Primo Longobardo

Primo Longobardo (19 October 1901 – 14 July 1942) was an Italian naval officer and submariner during World War II.

Biography He was born in La Maddalena on 19 October 1901, the son of Vincenzo Longobardo and Ersilia Culiolo, and enrolled at the Naval Academy of Livorno in 1915, graduating as ensign on 8 July 1920 after participating in training cruises aboard the training ship Amerigo Vespucci. He was promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1922 and to lieutenant in 1925; in 1929 he was sent to Tianjin, where he assumed the post of deputy commander of the Regia Marina detachment at the Italian Legation until 1932. After being repatriated, he attended the Command School aboard the submarine H 4 and was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1933.

He then obtained his first command, submarine Fratelli Bandiera, followed by Sirena in 1934, Galileo Galilei from July 1935 to January 1937, and Galileo Ferraris and Pietro Calvi during the Spanish Civil War, in which he carried out patrols against Republican shipping and was awarded a Silver Medal of Military Valor for the sinking of the Republican steamer Navarra. On 1 January 1938 he was promoted to commander and assigned to the Submarine Office of the Navy Ministry; he was later transferred to the command of the 2nd Submarine Group of Naples and then of the 6 th Submarine Group of Tobruk from April to July 1939.