Teseo Tesei

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Human torpedo pioneer Major Teseo Tesei, of the Regia Marina, was killed during an underwater operation against Malta in 1941.
Human torpedo pioneer Major Teseo Tesei, of the Regia Marina, was killed during an underwater operation against Malta in 1941.

Major Teseo Tesei (Elba, 1909 - Malta, 1941) was an Italian naval officer, who invented the human torpedo (called "Maiale") used by the Regia Marina during WWII.

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[edit] Life

In 1929 Teseo Tesi had the idea of the manned torpedo, from the Italian device used to sink the Austrian Battleship "Viribus Unitis" during WWI, and invented the Maiale for the Italian Regia Marina.

In 1931 he entered the Naval Academy of Livorno, where he showed his inventive capabilities. Together with Elios Toschi he designed the Maiale, a human torpedo called Siluro a lenta corsa (SLC).

In 1936 he improved the attack performance of his creation, the "Maiale", using an enhanced system (that he invented) to breathe under water for two hours. The SLC was extensively used in World War II by the Italian Navy, and obtained even the sinking [1] of two British battleships in Alexandria. The British developed another kind of manned torpedo, called "Chariot", from one of his "Maiale" captured.

He was one of the officers with Prince Valerio Borghese to organize the Decima Flottiglia MAS in 1938, and participated in some military actions in the Mediterranean with his SLC during WWII. He died in an underwater attack on Malta in 1941.

The modern Italian commando frogmen group COMSUBIN (= Comando Raggruppamento Subacquei ed Incursori Teseo Tesei) is named after him.

[edit] Military Actions

On 21 August 1940, Tesei was the only survivor when the Italian submarine Iride was sunk (see Decima Flottiglia MAS#1940).

On 26 July 1941, he died riding a manned torpedo attacking Malta (see Decima Flottiglia MAS#1941). Teseo Tesei was posthumously awarded the Italian Gold Medal for Military Honor for this military action.

[edit] References

Historical Diving Times, pp 6-11, issue 39. ISSN 1368-0390

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

  • Greene, Jack The Black Prince and the Sea Devils: The Story of Valerio Borghese and the Elite Units of the Decima Mas. Da Capo Press. Cambridge/Mass., 2004 ISBN 0-306-81311-4
  • Schofield, William. Frogmen First Battles. New York, 2000 ISBN 0-8283-2088-8
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