They were in the Mediterranean when the Second World War began, and after the loss of Provana in 1940 the surviving boats were moved to the BETASOM Atlantic base at Bordeaux. After four had been sunk in the Atlantic, Barbarigo and Comandante Cappellini were converted into transport submarines to carry scarce goods to and from Japan, with their armament reduced to defensive machine guns. By the end of the war only Dandolo remained in operational condition.