Italian Forces

Carlo Fecia di Cossato

narodova archive

At the beginning of the war Fecia di Cossato was the commander of submarine Ciro Menotti based in Messina. Whilst serving on the Ciro Menotti, he took part in attacks against Royal Navy ships. In December, he was named as the commander of the submarine Tazzoli. This submarine operated in the Atlantic Ocean, sinking 18 ships with a total tonnage of 96,553 tons and damaged another ship of 5,000 tons. In February 1943, at the end of the mission near Brazil he was transferred to Italy, where he was named the commander of a squadron of Torpediniere (light destroyers). After the Allies' Armistice with Italy, he fought with bravery against German shipping near Bastia. On 9 September 1943, the day following the armistice, commanding the torpediniera Aliseo, a unit of Ciclone Class, he sustained a victorious battle in the waters of Corsica against seven German units of upper weapon, among them, five were armed motor-rafts (F 612, F 459, F 387, F 366 and F 623), and two light destroyers, UJ 2203 (ex-French Minerva) and UJ 2219 (ex-French Insuma), which were all sunk by shooting cannons of the Aliseo. He was displeased with the events of late 1943 and early 1944 with the result that he committed suicide in Naples on 27 August 1944. In his last letter to his mother he wrote referring to the armistice with the allied forces and the surrender of Regia Marina: "We have been unworthly betrayed and we discovered to have committed an ignominius act without any result." He was awarded with gold medal, two silver medals, 3 bronze medals, one war cross, German crosses 1st and 2nd class, German knight's cross. DVX