Uomini Gamma. Divers of the special units of the Italian Navy.
Italian Maiale manned torpedo "Siluro San Bartolomeo" displayed at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport, UK.
Wreck of HMS York inspected by the crew of the Italian torpedo boat Sirio, moored alongside.
This drawing shows a Norwegian tanker Thorshøvdi, broken in two by manned torpedoes launched from the Italian base-ship Olterra, August 1943.
The Italian Navy had successfully employed novel attack
methods using special light craft (including underwater vehicles) against the
Austrian fleet in the First World War. Renewed interest in these special attack
methods began in 1935, but it initially came from the bottom up, via a couple
of Regia Marina shore-based engineers, who began work on what eventually became
the ‘piloted torpedo.’ In fact, despite the fact that their viability had been
vividly demonstrated in the previous war, the attempt to re-start development
of such specialized equipment and tactics at first met with an incomprehensible
bureaucratic resistance. The personnel involved in these efforts were only
allowed to work on them in the hours available after completing their normal
daily duties’ or on their own personal time. And in 1936 the project was
suspended completely, due mainly to the fact that Cavagnari and the ‘gun club’
believed that they would be superfluous weapons in a war decided by the
battleships in major fleet actions (though Cavagnari and the submarine
commander Falangola had both originally approved the project). This decision
was only reversed in 1939, and so most assault methods were not fully ready for
action until 1941-42.
There were four basic methods of attack incorporated in the
special unit known by the cover name 10th MAS (‘decima mas’ to the Italians).
Most effective were the piloted torpedoes’ (‘siluranti pilotati’), a small
underwater vehicle built using an actual (but highly-modified) torpedo body, on
which two crewmen fitted with breathing apparatus sat, straddling it as if
riding a horse. The ‘piloted torpedo’ had a detachable 300-pound explosive
warhead with a timer fuse, which would be slung beneath the keel of the target
vessel’ the intent being to attack the enemy fleet in harbor after a stealthy
underwater approach. The ‘piloted torpedoes’ were at first usually delivered to
the vicinity of the enemy base by conventional submarines, although these were
modified with the installation of three waterproof containers on the deck for
the ‘torpedoes’ (safe at depths of up to 300 feet).
There were also under development larger underwater vessels,
these being legitimate midget submarines. The Italians had two models, the
two-man CA and the four-man CB (both types mounting two 450mm torpedo tubes).
Neither, however, was ready for service before 1942, whereas the ‘piloted
torpedoes’ were actually employed operationally in 1940, albeit ineffectively
because technical preparation of both the ‘piloted torpedoes’ and in some cases
the launch submarines had not been completed.
The 10th MAS also had surface elements, mainly in the form
of small, fast motorboats. The ‘explosive motorboat’ was an actual bomb, loaded
with 660 pounds of explosives, and set to crash into enemy ships by its single
operator, who after locking the controls bailed out over the stern on to a
special raft when 100 yards or so from the target vessel. The ‘assault
motorboat’ was a bigger, two-man craft, fitted with a pair of torpedoes
outboard. Both types could operate from shore bases, but due to their short
range were often carried aboard larger surface ships and launched as close as
possible to their intended target area (destroyers Crispi and Sella performed
this duty for the successful Suda Bay operation, picket ship Diana in the
disastrous July 1941 Malta attack’ later several small freighters were also
modified to serve as launch ships).
Finally, the unit employed the simple method of
specially-trained swimmers with breathing gear, towing mines.
The wartime operations of 10th MAS began with a series of
bitter failures. In August 1940, prior to a planned assault on the main British
Mediterranean Fleet base at Alexandria, the poorly-prepared launch sub Iride
was sunk by British planes, a sitting duck on the surface because it could not
dive with the ‘ piloted torpedoes’ on deck. In September 1940 twin attacks were
nonetheless planned against Alexandria and Gibraltar. But again the launch sub
for the Alexandria operation (Gondar, which had waterproof containers for its ‘piloted
torpedoes’) was sunk, in this case by a British destroyer and a Sunderland
flying boat. Meanwhile, Borghese in Scire successfully delivered his ‘piloted
torpedoes’ to the immediate approaches of the British base at Gibraltar, and
the ‘torpedoes’ penetrated the fleet anchorage, but due to defects in the ‘piloted
torpedoes’ they all sank before reaching position to emplace their mines (one
getting within less than 100 yards of battleship Barham).
