Italian submarine Scirè was an , built in 1930s which served during World War II in the Regia Marina. It was named after a northern region of Ethiopia, at the time part of Italian East Africa. Design and description The Adua-class submarines were essentially repeats of the preceding . They displaced surfaced and submerged. The submarines were long, had a beam of and a draft of . For surface running, the boats were powered by two diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the Adua 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. 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 Scirè was launched on 6 January 1938 in OTO's shipyard in La Spezia and commissioned on 25 April 1938. At the beginning of the war, she was assigned to 15th Squadron (I Submarine Group) based at La Spezia and was under command of Adriano Pini. On July 10, 1940, while on patrol in the western Mediterranean, French cargo ship SS Cheik (1058 GRT) was torpedoed and sunk by Scirè 54 nm from the Asmare Light, north of Sardinia. In the summer of 1940 Scirè underwent a series of modifications allowing her to carry SLC. The size of the tower was reduced, her deck gun was removed, and 3 watertight cylinders were mounted on her deck instead to accommodate maiali. These cylinders, each weighing 2.8 tons, could hold up depths down to 90 meters. On September 24, 1940 Scirè, under command of captain Junio Valerio Borghese, sailed from La Spezia for her first special mission to be performed in Gibraltar. In the evening of September 29, upon reaching the Strait of Gibraltar, Sciré received an order from Supermarina to suspend the mission and return to the base as Force H had left the Mediterranean to operate in the Atlantic. In 1940 Scire made its first foray into the Bay of Gibraltar with the intent of sabotaging the British ships in Gibraltar Harbour with three manned torpedoes. None of the three were successful with