Gianfranco Gazzana-Priaroggia

Gianfranco Gazzana - Priaroggia ( born August 30, 1912 in Milan, † May 23 1943 in the North Atlantic ) was an Italian naval officer.

Gazzana Priaroggia was educated at the Naval Academy in Livorno in 1935 and promoted to lieutenant. After two years of service on the cruisers Trento and Trieste, he joined the U- boat force and served on the boats Millelire, Scirè and Balilla.

During World War II he was commander of the submarines Malachite, Durbo, Tazzoli, Archimede and Leonardo da Vinci, where he among other things, with the latter in 1942 from Bordeaux operated in the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean and four merchant ships sunk. During the war Gazzana Priaroggia sank eleven ships with 90 601 BRT.Am May 23, 1943 was his boat on the way back from another deployment in the Indian Ocean about 300 miles west of Vigo ( Spain ) from the British destroyer HMS Active and the frigate HMS Ness sunk.

Posthumously, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 26 May 1943.

The Italian Navy has named in the 1990s, a U- boat of the Sauro class by Gianfranco Gazzana - Priaroggia.