Human torpedo

Human torpedoes were secret naval weapons of World War II. The name is most commonly used to refer to the weapons that Italy and later Britain deployed in the Mediterranean and used to attack ships in enemy harbours.

Contents

1 Italian and British Manned Torpedoes 2 Other countries 3 Timeline of manned torpedo operations 3.1 Before 1940 3.2 1940 3.3 1941 3.4 1942 3.5 1943 3.6 1944 3.7 1945 and after 4 Craft 4.1 Italian 4.2 British 5 Museums 6 Movies and fiction 7 Chariots for sport diving 8 References 9 Compare to 10 External links

Italian and British Manned Torpedoes

These were electrically propelled torpedoes with two crewmen equipped with diving suits riding astride. They steered the torpedo at slow speed to the enemy ship. The detachable warhead was then used as a limpet mine. They then rode the torpedo away.

In operation the torpedo was carried by another vessel (usually a normal submarine), and launched near the target. Most manned torpedo operations were at night and during the new moon to cut down the risk of being seen. The idea was successfully applied by the Italian navy (Regia Marina) early in World War II and then copied by the British when they discovered the Italian operations. The official Italian name for their craft was Siluro a Lenta Corsa (SLC = "Slow-running torpedo"), but the Italian operators nicknamed it maiale (Italian for "pig"; plural maiali) because its was difficult to steer. The British copies were named Chariot.

Other countries

The Germans had their own human torpedoes in the form of the Neger, Marder and Biber. These were an extreme form of mini submarine that carried and launched a second torpedo at the target.

The Japanese had the Kaiten, which was a steered fast torpedo and in practice was a suicide weapon. As such their operations differed substantially from those of the Italian and British.

Timeline of manned torpedo operations

This timeline only includes British and Italian operations.

Before 1940

• 1909: The British designer Commander Godfrey Herbert received a patent for a manned torpedo. During WWI, it was rejected by the War Office as impracticable and unsafe.

• 1918: November 1: Raffaele Paolucci and Raffaele Rossetti rode a torpedo-like craft (Mignatta) into Pola harbour, where they sank the Austrian battleship Viribus Unitis and the freighter Wien using limpet mines. They had no breathing sets and had to keep their heads above water to breathe, and thus they were discovered and taken prisoners.
• 1920-1930: Sport spearfishing without breathing apparatus developed on the Mediterranean coast of France and Italy. This caused development of modern-type diving fins and mask and snorkel.
• 1930-1939: Between these years an unknown Italian swam under water with an industrial or submarine-escape oxygen rebreather, probably to make his sport of spearfishing easier. Other Italian sport spearfishers imitated. That was the start of scuba diving. The Regia Marina (the Italian Navy) noticed this and started a naval department called "Decima Flottiglia MAS" (10th Light Flotilla") or "X-MAS", commanded by Ernesto Forza, which secretly made manned torpedoes, and trained war frogmen and called them nuotatori, the Italian for "swimmers".

1940

• June 10: Mussolini declared war on Britain.
• August 21: The Italian submarine Iride left La Spezia to attack Gibraltar. In the Gulf of Bomba on the coast of Libya four manned torpedoes were loaded into it; but there British aircraft from HMS Eagle attacked and sank it.
• September 21: The Italian submarine Gondar left La Spezia carrying three manned torpedoes and eight crew for them. On the evening of the 28th, it reached Alexandria in Egypt, but a British warship saw it, attacked and sank it, and its crew surrendered.
• September 24: The Italian submarine Sciré, commanded by Junio Valerio Borghese, left La Spezia carrying three manned torpedoes and eight crew for them. On the 29th September near Gibraltar, it was ordered back to La Maddalena, because the British fleet had left Gibraltar.
• October 21: The Sciré left La Spezia and sailed to Gibraltar carrying three manned torpedoes and eight crew for them. The manned torpedoes entered the harbor, but did not damage any ships. Two of the crewmen were captured but the other six escaped to Spain and were able to return to Italy.

