Wine on Deck: A Rare WWII Moment. What Submarine Crew Rest Looked Like in 1940

The crew of the Italian submarine Ciro Menotti having lunch directly on the deck — rare moments of rest between combat patrols.
1940.

A bit of pasta, a bit of cheese, a glass of wine. Even at war, Italians remain Italians — everyday culture and an attitude to life do not disappear under the pressure of orders and the weight of water above.

The photograph is clearly staged: under real patrol conditions, such scenes were the exception rather than the rule. The original image was black and white; what we see here is a modern colorization that adds a sense of “presence” without eliminating the distance of time.

Yet it is precisely images like this that remind us: World War II was not only reports, depth charges, and patrol routes, but also people — who ate, joked, and clung to fragments of normal life even in the most inhospitable place imaginable: the wartime sea.

Ciro Menotti was an Italian submarine of the interwar generation, serving with the Regia Marina on the eve of and during the early years of World War II. The boat was named after Ciro Menotti, a member of the Carbonari movement and a symbol of the Italian Risorgimento — a common tradition in the Italian Navy of the period.

The submarine belonged to the class of coastal / small ocean-going submarines of prewar design, developed in the 1920s–1930s, when Italy emphasized the mass construction of its submarine fleet. The Italian school of submarine design was characterized by:
• relatively large hull dimensions,
• good operational range for the Mediterranean,
• but limited diving depth and vulnerability to depth charges.

Like most Italian submarines of the era, Ciro Menotti was equipped with:
• a diesel-electric propulsion system,
• torpedo armament in bow tubes,
• a deck gun, used primarily against merchant shipping.

By the outbreak of World War II, the submarine was no longer considered cutting-edge. It was employed for:
• patrol duties,
• protection of sea lines of communication,
• training and auxiliary tasks.

In 1940, after Italy entered the war, Italian submarine forces encountered serious difficulties:
• insufficient preparation for anti-submarine warfare against the British,
• technical obsolescence of part of the fleet,
• lack of effective coordination with aviation and surface forces.

It was during this period that numerous staged and “parade” photographs appeared, portraying the “normality” of service — including scenes of crew leisure such as meals on deck. These images served propaganda and internal morale purposes rather than reflecting the everyday reality of combat patrols.

Like many Italian submarines of prewar construction, Ciro Menotti:
• never became an “ace” of submarine warfare,
• had limited combat effectiveness,
• and was eventually either lost or withdrawn from active service as wear increased and fleet losses mounted.

The exact fate of the boat is often lost in the broader statistics of the Regia Marina, where dozens of submarines were destroyed or decommissioned between 1941 and 1943.