Editing Battle of the Atlantic (section)

===Italian submarines in the Atlantic===
{{see also|BETASOM}}
The Germans received help from their allies. From August 1940, a flotilla of 27 Italian submarines operated from the [[BETASOM]] base in Bordeaux to attack Allied shipping in the Atlantic, initially under the command of Rear Admiral [[Angelo Parona]], then of Rear Admiral [[Romolo Polacchini]] and finally of Ship-of-the-Line Captain [[Enzo Grossi]]. The Italian submarines had been designed to operate in a different way than U-boats, and they had flaws that needed to be corrected (for example huge conning towers, slow speed when surfaced, lack of modern torpedo fire control), which meant that they were ill-suited for convoy attacks, and performed better when hunting down isolated merchantmen on distant seas, taking advantage of their superior range and living standards. Initial operation met with little success (only 65343&nbsp;GRT sunk between August and December 1940), but the situation improved gradually, and up to August 1943 the 32 Italian submarines that operated there sank 109&nbsp;ships of 593,864&nbsp;tons,{{sfn|Giorgerini|2002|pp=415–563}} for 17 subs lost in return, giving them a subs-lost-to-tonnage sunk ratio similar to Germany's in the same period, and higher overall.{{sfn|Giorgerini|2002|p=424}} The Italians were also successful with their use of "[[human torpedo]]" chariots, disabling several British ships in Gibraltar.

Despite these successes, the Italian intervention was not favourably regarded by Dönitz, who characterised Italians as "inadequately disciplined" and "unable to remain calm in the face of the enemy". They were unable to co-operate in wolf pack tactics or even reliably report contacts or weather conditions, and their area of operation was moved away from those of the Germans.{{sfn|Ireland|2003|pp=51–52}}

Amongst the more successful Italian submarine commanders who operated in the Atlantic were [[Carlo Fecia di Cossato]], commander of the {{ship|Italian submarine|Enrico Tazzoli|1935|2}}, and [[Gianfranco Gazzana-Priaroggia]], commander of {{ship|Italian submarine|Archimede|1939|2}} and then of {{ship|Italian submarine|Leonardo da Vinci|1939|2}}.{{sfn|Giorgerini|2002|p=691}}