There would be other failures for 10th MAS during the war’
for instance, sub Scire was sunk with all hands (including the crews of its ‘piloted
torpedoes’) off Haifa in August 1942, after Borghese had moved on to other
assignments. The most traumatic blow came in July 1941, an ambitious attempt to
penetrate Malta’ s Grand Harbor by surface attack’ the plan was for ‘piloted
torpedoes’ to blow a gap in the harbor boom, allowing ‘explosive motorboats’ to
enter and target shipping just arrived in a major convoy. However, the Italians
were detected by British radar on their approach, and massacred by Malta’ s
efficient shore defenses, a grievous loss of 33 highly-trained specialists (15
killed, including 10th MAS commander Vittorio Moccagatta).
Despite these setbacks, from 1941 the special attack methods
of 10th MAS achieved an impressive series of successes. The first was in March
1941, when ‘explosive motorboats’ entered the British naval base at Suda Bay on
Crete, hitting the British heavy cruiser York (which was beached as a result,
never to sail again), and also sinking tanker Pericles. In September 1941, the ‘piloted
torpedoes’ had their first success, as three deposited off Gibraltar by Scire
sank British fleet oiler Denbydale, small tanker Fiona Shell, and 11,000-ton
merchantman Durham in the roadstead.
December 1941 saw the greatest achievement
for 10th MAS during the war, when Borghese and Scire deployed three ‘piloted
torpedoes’ to Alexandria, their crews severely damaging battleships Queen
Elizabeth (sank but settled in shallow water: raised and repaired, but out of
action a year and a half) and Valiant (out eight months: of the ten First World
War battleships possessed by the Royal Navy at the start of the war, Queen
Elizabeth and Valiant’ along with Warspite’ were the only ones that had
undergone complete modernization refits). The third ‘piloted torpedo’ in this
attack mined tanker Sagona (so badly damaged that henceforth it was only used
as a stationary fuel bunker: destroyer Jervis, tied alongside Sagona for
fueling, was also damaged by the blast, and was under repair for a month).
The 10th MAS never replicated such spectacular results
again, but did continue to strike blows. In July 1942, ‘frogman’ swimmers,
covertly based at a house on the neutral Spanish shore nearby, sank four small
freighters (Meta, Shuma, Snipe, and Baron Douglas, total about 11,000 tons) at
Gibraltar. In September 1942 these swimmers sank another small merchantman at
Gibraltar, Raven’ s Point. In December 1942 the 10th MAS tried to counterattack
a target of opportunity following the Allied ‘Torch’ landings in French North
Africa. The submarine Ambra (which had since been converted to carry ‘piloted
torpedoes,’ in order to make up for previous submarine losses of 10th MAS)
penetrated the harbor of Algiers, still crammed with Allied military shipping,
and after a careful reconnaissance (one officer swam to the surface with a
telephone connection to the submarine to survey the scene and pick targets
before the actual launch), deployed three ‘piloted torpedoes’ plus swimmers.
The results were somewhat disappointing to the Italians, after such a
well-prepared attack: the small Norwegian freighter Berto (1,400 tons) was
sunk, and freighters Ocean Vanquisher (7,000 tons), Empire Centaur (7,000
tons), and Armattan (4,500 tons) damaged.
#
The Italians had meanwhile devised a new way to attack
Gibraltar’ s naval base. They converted the derelict Italian freighter Olterra,
interned by neutral Spain at Algeciras, just across the bay from Gibraltar,
into a secret base for ‘piloted torpedoes,’ complete with a hidden underwater
sally port (reportedly taking great care to hide these extensive preparations
from the neutral Spanish, although some collusion with sympathetic members of
Franco’ s government was suspected). In May 1943 three ‘piloted torpedoes’ from
Olterra sank freighters Pat Harrison (7,000 tons), Marhsud (7,500 tons), and Camerata
(4,800 tons). In August 1943 ‘piloted torpedoes’ from Olterra struck Gibraltar
again, sinking tanker Thorshoud (10,000 tons) along with merchantmen Harrison
Grey Otis (7,000 tons) and Stanbridge (6,000 tons). And in July 1943, in an
even more novel form of assault, a specialist swimmer, Lt. Luigi Ferraro, was
smuggled into neutral Turkey (along with a supply of mines), with help from
undercover agents of SIS in a special operation. Ferraro’ s task was to mine
merchant ships of combatant nations in neutral Turkish harbors, using mines
with long delay fuses. He claimed one victim sunk, the Greek steamer Orion
(4,800 tons)’ the mine exploding a week after he planted it’ and managed to
mine three other ships. One of these, the 4,900-ton freighter Kaituna, was
damaged when one of the mines went off, but this prompted an examination which
found a second, unexploded mine. The British then carefully inspected all the
other ships in the area, finding and disarming Ferraro’ s mines on the two
other vessels.
