On September 13, 1942, at 10:17 pm, the Portuguese steamer Luso picked up a rescueboat carrying the officers-chief and 14 crew members of the British steamer Medon, sunk by the Italian submarine Reginaldo Giuliani on August 10, 1942.

The Luso was heading for Buenos Aires where she left the men on August 26. The British Embassy publicly thanked the crew of the Portuguese ship.

The Medon was torpedoed by Reginaldo Giuliani around four in the morning on the 10th of August. In the following minutes the submarine also used its artillery. With the ship immobilized, the crew was ordered to abandon it, which they did in four boats.

In the morning the ship was still afloat and some crew tried to return, but when two rescue-boats approached the submarine emerged, fired some artillery shots and a torpedo that sealed the fate of the Medon. All crew members were picked up by ships in the following weeks. Sixteen of them, however, saw their rescuer - the British Redpool - to be torpedoed again and were later saved by a destroyer.

Carlos Guerreiro