Italian submarine Malachite was a built for the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina) during the 1930s. She was named after a gemstone Malachite. Design and description The Perla-class submarines were essentially repeats of the preceding . The modifications that were made compared to the boats of the previous series were mostly of upgrade nature. Among them were enlargement of the false tower at the top, more modern engines, installation of a radiogoniometer that could be controlled from inside the ship. Improvements and the installation of new air conditioning equipment meant a slight increase in displacement, and increase in the fuel stowage also increased the autonomy of these boats compared to the previous series. Their designed full load displacement was surfaced and submerged, but varied somewhat depending on the boat and the builder. The submarines were long, had a beam of and a draft of to . For surface running, the boats were powered by two diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft with overall power of . When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the Perla class had a range of at , submerged, they had a range of at . The boats were armed with six internal torpedo tubes, four in the bow and two in the stern. One reload torpedo was carried for each tube, for a total of twelve. They were also armed with one deck gun for combat on the surface. The light anti-aircraft armament consisted of one or two pairs of machine guns. Construction and career Malachite was built by OTO at their shipyard in Muggiano, laid on 31 August 1935, launched on 15 July 1936 and completed on 6 November 1936. After delivery, Malachite was assigned to the 13th Squadron based at La Spezia. In 1937 she undertook a training campaign near the Greek coast, in the Dodecanese and around Tobruk. During the Spanish Civil War, the submarine conducted a special mission between 24 August and 4 September 1937, and on August 29 she was subject to an anti-submarine search and attack. Between 1938 and 1940 Malachite was training and exercising for long periods around Tobruk. Upon her return to Italy, she was assigned to 47th Squadron (IV Submarine Group) based at Taranto. At the time of Italy's entrance into World War II, Malachite was reassigned to the X Submarine