 The top scoring BETASOM aces, Gianfranco Gazzana-Priaroggia (90,601 GRT sunk) and Carlo Fecia di Cossato (96,553 GRT sunk), were among the few Italian recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.Gazzana-Priaroggia's boat, "Leonardo da Vinci", was the top-scoring non-German submarine of World War II, with 17 ships sunk totalling 120,243 GRT.Italian naval historian Giorgio Giorgerini writes that Italian submarines did not perform as well as the U-boats, but achieved good results considering the deficiencies of their boats (among which were the lack of modern torpedo fire-control systems, and their slower speed both surfaced and submerged).