A British submarine that vanished in the World War 2 has been found solving an 80-year-old mystery.
An explosion was heard offshore near Monopoli, on Italy’s Adriatic coast on April 18, 1943, and the HMS Regent was never seen again.
Four bodies, clad in the Davis escape gear used by British submariners, were washed ashore in the weeks that followed.
But the bodies were never identified and the wreck was never found and there would be no closure for the families of the 62 crew.
Hopes were dashed in 2003, when the wreck of an Italian submarine near Barletta, some 70 miles north of Monopoli, was wrongly identified as the Regent.
But now experts believe they have the real thing, with divers assisted by the Italian Naval League (LNI) – a government body – claiming to have found the wreck.
Fabio Bisciotti, who leads the LNI's underwater study group, said: “This wreck lies at 75m depth and it’s upside down.
“When we arrived on this wreck, in the first moment, it was difficult to understand that we were talking about the Regent.
“But if you study the hull, the composition of the steel, and the stern and the bow, we have seen that we are talking about a British design.
“The dimensions of this wreck matches with a British design and, of course, on the bow we are talking about six torpedo tubes – three per side.
“If we are talking about a German U-boat or an Italian submarine, we are talking about four torpedo tubes – so two per side.”
The newly-found wreck lies off the coast near Villanova di Ostuni, some 19 miles from Monopoli.
Footage of the wreck as it appears today – captured by Michele Favaron and Stefania Bellesso from the Acquelibere Sub Padova diving club – reveals the aftermath of an explosion.
It fits with the theory that the Regent struck a mine and sunk after attacking a convoy; hence the explosion heard offshore on April 18, 1943.
Mr Bisciotti is emphatic that there’s only one British submarine that could have wrecked in that area at that time.
He said: “Mathematically, it’s not an opinion – if we want to talk about this wreck, it’s surely the Regent, because nobody else was in this area.
“In April 1943, watching all the diaries of the submarines from Great Britain in the Mediterranean Sea, only the Regent was patrolling the area.”
It’s hoped the discovery will bring closure to the families of the fallen.
For the family of William Trice, the chief engine room artificer on the Regent, the trauma of his loss reverberates through the generations.
William’s son, Barry, spent years investigating the disappearance of the Regent before his death in 2003, and his grandson, Dick, continues that research today.
Even after 80 years, the loss still looms large in the family’s minds.
Dick’s daughter, Abbie – William’s great-granddaughter – has a tattoo of the Regent on her arm and now serves aboard a minesweeper in the Royal Australian Navy.
Mr Trice said: “My stepmother said the only time she ever saw my dad upset and cry was when he was recalling to her his emotions about his father.
“It’s a funny thing – it’s like a learned grief; I feel grief about the grandparent I never had; a sense of loss from someone I’ve never met.
“It’s like this grief that’s just rolling through the generations.”
For Mr Trice – who moved from Birmingham to Adelaide, South Australia, in 2012 – locating the wreck off Barletta never made sense, given where the four bodies washed up.
“If you put it off Monopoli, everything lines up perfectly,” he said.
“If you put it off the other town, it doesn’t work.”
The 57-year-old continued: “They gave the ultimate sacrifice and I think it’s important for the families to get closure, and I think it’s important from a historical viewpoint.
“As a family we are really grateful to Fabio for his efforts to go and find this wreck so we know what finally happened.
“It doesn’t bring the person back, you’re not going to change that fact, but we at least like to know what really happened.”
A spokesperson for the Royal Navy said they could not yet confirm the discovery, due to the wreck being upside down and key sections buried in the seabed.
However, they said, they may in due course as further information comes to light.
They said: “We appreciate the efforts to locate the wreck of HMS Regent which, even after the passage of eight decades, would bring a sense of closure to the families and descendants of those tragically lost when she sank.
“We are also especially grateful for all the efforts made in protecting the last resting place of those who gave their lives in the service of our country.”
The wreck off Barletta is thought to be the Giovanni Bausan, an Italian submarine later used as an oil depot and, ultimately, for target practice.
Mr Bisciotti’s team included Michele Favaron, Stefania Bellesso, Giuseppe Iacomino, and Graziano Servello.
