Perhaps among the bravest of those serving within the Regia Marina in WW2, the crews of the Italian SLCs (Siluro a Lavita Corsa, or Slow-Running Torpedoes) carried out some of the most daring submarine raids of the war. At 23ft in length and with a maximum speed of just 4 knots, the Maiali (or Pigs, as they were known, due to their lack of maneuverability) frequently delivered their 300kg warheads direct to their targets with devastating results, as when three Italian SLCs sank the British battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth as well as a tanker in Alexandria Harbour on 19th December 1941. Here an SLC has cut its way through the torpedo netting, just one of the many hazards encountered on these highly dangerous covert operations.
Sitting menacingly at a depth of 15 metres below the surface, just 2 km outside the heavily defended harbour of Alexandria, the Italian submarine Scire is shown releasing her three manned torpedoes, or Maiali, at the outset of their daring raid in which the British battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant and a tanker, were severely damaged on 3rd December 1941. All six crew members of the three Maiali survived the mission, but all were captured and taken prisoner. Luigi Durand de la Penne and Emilio Bianchi can be seen moving away aboard 221, whilst Vincenzo Martellotta and Mario Marino (222) carry out systems checks. Antonio Marceglia and Spartaco Schergat, on 223, are heading away at the top of the picture.
The first of the manned torpedoes was the Siluro Lenta Corsa (SLC), `slow speed torpedo’, nicknamed the maiale or `hog’, first developed by Tesei and Toschi in 1935-36. By summer 1939 about 11 of these were available, but it was not until July 1940 that the new generation entered production. These were designated Series 100, and followed in 1941 by the improved Series 200. They were based on the standard 533mm torpedo with suitable adaptations: the double propellers were replaced by a single larger one in an enclosed structure to prevent snagging on nets, and seats for two crewmen and superstructures housing controls were added. The SLC weighed from 1.3 to 1.4 tons, and measured between 6.7 and 7.3m (22-24ft). The 1.6hp electric motor gave a speed of 2-3 knots, to a depth of between 15m and a theoretical maximum of 30m (49-98ft). Once they reached their target the two crewmen had to detach the 1.8m (5.9ft) explosive warhead; this contained a charge of between 230kg and 260kg (507lb-573lb), or, in the last model, two 125kg (275lb) charges. By September 1943 some 50 examples had been built; by then they were largely outdated in comparison with the British `Chariots’ and the new Italian Siluro San Bartolomeo (SSB) – though only three prototypes of this greatly improved model had been built by the time of the Italian surrender.
On 19 December in 1941, limpet mines placed by Italian
divers sink the HMS Valiant (1914) and HMS Queen Elizabeth (1913) in Alexandria
harbour.
Developed in 1918, by two divers of the Italian
Navy-Raffaele Paolucci and Raffaele Rossetti, they rode a primitive manned
torpedo into the Austro-Hungarian Naval base at Pola, and sank the Austrian
battleship Virbus Unitis and a freighter. Sans breathing gear, they rode in
with there heads above water. Both men were discovered and captured, but not
before their success.
As a result of this first attempt, the First Fleet Assault
Vehicles were formed in 1939, by Major Teseo Tesei & Elios Toschi of the
Italian Royal Navy. In 1940, Commander Moccagatta of the IRN, reorganized this
group, into the Tenth Light Flotilla of Assault Vehicles aka X-MAS. It
constructed manned torpedoes and trained navy frogmen. The IRN X-MAS group
attempted an attack on Valletta Harbor in July of 1941, which was a complete
disaster and which resulted in the death of Major Tesei.
A better design, was the Italian Human Torpedoes, called
Maiale-meaning “Pig,” as it was slow to steer. Three feet high and 23 feet
long, it was electrically powered by a 2 hp electric motor. It had a crew of
two, which rode atop the device and had a max. speed of 4 knots. It carried a
detachable 300 kg warhead.
