Spartaco Schergat

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Spartaco Schergat sank the HMS Queen Elizabeth in Alexandria harbour in 1941

Spartaco Schergat (1920, Capodistria -1996, Trieste) was an Italian military frogman during World War II.[1]

Biography

Schergat was born in Istria from an Italian irredentist and as a voluntary entered the Royal Italian Navy in 1940. He was a friend of Luigi Durand de la Penne, who enrolled him in the elite Decima MAS (XMAS).

He is famous for severely damaging the British battleship Queen Elizabeth, with a "maiale", in 1941 during the Raid on Alexandria. For this military action he received the Italian gold medal in the Second World War[2]

After 1943, he collaborated with the Allies until the end of the war, with the Royal Navy of Badoglio government in southern Italy.

He was elected in the 1950s as deputy of an Italian far right party (MSI). In 1996 Spartaco Schergat died, after a long struggle with cancer, in Triest.[3]

The attack on the Queen Elizabeth

As part of a team of divers of the X MAS he took part in the human torpedo attacks on British vessels in the Mediterranean. In December 1941, Schergat was one of a team of six (Luigi Durand de la Penne with Emilio Bianchi; Antonio Marceglia with Spartaco Schergat; Vincenzo Martellotta with Mario Marino) which attacked Alexandria harbour. They used the new Italian secret torpedo S.L.C. ("Siluro Lenta Corsa", also known as "maiale"), a small underwater assault vehicle with a crew of two. As a result, four ships were damaged in Alexandria: the British battleships Queen Elizabeth (by Marceglia and Schergat) and Valiant (by Martellotta and Marino), and the tanker Sagona with the destroyer Jervis. Spartaco Schergat personally placed the limpet mine under the hull of the Queen Elizabeth.

However, the two capital ships were in shallow water, the Queen Elizabeth settling on the sea bed, the Valiant down by the bows, but both maintaining the illusion from the air that they were undamaged. Temporary repairs were quickly effected; Queen Elizabeth was sent to the USA for permanent full repairs, Valiant to Durban, South Africa. Both ships were out of action for over one year.[4]

This represented a dramatic change of fortunes against the Allies from the strategic point of view in the central Mediterranean during the next half-year or more. The Italian fleet - with the Alexandria Raid - had nominally achieved naval supremacy in the Mediterranean sea, called in that year Italy's Mare Nostrum by fascist propaganda.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Photo of Spartaco Schergat
  2. ↑ Article in Italian about the sinking of the battleship Queen Elizabeth.
  3. ↑ Article about Spartaco Schergat's death (in Italian)
  4. ↑ "...the battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant, so badly damaged that they were effectively out of service for the duration of the Italian war effort." Sadkovich, page 334
  5. ↑ "Consequently, the Alexandria Fleet remained for many months without any battleships, and it was forced to abandon any further open activity. In fact, Admiral Cunningham wrote that his Fleet now should have to leave it to the Royal Air Force to try if they could dispute the control of the Central Mediterranean with the enemy's fleet.(...) In fact, it opened a period of clear Italian naval supremacy in the east-central Mediterranean." Bragadin, page 152

Bibliography

  • "Frogmen First Battles" by retired U.S Captain William Schofield's book. ISBN 0-8283-2088-8
  • The Italian Navy in World War II by Marc'Antonio Bragadin, United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, 1957. ISBN 0-405-13031-7
  • The Italian Navy during World War II by Sadkovich, James, Greenwood Press, Westport, 1994. ISBN 0-313-28797-X
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