Raid on Alexandria (1941)

For the War of 1812 raid, see Raid on Alexandria.
Raid on Alexandria
Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean of Second World War

An Italian manned torpedo
Date19 December 1941
LocationAlexandria, Mediterranean Sea
Result Italian victory
Belligerents
 United Kingdom  Italy
Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom Charles Morgan Kingdom of Italy Junio Valerio Borghese
Strength
Fleet in harbour 1 submarine
3 human torpedoes
Casualties and losses
2 battleships disabled,
1 destroyer damaged,
1 tanker damaged,
8 killed[1]		 6 captured

The Raid on Alexandria was carried out on 19 December 1941 by Italian Navy divers, members of the Decima Flottiglia MAS, who attacked and disabled two Royal Navy battleships in the harbour of Alexandria, Egypt, using manned torpedoes.

Background

On 3 December, the submarine Scirè of the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) left the naval base of La Spezia carrying three manned torpedoes, called maiali (pigs) by the Italians.[2] At the island of Leros in the Aegean Sea, the submarine secretly picked up six crewmen for them: Luigi Durand de la Penne and Emilio Bianchi (maiale nº 221), Vincenzo Martellotta and Mario Marino (maiale nº 222), and Antonio Marceglia and Spartaco Schergat (maiale nº 223).[3]

Raid

On 19 December, Scirè—at a depth of 15 m (49 ft)—released the manned torpedoes 1.3 mi (1.1 nmi; 2.1 km) from Alexandria commercial harbour,[4] and they entered the naval base when the British opened their defenses to let three of their destroyers pass. There were many difficulties for de la Penne and his crewmate Emilio Bianchi. First, the engine of the torpedo stopped and the two frogmen had to manually push it; then Bianchi had to surface due to problems with the oxygen provider, so that de la Penne had to push the Maiale alone to where HMS Valiant lay. There he successfully placed the limpet mine, just under the hull of the battleship. However, as they both had to surface, and as Bianchi was hurt, they were discovered and captured.

Questioned, both of them kept silent, and they were confined in a compartment aboard Valiant, under the sea level, and coincidentally just over the place where the mine had been placed. Fifteen minutes before the explosion, de la Penne asked to meet with Valiant‍ '​s captain Charles Morgan and then told him of the imminent explosion but refused to give further information, so that he was returned to the compartment. Fortunately for the Italians, when the mine exploded just before them, neither he nor Bianchi were severely injured by the blast, while de la Penne only received a minor injury to the head by a ship chain.[5]

Meanwhile, Marceglia and Schergat had attached their device five feet beneath the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth's keel as scheduled. They successfully left the harbour area at 4:30 am, and slipped through Alexandria posing as French sailors. They were captured two days later at Rosetta by the Egyptian police while awaiting rescue by the Scirè and handed over to the British.[6]

Martellota and Marino searched in vain for an aircraft carrier purportedly moored at Alexandria, but after sometime they decided to attack a large tanker, the 7554 gross register ton Norwegian Sagona. Marino fixed the mine under the tanker's stern at 02:55. Both divers managed to land unmolested, but were eventually arrested at an Egyptian checkpoint.[7]

In the end, all the divers were made prisoners, but not before their mines exploded, severely damaging both HMS Queen Elizabeth and Valiant, disabling them for nine months and six months respectively.[8] The Sagona lost her stern section and the destroyer HMS Jervis, one of four alongside her refuelling, 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.[9]

Aftermath

This represented a dramatic change of fortunes against the Allies from the strategic point of view during the next six months. The Italian fleet had temporarily wrested naval supremacy in the east-central Mediterranean from the Royal Navy.[10][11][12][13]

Valiant was towed to Admiralty Floating Dock 5 on the 21st for temporary repairs and was under repair at Alexandria until April 1942 when she sailed to Durban. By August, she was operating with Force B off Africa in exercises for the defence of East Africa and operations against Madagascar.[14]

Queen Elizabeth was in drydock at Alexandria for temporary repairs until late June, when she sailed for the United States for refit and repairs, which ended the following June. The refit was completed in Britain.[15]

Jervis was repaired and operational again by the end of January.[16]

In media

The attack is dramatised at the beginning of the film The Silent Enemy (1958). Another movie The Valiant (1962), is about the sinking of HMS Valiant in Alexandria harbour.[17] There is also a 1953 Italian movie (I sette dell'Orsa Maggiore) about the attack, including some real members of Decima Flottiglia MAS as support actors in the cast.[18]

See also

Gallery

Notes

  1. ↑ Naval-History.net
  2. ↑ Borghese, page 135
  3. ↑ Borghese, pp. 134–136
  4. ↑ Borghese, page 143
  5. ↑ Borghese, pp. 148–151
  6. ↑ Borghese, pp. 152-153
  7. ↑ Borghese, pp. 155-156
  8. ↑ Sadkovich, page 217
  9. ↑ "...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
  10. ↑ "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
  11. ↑ "Overnight, the sea had became an axis lake. And the Italian Navy held dominating power." Schofield, Williams, and Carisella, P. J. (2004).Frogmen:First Battles. Branden Books, p. 134. ISBN 0-8283-2088-8
  12. ↑ "The results of the attack would not be immediately known, but details would slip out in the coming weeks. The balance of power at sea had shifted." Greene, Jack & Massignani, Alessandro (1998). The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1940–1943, Chatam Publishing, p. 204. ISBN 978-1-86176-057-9
  13. ↑ Sadkovich, p. 219
  14. ↑ HMS Valiant at naval-history.net
  15. ↑ HMS Queen Elizabeth at naval-history.net
  16. ↑ HMS Jervis at naval-history.net
  17. ↑ The Silent Enemy at the Internet Movie Database
  18. ↑ "Hell Raiders of the Deep"

References

External links

Coordinates: 31°10′43.71″N 29°51′44.89″E / 31.1788083°N 29.8624694°E