Her early war patrols were unspectacular leading to her being stationed out of the French port city of Bordeaux - this gave unfettered access to Atlantic waters, a theater where, at this point in the war, there were more Italian boats than German ones active. On her voyage to Bordeaux (by way of the Strait of Gibraltar) on August 26th, 1940, she engaged the British freighter Irvington Court and sunk her, claiming over 5,000 gross tons. She also managed to damage another vessel during this time. Dandolo arrived at the French port city on September 10th.
Her Atlantic stint yielded the British tanker Pizarro on January 31st, 1941 - a vessel of over 1,300 gross tons. She left Bordeaux on June 26th, 1941 and returned to the Mediterranean Sea where she damaged a French tanker on November 4th, 1941 and sunk the Spanish freighter Castollo Oropesa on November 8th. She then torpedoed HMS Cleopatra on July 16th, 1943 which caused some damage but did not sink the enemy warship.
Dandolo was the only boat of her class to survive the whole of the war. She was sent to the United States following the Italian armistice of September 1943 and was scrapped after the war during the 1947/1948 period.
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