June 23, 1940. An enemy submarine arrives off the coast of modern-day UAE to cause havoc in the Gulf of Oman.
The Luigi Galvani aims to disrupt tanker traffic around the Strait of Hormuz to resupply the British war effort.
The conditions in the Italian submarine were harsh and the sweltering summer heat tough.
The waters of the Gulf were eerily quiet that day with not a tanker in sight. It was an ominous sign.
“We always read about submarine warfare in the Atlantic,” said Ali Iqbal, a UAE-based historian who has researched Luigi Galvani’s story. “But that kind of history also exists off the waters of the UAE.”
I had the strong feeling the boat was lost. I decided to emerge
Lieutenant Commander Renato Spano
June 1940 had seen a grim new front open in the Second World War. France fell to the Germans and Italy joined the Nazi side. On June 10 Italy sent several submarines from Eritrea – then one of its colonies – to the Arabian Sea. Luigi Galvani was one of these. The 72.5-metre Brin class was named after the famed Italian scientist and built in 1938 by the Franco Tosi company in its Taranto shipyards.
But British forces in the Gulf had learned of its plan, warned tankers of the danger and dispatched HMS Falmouth to track it down. On the evening of June 23 the ship spotted a “darkened object” in the water. It was the Galvani. HMS Falmouth approached to within 548 metres and opened fire. The submarine commander ordered a dive but the sloop fired three depth charges.
“I had the strong feeling the boat was lost,” wrote submarine Lieutenant Commander Renato Spano. “I decided to emerge. The submarine responded with great difficulty, emerging [on the surface] only in part.”
But the damage was so severe it sank in the early hours of June 24. According to a British assessment of the clash, it was felt a poor lookout allowed the HMS Falmouth to approach so close undetected. Twenty six of the 57 crew died.
“The prisoners were taken to India and then back to Italy after the war. They were treated well,” said Mr Iqbal.
Eighty-one years on from the sinking, the forgotten story of the Italian submarine challenges assumptions that nothing much happened here during that war. But the threat was real and people died.
By 1943 Allied aircraft were stopping off to refuel in Sharjah as part of a huge resupply effort in the East. The war led to food shortages in the region yet, despite this, Bedouins still helped survivors of Allied air accidents. Thousands of people thronged the streets and danced until sunset when news of the Allied victory in 1945 was heard in Dubai and Sharjah, while a memorial to a fallen British airman in Fujairah draws annual remembrance services.
Among the Galvani dead was Pietro Venuti, who was awarded a posthumous gold medal of military valour for locking himself in the torpedo room to stop water entering other compartments. His actions saved lives and the Italian navy in 2014 launched a submarine after him in tribute.
The stricken submarine sank 80 metres to the sea floor about 40 nautical miles northeast of Dibba. There it has lain for more than eight decades, untouched in a silent world.
“The Galvani was perhaps the first time Axis [German, Italy and Japanese] forces threatened Allied forces in the area and this was the first submarine we know of to sink,” said Mr Iqbal, who co-authored a paper with UAE cultural historian, Peter Hellyer, about Axis submarine activity for the Emirates National History Group journal, Tribulus. “The British realised these submarines endangered shipping.”
Increased Axis submarine activity forced Britain’s Royal Air Force in 1942 to base a squadron of Blenheim bombers at Sharjah to confront the threat. Aircraft operating from the base sank German U-boat 533 off the coast of Fujairah in 1943. Japanese submarines were also active in the Arabian sea and inflicted damage on Allied shipping before escaping.
The wreck of the Galvani, meanwhile, lies on the sea floor close to Iranian territorial waters. Several reports over the years detailed how UAE-based dive teams were trying to reach it, but these have never been confirmed.
“I’ve lived in the UAE for the past 30 years and being able to research and publish these little known events and add to a little part of the UAE's wonderful history is a matter of great honour,” said Mr Iqbal.
“Not only because this lesser known history is being told but also because individuals - Emiratis and others - are being remembered.”
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
About Takalam
Date started: early 2020
Founders: Khawla Hammad and Inas Abu Shashieh
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech and wellness
Number of staff: 4
Funding to date: Bootstrapped
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
MATCH INFO
Championship play-offs, second legs:
Aston Villa 0
Middlesbrough 0
(Aston Villa advance 1-0 on aggregate)
Fulham 2
Sessegnon (47'), Odoi (66')
Derby County 0
(Fulham advance 2-1 on aggregate)
Final
Saturday, May 26, Wembley. Kick off 8pm (UAE)
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
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Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
More on Quran memorisation:
Read more from Mina Al-Oraibi
Where to donate in the UAE
The Emirates Charity Portal
You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments
The site has an e-donation service accepting debit card, credit card or e-Dirham, an electronic payment tool developed by the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Al Noor Special Needs Centre
You can donate online or order Smiles n’ Stuff products handcrafted by Al Noor students. The centre publishes a wish list of extras needed, starting at Dh500.
Beit Al Khair Society
Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.
Dar Al Ber Society
Dar Al Ber Society, which has charity projects in 39 countries, accept cash payments, money transfers or SMS donations. Its donation hotline is 800-79.
Dubai Cares
Dubai Cares provides several options for individuals and companies to donate, including online, through banks, at retail outlets, via phone and by purchasing Dubai Cares branded merchandise. It is currently running a campaign called Bookings 2030, which allows people to help change the future of six underprivileged children and young people.
Emirates Airline Foundation
Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.
Emirates Red Crescent
On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.
Gulf for Good
Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.
Noor Dubai Foundation
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).
The winners
Fiction
- ‘Amreekiya’ by Lena Mahmoud
- ‘As Good As True’ by Cheryl Reid
The Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award
- ‘Syrian and Lebanese Patricios in Sao Paulo’ by Oswaldo Truzzi; translated by Ramon J Stern
- ‘The Sound of Listening’ by Philip Metres
The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award
- ‘Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance’ by Fady Joudah
Children/Young Adult
- ‘I’ve Loved You Since Forever’ by Hoda Kotb
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Heather, the Totality
Matthew Weiner,
Canongate
PROFILE
Name: Enhance Fitness
Year started: 2018
Based: UAE
Employees: 200
Amount raised: $3m
Investors: Global Ventures and angel investors
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
