British commando frogmen

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Contents 1 History 1.1 Before 1942 1.2 1942 1.3 1943 1.4 1944 1.5 1945 and after

Britain's commando frogman force is now the SBS, which is part of the Royal Marines. They perform various operations on land as well as in the water.

Until the late 1990's, all Special Air Service (SAS) men were trained as commando frogmen, but this was dropped due to the time demands and a perceived lack of need.

For other nations' commando frogmen, and information about frogmen in general, see frogman.

Great Britain began using commando frogmen in WWII.

[edit] History

[edit] Before 1942

• 1909: The British designer Commander Godfrey Herbert received a patent for a manned torpedo. During World War I, it was rejected by the War Office as impracticable and unsafe.
• 1941 & 1942: Italian commando frogmen, some riding manned torpedoes, attacked British naval bases at Gibraltar and Alexandria. Some of them were captured. Thus the Royal Navy discovered frogman techniques and equipment, and decided to copy. (Fictionalised in the film The Silent Enemy (film) - IMDB entry)

[edit] 1942

• April: The British Navy formed the "Experimental Submarine Flotilla", initially based at Portsmouth. It was led by Commanders G.M.Sladen and W.R. "Tiny" Fell, who began to train frogmen in secret. The Navy called their manned torpedoes Chariots. Many of their frogmen's breathing sets' oxygen cylinders were German pilot's oxygen cylinders recovered from shot-down German Luftwaffe planes. Those first breathing sets may have been modified Davis Submarine Escape Sets; their fullface masks were the type intended for the Siebe Gorman Salvus. But in later operations different designs were used, leading to a fullface mask with one big face window. One version had a flip-up single window for both eyes to let the user get binoculars to his eyes when on the surface. They used bulky thick diving suits called Sladen suits.
  • This link shows a British wartime chariot team on the surface.
• 1942 June: The Experimental Submarine Flotilla moved to "Port D" on Loch Erisort in Scotland[1]. They got their first powered manned torpedoes, the "Mark I Chariot". Its hull was 21 inch diameter. It could make 2.9 knots and could dive safely to 20 feet depth. The nose was a warhead with 600 pounds of high explosive. Training was hard. The men often suffered from oxygen poisoning because of the use of pure oxygen at depth, burst eardrums and sinus trouble. The strangeness of the Chariots added to their problems. They were trained to ride and steer for a long time under water, and to then cut through harbor defence nets. The hardest part was learning to work with the Chariots' warheads.
• August: The British charioteers went back to Base HHZ on Loch Cairnbawn in Scotland to train to attack bigger better-defended places. One died in training.
• September: The Norwegian Navy officer Leif Larsen told the British Navy that he wanted to attack the German battleship Tirpitz in Asenfjord, a branch of the Trondheimfjord in Norway.
• Operation "Title":-
  • October 26: The fishing boat Arthur operated by three Norwegians left Britain with seven British frogmen and two chariots hidden aboard.
  • October 28: Arthur reached Norway's coast near Edøy.
  • October 30: Arthur unloaded the chariots and began to tow them to the target.
  • October 31: A storm broke the fastening bolts of the chariots, which were lost. The attack was called off.
  • November 1: The Arthur was scuttled at Breivik. The ten members of the operation set off for Sweden in two groups. Nine reached Sweden; Germans captured one and later shot him as a spy.
    • This operation was later portrayed in the 1955 war film, Above Us the Waves, featuring John Mills, which was based on Operation Title and the later Operation Source X-Craft midget submarine attacks on the Tirpitz.
• late November: Britain sent 26 Chariots to Malta, and they became part of the "Tenth Submarine Flotilla". Three submarines received containers on their decks to carry the Chariots.
• Operation "Principle":-
  • November 28: The British submarine P-311 carrying 3 Chariots and 10 Charioteers left Marsamxett on Malta to attack La Maddalena on Sardinia, but struck a naval mine near Sardinia and sank with all hands.
  • November 30: The British submarines Thunderbolt, and Trooper, and Unruffled (P46), left Malta carrying Chariots.
• December 7 after dark: Operation Frankton. 10 British naval frogmen left a submarine on 5 two-seater kayaks and went up the Gironde to blow up ships in Bordeaux port. In December 11-12 night, two boats were sunk and three seriously damaged. Only 2 of the frogmen came back to England. The others were captured directly, or denounced by, French, and finally shot by the Germans.
• After December 17: First known British frogman use of swimfins, rather than a Sladen suit and weighted boots riding a Chariot (ref. Decima Flottiglia MAS#1942): On 17 December 1942, 6 Italians on three manned torpedoes attacked Gibraltar harbor. A British patrol boat killed one torpedo's crew (Lt. Visintini and Petty Officer Magro) with a depth charge. Their bodies were recovered, and their swimfins were taken and used by two of Gibraltar's British guard divers (who dived with Davis Escape Sets and (up to here) breast stroke swimming and no fins) (Sydney Knowles and Commander Lionel Crabb).