Elements of 10th MAS were also deployed to the Black Sea in
1942, in response to a German request for help. These included six of the
CB-type midget submarines, getting their first operational use. In June 1942,
during the Axis blockade of Sebastopol (the main Soviet base in the Crimea) CB-3
sank the Russian Stalin-class submarine S-32, and three days later CB-2 sank
the smaller Shchuka-class sub Shch-306. The ‘assault motorboats’ also claimed
to have sunk a 3,000-ton Soviet freighter with no survivors in operations
interdicting traffic to Sebastopol. The ‘assault motorboats’ had one success in
the Mediterranean, when a unit based in North Africa struck British destroyer Eridge
while the latter was conducting shore bombardment operations. Eridge was towed
back to Alexandria, but damage was so severe that the ship was subsequently
written off rather than repaired.
Perhaps the most ambitious project of 10th MAS was one which
never came to fruition. There were plans in 1942 to attack New York harbor
using the smaller CA-type midget submarine. The submarine Da Vinci was removed
from normal operations in the Atlantic and modified as a launch sub for this
mission’ mainly by having its deck gun removed so that a single ‘CA’ midget
submarine could be carried on its foredeck in a special cradle that was
installed. But the operation was postponed and then eventually cancelled, Da
Vinci having its deck gun remounted and returning to normal commerce raiding
activities.
The term MAS also came to mean Mezzi d'Assalto, (Assault
Vehicle) in the unit name Flottiglia MAS (Assault Vehicle Flotilla), the most
famous of which was the Decima MAS of World War II.
Notable war actions performed by MAS include the torpedoing
of the Royal Navy C-class cruiser HMS Capetown by MAS 213 of the 21st MAS
Squadron working within the Red Sea Flotilla off Massawa, Eritrea; and the
failed attack on the harbour of Malta in January 1941, which caused the loss of
two motorboats, one of them recovered by the British. Five MAS were scuttled in
Massawa in the first week of April 1941 as a part of the Italian plan for the
wrecking of Massawa harbor in the face of British advance. MAS 204, 206, 210,
213, and 216 were sunk in the harbor; four of the boats were in need of
mechanical repairs and couldn't be evacuated. On 24 July 1941, MAS 532
torpedoed and crippled the transport Sydney Star, which managed to limp to
Malta assisted by the destroyer HMAS Nestor. MAS 554, 554 and 557 also sank
three allied freighters on 13 August 1942, in the course of Operation Pedestal,
for a total tonnage of 28,500 tn. On 29 August 1942, a smaller type of MAS
boat, the MTSM, torpedoed and disabled for the rest of the war the British
destroyer HMS Eridge off El Daba, Egypt.
Four MAS served at German request as Black Sea reinforcement
in their intended attack on Sevastopol in June 1942. The MAS squadron came
under intense air attack from Soviet fighter-bombers and torpedo boats but
performed well in the role. They sank a 5,000 ton steamer and disabled a 10,000
ton transport, which was subsequently destroyed by Stuka dive-bombers. MAS boats
destroyed troop barges and damaged Soviet warships. One MAS boat commander was
killed in battle. One MAS was destroyed and three damaged by fighter-bombers in
September 1942 during a heavy attack on Yalta.
The obsolescence of small MAS became apparent during the
conflict, and they were increasingly replaced by larger Yugoslavian E-boats
built in Germany and local copies of them (classified "MS" - Moto
Siluranti by the Regia Marina).
Indeed, the Decima Mas did plan many spectacular missions
for Italian midget submarines. Attacks on the British base at Freetown, Sierra
Leone, on the west coast of Africa - and incredibly, on harbours along the east
coast of the USA. The Freetown plan, for which the sub C.A.1 was allocated, was
abandoned when it was decided that British defensive measures allowed no chance
of success. However, the attack on New York reached an advanced stage. The
operation was planned for December 1943.
