The Bandiera-class submarines were built for the (Royal Italian Navy) during the late 1920s. They played a minor role in the Spanish Civil War of 1936âÂÂ1939 supporting the Spanish Nationalists.
The Bandiera class was an improved and enlarged version of the preceding s. They displaced surfaced and submerged. The submarines were long, had a beam of and a draft of . They had an operational diving depth of . Their crew numbered 53 officers and enlisted men.
For surface running, the boats were powered by two diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the Bandiera class had a range of at ; submerged, they had a range of at .
The boats were armed with eight torpedo tubes, four each in the bow and stern for which they carried a total of 12 torpedoes. They were also armed with a single deck gun forward of the conning tower for combat on the surface. Their anti-aircraft armament consisted of two machine guns.
During the Spanish Civil War, Luigi Settembrini made one patrol in the Eastern Mediterranean in September 1937 during which she sank a Soviet cargo ship.