During the war Italian Special Forces unit Decima MAS (10th
Flotilla, aka X-MAS) pioneered various diving and submersible technologies and
used them to devastating effect against the Allies. The main underwater vehicle
was the SLC (Siluro a Lunga Corsa which means long running torpedo’, and not
the common mistake of ‘Siluro a Lenta Corsa’ which means slow running torpedo,
and is incorrect). This was described as a ‘human torpedo’ and popularly known
as the ‘maiale’ (pig). Two frogmen sat astride a torpedo body with a massive
mine carried on the nose. They would creep into an enemy port and attach the
mine to the target using clamps. Suspended between the bilge keels, the mine
was large enough to sink a capital ship. The SLC was used on several successful
attacks on Allied shipping in the Mediterranean including the disabling of two
battleships. The effectiveness of these tactics led the British to copy the
design, developing the Chariot. Following the SLC, Decima MAS developed the
more advanced SSB (Siluro San Bartolomeo) with the crew sitting inside the
craft. The SSB never saw combat because it arrived too late, but was the model
which influenced the post-war development of SDVs. Pucciarini was himself an
SSB pilot.
The Raid on Alexandria was carried out on 19 December 1941
by Italian Navy divers, members of the Decima Flottiglia MAS, who attacked and
disabled two Royal Navy battleships in the harbour of Alexandria, Egypt, using
manned torpedoes.
On 3 December, the submarine Scirè of the Italian Royal Navy
(Regia Marina) left the naval base of La Spezia carrying three manned
torpedoes, called maiali (pigs) by the Italians. At the island of Leros in the
Aegean Sea, the submarine secretly picked up six crewmen for them: Luigi Durand
de la Penne and Emilio Bianchi (maiale nº 221), Vincenzo Martellotta and Mario
Marino (maiale nº 222), and Antonio Marceglia and Spartaco Schergat (maiale nº
223).
On 19 December, Scirè—at a depth of 15 m (49 ft)—released
the manned torpedoes 1.3 mi (1.1 nmi; 2.1 km) from Alexandria commercial
harbour and they entered the naval base when the British opened their defenses
to let three of their destroyers pass. There were many difficulties for de la
Penne and his crewmate Emilio Bianchi. First, the engine of the torpedo stopped
and the two frogmen had to manually push it; then Bianchi had to surface due to
problems with the oxygen provider, so that de la Penne had to push the Maiale
alone to where HMS Valiant lay. There he successfully placed the limpet mine,
just under the hull of the battleship. However, as they both had to surface,
and as Bianchi was hurt, they were discovered and captured.
Questioned, both of them kept silent, and they were confined
in a compartment aboard Valiant, under the sea level, and coincidentally just
over the place where the mine had been placed. Fifteen minutes before the
explosion, de la Penne asked to meet with Valiant’s captain Charles Morgan and
then told him of the imminent explosion but refused to give further
information, so that he was returned to the compartment. Fortunately for the
Italians, when the mine exploded just before them, neither he nor Bianchi was
severely injured by the blast, while de la Penne only received a minor injury
to the head by a ship chain.
Meanwhile, Marceglia and Schergat had attached their device
five feet beneath the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth ‘s keel as scheduled. They
successfully left the harbour area at 4:30 am and slipped through Alexandria
posing as French sailors. They were captured two days later at Rosetta by the
Egyptian police while awaiting rescue by the Scirè and handed over to the
British. Martellota and Marino searched in vain for an aircraft carrier
purportedly moored at Alexandria, but after sometime, they decided to attack a
large tanker, the 7554 gross register ton Norwegian Sagona. Marino fixed the
mine under the tanker’s stern at 2:55 am. Both drivers managed to land
unmolested but were eventually arrested at an Egyptian checkpoint.
In the end all the divers were made prisoners, but not
before their mines exploded, severely damaging both HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS
Valiant, disabling them for nine months and six months respectively. The Sagona
lost her stern section and the destroyer HMS Jervis, one of four alongside her
refuelling, was badly damaged. Although the two capital ships sank only in a
few feet of water and were eventually raised, they were out of action for over
one year.
This represented a dramatic change of fortunes against the
Allies from the strategic point of view during the next six months. The Italian
fleet had temporarily wrested naval supremacy in the east-central Mediterranean
from the Royal Navy.
Valiant was towed to Admiralty Floating Dock 5 on the 21st for temporary repairs and was under repair at Alexandria until April 1942 when she sailed to Durban. By August she was operating with Force B off Africa in exercises for the defence of East Africa and operations against Madagascar. Queen Elizabeth was in drydock at Alexandria for temporary repairs until late June when she sailed for the United States for refit and repairs, which ended the following June. The refit was completed in Britain. Jervis was repaired and operational again by the end of January.