Quoting from Richard O'Neill's 'Suicide Squads' book:
' In mid-1942, in preparation for the New York raid, C.A.2
was transported overland to Bordeaux(France), where "Betasom",
headquarters for Italian submarines operating in the Atlantic, was commanded by
Capt Enzo Grossi. There, too, came the Marconi-class submarine Leonardo da
Vinci of 1,190/1,489 tons (1209/1513 tonnes), selected as the midget's carrier.
Under the direction of Cdr Borghese and SubLt Massano, Italian workshops at
Bordeaux under Major (naval rank) Fenu removed Da Vinci's 3.9-inch (100mm) gun
and in its place, just forward of the conning-tower, constructed a
semi-recessed "pouch" with retaining shackles for C.A.2. This
arrangement led to the mother boat being designated the Canguro
("Kangaroo"). Sea trials under Borghese's command proved to his
satisfaction that the midget could be launched from the submerged Kangaroo and
could be recovered when the mother boat surfaced beneath it. The latter point
was important in avoiding any indication that the projected mission was
regarded as suicidal: just so had the IJN made "official" plans to
recover its midgets after Pearl Harbor.
According to Borghese, the Kangaroo (not Da Vinci, which was
sunk by British warships off the Azores in May 1943) would launch its midget
while submerged off New York Bay. C.A.2 (or, in the later stages of the operational
planning, the near identical C.A.3 or C.A.4) would make its way by night into
the crowed harbour at the mouth of the Hudson. Two of the three crewmen, in
frogmen's gear, would leave the boat to plant time-fused explosive
charges-eight 220lb (100kg) charges and twenty 4.4lb (2kg) "limpets"
were carried-under ships and against dock installations. Then C.A.2 would slip
downriver to make rendezvous at sea with Kangaroo.'
Many operational and technical difficulties made this
operation very dubious: the assumption that New York harbour defences were weak
and that the range of the C.A. series (no more than 70nm (129km) was sufficient
for the craft to remain up the Hudson River for two days). 'Yet according to
Borghese, only Italy's collapse in September 1943 prevented the mission from
being carried out, as planned, in December of that year.'
The explosive boat concept was adopted by the German Navy
and 'The Black Prince' Cdr. J. Valerio Borghese, remaining faithful to the Axis
cause even after Italy's surrender, passed on his experience to German
volunteers. Indeed the Italian military/navy pre-war had taught the Germans
aerial torpedo bombing...and some other things as well...
Before Italy's collapse, however, two abortive missions were
launched with the smaller MTR explosive boats. In mid-1943, following the
Allied invasion of Sicily, it was planned to attack shipping in Syracuse
harbour with MTRs. The submarine Ambra (Lt. Cdr. Renato Ferrini), carrying
three MTRs in deck cylinders originally designed for transportation of Maiale
("pig" Italian manned torpedo with detachable warhead with two crew),
stood off Syracuse on the night of 25th July 1943. But the activities of German
U-Boats had put the harbour defences on full alert: picked up on the radars of
patrolling aircraft, Ambra was bombed, depth charged, and forced to retire with
heavy damage, including the crushing of the MTRs cylinders.
A similar mission was planned for 2nd October 1943, when the
submarine Murena (Cdr. Longanesi), equipped with four transportation cylinders,
was to launch four MTRs from the Spanish side of the Algerciras Bay. The boats
were to make their way along the neutral shore and, at 1100 hours, carry out a
near-suicidal daylight attack on merchant shipping at Gibraltar. In the resultant
confusion, it was hoped, a Maiale launched from a secret base aboard the
Olterra* would penetrate the military harbour and attack the largest warship in
sight. The operation was forestalled by Italy's surrender on 8th September
1943.
#
*Olterra was an Italian
freighter had been deliberately sabotaged at the beginning of the war and lay
half-sunken in Spanish territorial waters. On the pretext of being repaired and
handed over to Spain, she was raised and towed into Algeciras harbour, across
the bay from the Allied military anchorage. In her hold was Maiale and Italian
navy men, who slipped out through an underwater door for a series of raids on
the Algeciras roadstead between September 1942 and August 1943 damaging 11
Allied merchant ships totaling some 55, 700 tonnes. At the time of Italy's
collapse, preparations were being made aboard Olterra to launch the
newly-received SSB-type Maiale against Gibraltar.
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