east of Madagascar, where she rendezvoused with Atlantis and got refueled and restocked. Atlantis' skipper Bernhard Rogge wrote in his memoirs that, after seeing the small coastal submarine and its emaciated crew, he told the commander, Lt. Bruno Napp, his perplexity about his mission and suggested him to reach either Brazil or Argentina to be interned; by his account, Napp politely rejected the advice, telling that he would do his utmost to obey his orders, much to Rogge's admiration. Perla then had to travel 4,000 nm until her next meeting with Northmark. She continued her trip north, passing the Cape Verde Islands, then between the Canary Islands and the Azores, and then into the Bay of Biscay and eventually arrived in Bordeaux on 20 May 1941. Overall, Perla covered 13,100 nm in 81 days of navigation. After four months of repairs at the base, Perla was back in operation. She sailed from Bordeaux on 20 September 1941 to the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar and on 3 October 1941 arrived in Cagliari. Perla made her first patrol in the Mediterranean off Cyrenaica from 12 to 23 February 1942. The submarine made two similar missions, the first one from 29 March to 9 April 1942, and the second from 16 to 28 April 1942. Both were conducted near Crete, southwest of Gaudo. On 10 May she was deployed to patrol off Kelibia along the Tunisian coast and on the following day Perla sighted east of the island of La Galite and launched two torpedoes at the target, but they both missed. She returned to the base on 24 May. On 6 July 1942 Perla under command of captain Gioacchino Ventura, sailed to the area of her operation off Cyprus. In the afternoon of 9 July she sighted and launched two torpedoes at the British corvette off Beirut, but they both missed. Hyacinth counterattacked with depth charges that eventually caused serious damage to the submarine, forcing her to surface. The captain ordered the crew to abandon the submarine and open the Kingston valves. Due to damage sustained by the submarine, some of the valves could not be opened, and the submarine was sinking very slowly. A boarding party from Hyacinth boarded Perla, closed the valves and then towed her to Beirut. The whole crew, except officer Antonio De Maria, who died in the clash, was rescued and then captured by the