Shipbucket

During the night between 18th and 19th December six men changed dramatically the Mediterranean situation giving to the Italian fleet the naval supremacy against the Royal Navy.

The Italian Submarine Sciré released three manned torpedoes (nicknamed maiale) 1.3 miles from Alexandria with crews respectively formed by Luigi de la Penne & Emilio Bianchi, Vincenzo Martellotta & Mario Marino, Antonio Marceglia & Spartaco Schergat.

The six frogmen overcame several difficulties in order to violate the British Naval Base but successfully placed the explosive under the hulls of the capital ship HMS Valiant, the capital ship HMS Queen Elizabeth and the oiler Sagona.

However, Bianchi was hurt and as he had to surface with De la Penne: both were subsequently discovered and captured. Questioned, both of them kept silent, and they were confined aboard Valiant in a compartment under the sea level just over the mine. Fifteen minutes before the explosion De la Penne informed the Valiant’s captain Charles Morgan about the imminent explosion refusing to give further information and he was confined back in the same compartment. When the mine exploded neither he nor Bianchi were severely injured by the blast and were able to survive and to be captured again.

The other four torpedo-riders were also captured inland by the Egyptian police and handed over to the British but was too late: around 05:45-06:00 their mines sank the battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth while the Norwegian tanker Sagona lost her stern section and the destroyer HMS Jervis 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.

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Lazer_One


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My father in law was on the Valiant when it was mined; and he had nothing but respect for the bravey and daring of the Italian frogmen. They certainly inflicted damage out of all proportion to their numbers

and the Italian frogmen got the gold medal from Cunningham...

PS: do you have pictures?

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Lazer_One


Lazer_One's Worlist - Updated 2021

Documentation is always welcome here

Lazer_One's Blog

There is very little available on this, apart from what can be 'googled' and that's not much. Being a Royal Marine Bill was involved in the security operation, but not in guarding the prsioners.