The bow of the Italian submarine Jantina that sank during the Second World War and unique documents are brought to light by the research team of Kostas Thoktaridis, thus completing the puzzle of its history.

Jantina was sunk on 5 July 1941 by the torpedoes of the British submarine HMS Torbay. In November 2021, the Italian submarine was spotted by K. Thoktaridis and his team south of Mykonos at a depth of 103 meters.

As found, the submarine lies on the seabed with a 53 degree inclination to the left while the turret and the characteristic 102mm deck gun can be seen. The periscopes are down and the turret hatch is open.

Its bow, however, has been cut off from the rest of the submarine when it sank after a naval battle with the British submarine HMS Torbay.

Two and a half years after the initial discovery of the Italian submarine, at a depth of 103 meters and at a great distance from the rest of the submarine, the bow of the JANTINA has been found and identified. It is located at a depth of 103 meters and rests on the bottom with the left side. The condition of the bow, even though 83 years have passed since the day of the sinking, is excellent.

“Actually, we are talking about two parts of the wreck, the bow and the rest of the submarine, which is also the longest. While the bow sank immediately, the rest of the submarine continued to sail and sank much later, traveling a considerable distance on the surface of the sea. The anti-submarine cutter that this type of submarine has on the bow is characteristic. The closed torpedo tubes can also be seen, something that shows that the JANTINA was not in a state of war, so they had not perceived the danger from the British submarine,” Costas Thoktaridis tells APE-MPE.

Research in the Archives – Illuminating New Aspects of History

The team also completed the research on a historical level, collecting evidence from primary sources and unearthing rare documents from Italian, British and German archives.

On its last voyage the JANTINA had sailed from Leros. There were 48 people on board the submarine. In the afternoon of July 5, 1941, it was floating on the surface, south of Mykonos with its final destination Messina, Italy. The British submarine HMS TORBAY patrolled the wider sea area. HMS TORBAY – according to the war log drawn up by her skipper immediately after the attack – spotted Jantina at a distance of 4 nautical miles, sounded the alarm and, being at reconnaissance depth, took up an attack position. The confrontation between two submarines is a rare naval event. At 20:16 she launched a torpedo attack with a beam of 6 torpedoes from a distance of 1500 yards. Despite the desperate attempt of the crew of the Italian submarine to avoid them, this was not possible. The first two torpedoes passed in front of the Italian submarine without finding a target. At 20:17 however, the second group of torpedoes found their target and created a very powerful explosion cutting off a large section of the submarine’s bow. A German JU 52 flying from Rhodes to Athens saw JANTINA hit by a torpedo and a second torpedo explode on shore. The German aircraft sounded the alarm and three MAS type boats from Syros and one motor boat from Samos as well as three seaplanes from Rhodes and Leros headed to the area. Shortly before the JANTINA sank, more than 20 of the total 48 passengers managed to fall into the sea, but in the end only two officers and four non-commissioned officers managed to reach Delos after six to seven hours of swimming. The survivors were later taken by seaplane to Piraeus. Among the 42 men killed was the submarine’s captain Vincenzo Politi, whose body was recovered after searches.

The identity of the submarine JANTINA

JANTINA was launched in 1932 in La Spezia, Italy and was of the ARGONAUTA class.

Its length was 61.5 meters, width 5.65 meters and its submerged displacement was 810 tons. On the surface it was capable of a maximum sailing speed of 14 knots, while diving 8. Its maximum operational depth was 80 meters. Its armament consisted of 4 torpedo tubes in the bow and 2 in the stern. It also had a 102/35 naval deck gun.