[edit] 1943

• Operation "Principal":-
  • January 3:The submarines HMS/m Thunderbolt and HMS/m P311 carrying two chariots each and HMS/m Trooper carrying three, with their respective crews, left to carry out this operation, the first by Britain involving the use of chariots. P311 was scheduled to attack targets at La Maddalena, while the other two submarines headed for the coast of Sicily near Palermo in a Force 5 wind.
  • One of the chariots which the Trooper carried, was ridden by Sub-Lieutenant Rodney Dove and Leading Seaman Jimmy Freel. As it was launched, a big wave washed it over the submarine, causing the loss of its limpet mines and the gear to attach the warhead to a ship.
  • The chariots put mines on ships and patrol boats and sank some of them, but none of the mines exploded.
  • One chariot put its warhead on the Italian cruiser Ulpio Traiano (under construction), and afterwards smaller explosives on four ships. Ulpio Traiano sank.
  • Dove's chariot (Chariot XVI) put its warhead on the Italian troop ship Viminale (formerly a liner), by tying it to the sternpost with ropes, causing severe damage but not sinking it. While being towed from the harbour for repairs, it was torpedoed by a British submarine and damaged again. Later in the year, while en route for repairs for the second attack, it was sunk by American torpedo boats.
  • Because of bad weather two chariots did not reach the harbour.
  • All the chariots were lost; either scuttled, through equipment malfunction or human error. One charioteer died in the attack. The British submarine Unruffled recovered two others. Five had to land and were taken prisoner. Two of these prisoners later escaped from guards in Rome and hid in the Vatican until the Americans liberated Rome in 1944. Two others, involved in a quite separate operation,see below escaped from guards in Libya. In the middle of Tripoli they found a British Army unit and were returned to England.
  • Dove ended up in a POW camp at Bremen in Germany, and got home in May 1945. He received the DSO. He died on 30 October 2005 aged 84: obituary.
• This left eight charioteers with two Chariots on Malta.
• January 18-19: These two chariots were carried by submarines to attack ships that the Germans were going to be used to block Tripoli harbour. The frogmen arrived too late and a blockship was sunk in the harbour mouth. None of the men or chariots returned to Malta.
• January: At Loch Corrie and Loch Cairnbawn in Scotland more charioteers were being trained.
• April 16: Britain sent 14 new charioteers to Malta. In the days following they sent the new Chariot Mark II, also called the "Terry". Its riders sat back to back. It could manage 4.5 knots . The warhead was 1100 pounds of Torpex high explosive.
• June: During this month, the British submarine HMS Unseen carried three chariots from Malta to Sicily. The divers surveyed 100 miles of coast, examining beaches to find dangers for armies who would be landing there later.
• June 11: The other British charioteers went to Loch Cairnbawn.
• Late June: Britain sent six more charioteers to Malta, for an operation to attack Taranto.
• June 25: Mussolini was replaced by Pietro Badoglio as the head of the Italian government. As a result, the attack on Taranto was called off, and the British frogmen were all sent to Scotland. After this, there was only one British chariot attack in the Mediterranean.
• July: At Loch Cairnbawn a charioteer died through an accident.
• September 20: The British midget submarines known as X-craft set out to attack the German Tirpitz and the Scharnhorst in Kåfjord in Norway. The Scharnhorst was absent but the Tirpitz was damaged in the attack.
• September 24: Britain sent 4 chariots and 12 charioteers from their Scottish base to Lunna Voe in the Shetlands to train in for operations among the Norwegian islands.
• October 14: A British torpedo boat carrying two chariots and four charioteers sailed from Lunna Voe to Tevik Bay in Norway and put on land a man called Job to wait until a German ship came, but German aircraft found the torpedo boat and attacked. The torpedo boat had to flee to Britain badly damaged, and it landed at Dunbar in Scotland. Four days later another torpedo boat brought Job back to Shetland.
• October or November: A British torpedo boat carrying two chariots and four charioteers went from Lunna Voe to Nordfjord in Norway and set on land a man to wait until a German ship came. In two days no German ship came, The boat went back to Shetland.
• November 11: A British torpedo boat carrying two chariots and four charioteers sailed from Lunna Voe to Tevik Bay in Norway and set on land a man to wait until a German ship came to Askvoll harbor. In two days no German ship came. It snowed, and they thought that Askvoll harbor would be blocked with ice. As the torpedo boat returned to Shetland it ditched the chariots because of bad weather, and it brought the charioteers back.
• October 31: On this day or earlier British and American forces entered Naples.
• October or November: British frogmen went to Brindisi in Italy where they were combined with those Italian frogmen who were in the Allied-controlled areas and those Italian frogmen who had been prisoners in Britain, as a single organization.

