The first high-quality video of an Italian submarine torpedoed by the Royal Navy more than 80 years ago ago has been filmed by divers off the coast south of Naples.
Velella was sunk on September 7, 1943, while travelling south from Naples to oppose the Allied landings in Salerno. The 63-metre-long Argo-class submarine sank within minutes.
All 52 crew members from the Italian Royal Navy on board the submarine lost their lives in the World War II attack.
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The deaths came four days after Italy had signed an armistice with allies Germany, Austria and Hungary on September 3, 1943.
Seventy-nine years after the ambush, divers have filmed the first high-quality footage of Velella, confirming the identity of the wreck.
The site of the wreck was pinpointed in May of 2003, 16 kilometres from Castellabate in south-western Italy, at a depth of 140 metres.
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"We carried out two dives for a period of almost five hours, with a presence on the seabed of more than 25 minutes, one of the divers, Andrea Bada, told Italian broadcaster TG2.
"That enabled us to capture pictures that provided certain identification of the Velella submarine."
In video footage from the dive, the intact bow, stern planes and steel superstructure can be identified.
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