her mission and return to the base. On July 21, 1943 Axum while proceeding from La Spezia to La Maddalena, was spotted in the position , five miles northwest of Calvi, by the British Submarine . Templar fired a total of seven torpedoes over the course of several attacks but they all missed the target. At the announcement of the armistice, on September 8, 1943 Axum (under command of captain Vittorio Barra) was in Gaeta to carry out repair work on diesel engines. Early on September 9, 1943, Germans tried to capture ships in the harbor, and at 2:15 Axum managed to get away with only one engine running. Captain Barra took the boat to island of Montecristo where the submarine spent a night. On September 10, 1943, she reached Portoferraio, and from there proceeded to Palermo. After repairs in Palermo, she sailed to Malta. On October 9, 1943, she left Malta for Taranto where she underwent further repairs including to her second engine. For the rest of the war, Axum was used only to infiltration missions (bringing and taking spies and sabotage teams from German-occupied territories). During one of those missions, on December 25, 1943 Axum, under command of captain Giovanni Sorrentino, left Taranto to recover spies from the Gulf of Kyparissia. In the evening of December 27, Axum arrived at the rendezvous point on the west coast of Morea. While waiting for a sailboat to bring back the spies, Axum was drifting towards the coast when she ran aground on unknown rock formation. All efforts to dislodge the submarine failed, so in the afternoon of December 28, 1943 commander Sorrentino ordered the boat scuttled with explosive charges at Kaiafas beach, in the position . The submarine crew and the spies had to spend a month in Morea mountains. Finally, at the end of January 1944, the crew and the spies were picked off Marathopolis (now part of Gargalianoi), near Proti Island by escort . Notes References Adua-class submarines World War II submarines of Italy Lost submarines of Italy Maritime incidents in December 1943 World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea 1936 ships Ships built by Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico