Italian submarine Evangelista Torricelli (1934)

Evangelista Torricelli was one of four Archimede-class submarines built for the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) during the 1930s. She served in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, and was transferred to the Armada Española (Spanish Navy) of Nationalists in 1937, renamed as General Mola.

Design and description
The Archimede class was an improved and enlarged version of the earlier Settembrini-class submarine. They displaced 970 LT surfaced and 1239 LT submerged. The submarines were 70.5 m long, had a beam of 6.87 m and a draft of 4.12 m. They had an operational diving depth of 90 m Their crew numbered 55 officers and enlisted men.

For surface running, the boats were powered by two 1500 bhp diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a 550 hp electric motor. They could reach 17 kn on the surface and 7.7 kn underwater. On the surface, the Archimede class had a range of 10300 nmi at 8 kn; submerged, they had a range of 105 nmi at 3 kn.

The boats were armed with eight 53.3 cm 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 100 mm deck guns, one each fore and aft of the conning tower, for combat on the surface. Their anti-aircraft armament consisted of two single 13.2 mm machine guns.

Construction and career
Evangelista Torricelli was laid down by Cantieri navali Tosi di Taranto at their Taranto shipyard in 1931, launched on 27 May 1934 and completed later that year. During the Spanish Civil War the boat torpedoed and badly damaged the Republican light cruiser SPANISH CRUISER Miguel Cervantes while at anchor off Cartagena on 22 November 1936. An attack on the battleship SPANISH BATTLESHIP Jaime I was thwarted when the British destroyer HMS Glowworm (H92) got in the way. During a second patrol in January 1937, she bombarded Barcelona harbor on the night of 18/19 January and missed the cargo ship SS J. J. Sister with three torpedoes off Tarragona on 19 January. The following day the boat narrowly missed colliding with the 2,174 GRT cargo ship SS Cabo Sucratif. She was transferred to the Nationalists in April 1937.