Oct. 8, 1940 off the east coast of Karpathos Island, Greece the Italian submarine Gemma was patrolling in her assigned area when she was sighted by the Tricheco, another Italian submarine. The Italian doctrine concerning submarine operation was to keep them in small areas, and the commanders knew not to stray out of them because the danger of being sunk by a friendly boat increased.

On this day it was Tricheco who was out of bounds. This was due to an injured man onboard who was being
returned for medical treatment. However the situation was complicated by a blunder by the Italian Naval
staff. Messages were not sent in a timely manor, including one to the Gemma ordering her home went
undelivered and therefore neither boat was aware of the others presence.

It was apparently Tricheco's crew who saw the Gemma first, whether the crew on the Gemma ever saw the
Tricheco is not known. Tricheco's commander ordered torpedoes fired and since the range was close he
could hardly miss, unfortunately for Gemma's crew he did not. The Gemma was hit amidships and sank with
all forty-four souls only three miles from shore.

© 2007 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com