The Germans were part of the Axis powers besides Italy and Japan. Japan was their source for raw materials, and Malaya at that time, was one of their destinations.
There is also an Italian submarine off northern Perak coast called the UIT-23 "Reginaldo Giuliani."
There were German soldiers stationed in the Hulu Langat area in Selangor during WW2. My father's friend used to take family members and survivors on trips to this "camp."
The Reginaldo Giuliani was the original Italian name for the sub. It was among several Italian submarines taken over by the Germans in a deal made with the Italian Admirality late in WWII. It was recommissioned as UIT-23 by the Germans after refitting -- extra cargo storage space, German-language instrumentation, removal of weaponery.
At the time, the Germans were facing supply problems. Among them, not enough essential items like rubber. The Japanese were supplying the Germans with these items. But several ships from the German fleet were getting sunk transporting them. So the German admirality sent submarines to do the transportation -- safer underwater.
But with the mounting German losses, the German submarines were diverted to defend the northern waters.
So in desperation, the German admirality bought Italian subs to do the transportation. There is more than one sunken recommissioned Italian sub in the area.
Actually the
Reginaldo Giuliani and her sister ship, the
Alpino Bagnolini, were
NOT bought by the Kriegsmarine. They were taken over by the Kriegsmarine in September 1943 following the capitulation of Italy, and renamed UIT-23 and UIT-22 respectively. The
Reginaldo Giuliani was in Singapore when she was taken over by the Germans, while the
Alpino Bagnolini was in Bordeaux, France. UIT-22 was sunk in March 1944 by a South African aircraft with all hands lost, while the UIT-23 was sunk by a British submarine, the
HM/S Tally-Ho, the same sub that sunk the Japanese light cruiser,
HMIJNS Kuma, also off Penang.
There are no other Italian-built subs sunk in this area. The German Kriegsmarine only took 4 ex-Italian submarines; the other two, the
Comandante Alfredo Cappellini and the
Luigi Torelli (re-commissioned into the Kriegsmarine as UIT-24 and UIT-25 respectively) were captured after the war and scuttled. The UIT-24 and UIT-25 were undergoing overhaul in Japan when the Germans surrendered in May 1945. The Japanese Imperial Navy took over these sub and renamed them I-503 and I-504 respectively but never got to use them operationally. They were surrendered at Kobe after the war and were scuttled in Japan.
The UIT-24 and UIT-25 were the only submarines to have flown all three Axis powers flags (Italian, German and Japanese).
Other submarines sunk in this area are 3 Japanese subs, 3 Dutch subs, 1 American. 9 in total.
