The Italian submarine Axum was an built in the 1930s, serving in the during World War II. She was named after an ancient city of Axum in Ethiopia.
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 Adua class had a range of at , submerged, they had a range of at .
The boats were armed with six internal torpedo tubes, four in the bow and two in the stern. They were also armed with one Škoda 10 cm K10#OTO 100.2F47 History| deck gun for combat on the surface. The light anti-aircraft armament consisted of one or two pairs of Breda Model 1931 Machine Gun| machine guns.
Between 1937 and 1940 the submarine underwent intensive training out of her base in Naples. In 1940 Axum was assigned to 71st Squadron (VII Submarine Group) headquartered at Cagliari, but her operational base continued to be Naples. After Italy's entrance into World War II she was mainly operating in the western Mediterranean Sea.
In June 1940 she was deployed south of Sardinia. On 4–5 July Axum patrolled of the coast of northern Algeria. On 9–11 July the submarine relocated to patrol off the island of La Galite, then moved southwest of the island of Sant'Antioco. In the afternoon of 9 November Axum left Cagliari and was sent to patrol off La Galite along with four other submarines (including and ) as a screen to the British Operation Coat. Later the same day, shortly after 19:00, she detected engine noises but the distance was far too great to attempt an attack. On 12 November 1940, she again detected weak noises through her hydrophones, but again the distant was far too great to attempt an attack. On 27 November, while patrolling south of Sardinia, at 21:35 three destroyers were sighted and Axum submerged to avoid detection.
In January 1941 she was deployed to the coast of Algeria and Tunisia. On 16 June, Axum, was sent to patrol between Ras Uleima, and Marsa Matruh to prevent coastal bombardments by British naval ships conducted in support British troops retreat. The submarine crew and the spies had to spend a month in the mountains around Morea. Finally, at the end of January 1944, the crew and the spies were picked off Marathopolis (now part of Gargalianoi), near Proti Island by the escort .