[edit] 1944

For more information about the X-craft operations, see X class submarine.

• April 15: X-craft attacked the floating dock Laksevåg at Bergen in Norway, but sank a cargo ship by mistake instead.
• May: 14 British charioteers were sent to Trincomalee in Sri Lanka.
• In the run up to the Normandy landings British Chariots were used to survey the seabed along Normandy's coast in preparation for the troop landings.
• June 2: After the Italians had left the Axis, the Italian destroyer Grecale sailed from Bastia in Corsica to La Spezia carrying three speedboats, and Italian frogmen including Luigi Durand De La Penne, and two British chariots, to attack the Italian cruisers Bolzano and Gorizia, which had been taken by the Germans after the Italian surrender. The Grecale launched the boats, which then carried the chariots and their charioteers and released them three miles from La Spezia harbor. One chariot began to leak from its float tank and had to be abandoned, but the others sank the Bolzano. This thwarted a German plan to sink the Bolzano and the Gorizia where they would block the harbor entrance. The charioteers did not manage to rendezvous with the motor boats but got ashore and met up with Italian partisans. In August one successfully crossed the Arno to reach the Allies, but the other three were captured trying to do the same.
• June 6: Operation Overlord ("D-day"). British frogmen (not using Chariots) demolished many beach obstacles that Germans had set to stop an attacking army. One drove an army tank onto land.
• September 11: X-craft repeated their attack on the floating dock Laksevåg at Bergen in Norway and sank it.
• October 27-28: The British submarine Trenchant carried two Mk 2 Chariots (nicknamed "Tiny" and "Slasher") to an attack on Phuket harbor in Thailand. They were released six miles out from the harbor. The targets were two Italian liners, the Sumatra and the Volpi, each of approximately 5,000 tons. Six hours later, for the only time, the British charioteers rode back to their mothership. On the return journey the Trenchant jettisoned the chariots so it could travel faster, after receiving a report of a Japanese MTB in the area. The Trenchant carried the four charioteers back to Trincomalee. No chariot operations in combat.

[edit] 1945 and after

• 1945 July 31: Lieutenant Ian Edward Fraser and the diver James Joseph Magennis in the XE-craft XE3 attacked the Japanese warship Takao in the Johore Strait near Singapore and sank it. For this action, they received the Victoria Cross. See Ian Edward Fraser#Midget Submarine Operations for a longer description
• The British Chariots were used in the immediate post war period to clear mines and wrecks in harbours.

By the end of the war, the British human torpedo operations had earned their participants 20 medals and 16 men had been killed.

Clearance Diving Teams were formed to clear unexploded ordnance and other military hazards left over from the war.

See Special Boat Service#History for a list of later SBS operations; but not all of those operations used frogmen.