Italian submarine Archimede (1933)


Archimede was the lead ship of her class of four submarines built for the Regia Marina during the early 1930s. She was transferred to the Armada Española of Nationalists in 1937, renamed General Sanjuro, and served in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939.

Design and description

The Archimede class was an improved and enlarged version of the earlier. They displaced surfaced and submerged. The submarines were long, had a beam of and a draft of. They had an operational diving depth of Their crew numbered 55 officers and enlisted men.
For surface running, the boats were powered by two diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the Archimede class had a range of at ; submerged, they had a range of at.
The boats were armed with eight torpedo tubes, four each in the bow and in the stern for which they carried a total of 16 torpedoes. They were also armed with a pair of Škoda 10 cm K10#OTO 100.2F47 History| deck guns, one each fore and aft of the conning tower, for combat on the surface. Their anti-aircraft armament consisted of two single Breda Model 1931 Machine Gun| machine guns.

Construction and career

Archimede was laid down by Cantieri navali Tosi di Taranto at their Taranto shipyard in 1931, launched on 10 December 1933 and completed the following year. She was transferred to the Spanish Nationalist Navy in April 1937 and renamed General Mola.