It was named after a village in Somalia which housed a coast guard station during the period of Italian colonial control.

On 12 September 1940, under command of captain Carlo Zanchi, she was sent on an ambush mission to the coast of Egypt, but the mission had to be aborted when several crew members became poisoned by mercury vapors, so the commander, instead of returning to Taranto decided to direct the ship to Benghazi, where he landed the entire crew for hospitalization on 21 September 1940.

[6] At 1:40 on 14 June 1941 Uarsciek, under the command of Captain Raffaello Allegri, identified a group of enemy units while patrolling off Philippeville.

[8] During the Italian North Africa supply operation "V.5" in March 1942, Uarschiek together with several other submarines was deployed east of Malta in a defensive cover.

For this action and above all for the aggressive spirit with which the new captain had led his ship in this attack on the British convoy, Gaetano Arezzo della Targia was decorated with the Silver Medal of Military Valor.

Uarsciek and Topazio were assigned to screen and protect an important convoy (MV Foscolo) scheduled for transit in the Central Mediterranean and headed to Tripoli.

On 15 December 1942, at 03:00, Uarsciek, while sailing, surfaced sighted an enemy formation, two cruisers and three destroyers, and immediately attacked it by firing 2 stern torpedoes and crash-diving.

Destroyers HMS Petard and Vasilissa Olga dodged the torpedoes and attacked the submarine with depth charges.

Owing to heavy damage, and flooding sustained by the boat, the captain decided to surface and try to engage the destroyers with the deck gun.

After a first burst, that killed two officers and some other men and effectively stopped the crew from using the deck gun, the commander of the English destroyer, Lt.

However, the towline parted and an attempt by an Italian engineer to straighten her rudder resulted in Uarsciek losing buoyancy.