American naval attaché at Rome, Italy reported in March 1941 that the Italian troop transports Conte Rosso (1) and Citta di Messina (2) and the light cruiser Diaz (3) sunk with heavy human losses including German air mechanics.
Notes
1. Passenger ship launched by William Beardmore&Co., Dalmuir, Scotland with yard number 611 on 10 February 1921, completed on 14 March 1922, troop transports in the Second Italo-Ethiopoan War in the 1930s and sunk by the British submarine HMS Upholder on 24 May 1941; 1,297 of 2,760 men on board were killed.
2. Torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine HMS Regent 45 miles east of Tripoli, Libya on 15 January 1941; on board was Italian Air Force personnel, 432 men killed, 166 rescued.
3. Armando Diaz. Part of Condottieri-class light cruisers Cadorna-subclass, ordered on 29 October 1929, laid down by O.T.O., La Spezia, Italy on 28 July 1930, launched on 10 July 1932, commissioned on 29 April 1933 and sunk by the British submarine HMS Upright off the Kerkennah Islands on 25 Feburary 1941; 484 men killed/
Source
National Archives USA. Record Group 38: Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Series: Secret Naval Attaches Reports. Estimate of potential military strength (pt.). Summaries. Reports from London, Paris, Brussels, Rome and Berlin. Roll M975-001.
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