1941

• May 25: The Sciré left La Spezia carrying three manned torpedoes. At Cadiz in Spain, it secretly loaded six crew for them. At Gibraltar, they found no warships because the HMS Renown, Ark Royal and Sheffield had been ordered to the Atlantic for convoy protection against the Bismarck (which was sunk on May 27th). The manned torpedoes tried, unsuccessfully, to sink a ship. Their six crew returned to Italy via Spain.
• July 26: Two manned torpedoes and ten speedboats carrying explosives left Italy to attack Valletta, Malta. They sank no ships. In Valletta, they came under heavy gunfire from the land, 15 of their crew died, and 18 were captured.
• September 10: The Sciré left La Spezia carrying three manned torpedoes. At Cadiz in Spain, it secretly loaded six crew for them. At Gibraltar, its manned torpedoes sank three ships; two tankers Denbydale and Fiona Shell and a cargo ship, the Durham.

. Their crews swam to Spain and returned to Italy.

• December 3: The Sciré left La Spezia carrying three manned torpedoes. At the island of Leros in the Aegean Sea, it secretly loaded six crew for them. On 19th December it reached Alexandria in Egypt, and its manned torpedoes entered the harbour and sank a tanker, and two British battleships, HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth. Although holed, they only sank a few feet to the bed of the harbour and their decks remained clear of the water. For months they were immobilised, but were able to fake battle-readiness. All six torpedo-riders were captured.

1942

• April 29: The Italian submarine Ambra left La Spezia carrying three manned torpedoes. At Leros Island, it secretly loaded six crew for them. On 14th May it reached Alexandria in Egypt to sink a British floating dock, but the Ambra was seen, and they sank nothing. All six torpedo-riders were captured.
• 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.
• June: The Experimental Submarine Flotilla moved to "Port D" on Loch Erisort in Scotland. 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.
• July: Italian frogmen set up in a secret base in the Italian cargo ship Olterra interned in Algeciras near Gibraltar. All materials had to be moved secretly through Spain and this limited operations.
• July 13: Twelve Italian frogmen swam from the Olterra into Gibraltar harbor and set explosives and then returned safely. They sank four ships.
• 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 Trondheimdfjord in Norway.
• Operation "Title":-
  • October 26: The fishing boat Arthur operated by three Norwegians left Britain with seven British frogmen and 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.
• 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 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 4: The Ambra left La Spezia to attack Algiers carrying frogmen and two chariots. Ten frogmen carrying limpet mines swam with the chariots, but because of the distance they did not reach the harbor, but attacked ships outside the harbor and sank two and damaged two.
• December 17: Six Italians on three chariots left the Olterra to attack the three British warships HMS Nelson, Formidable and Furious in Gibraltar. A British patrol boat killed one Chariot's crew with a depth charge. Another British patrol boat spotted another chariot. It pursued and shot at it and captured the two crewmen. The remaining Chariot returned to the Olterra without its rear rider.

1943

• Operation "Principle":-
  • January 3: HMSM Thunderbolt and HMSM Trooper carrying 2 chariots each and their 8 crew reached the coast of Sicily near Palermo in bad weather. They put mines on ships and patrol boats and sank some of them, but some of the mines did not explode.
  • One chariot put its warhead on the Italian cruiser Ulpio Traiano (under construction), and afterwards smaller explosives on four ships. Ulpio Traiano sank.
  • One chariot put its warhead on the Italian troop ship, the former liner, Viminale 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 harbor.
  • All the chariots had to be left there, through equipment malfunction or human error. One charioteer died in the attack. The British submarine Unruffled recovered two others. Five had to land there and were taken prisoners. Two of these prisoners later escaped from guards in Rome and hid in the Vatican until the Americans liberated Rome in 1944. Two others escaped from guards in Libya. In the middle of Tripoli they found a British Army unit and were returned to England.
• 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 harbor. The frogmen arrived too late and a blockship was sunk in the harbor mouth. None of the men and chariots returned to Malta.
• January: At Loch Corrie and Loch Cairnbawn in Scotland more charioteers began to be 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.
• May 8: Three Italian chariots left the Olterra to attack Gibraltar in bad weather and sank three British ships. All returned safely to the Olterra.
• June: Throughout this month, the British submarine HMSM Unseen often 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 Marshal Badoglio. 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.
• August 3: In the evening three Italian chariots left the Olterra to attack Gibraltar and sank three ships and returned to the Olterra, but one of their men was captured.
• September 8: Italy surrendered and changed sides. Afterwards the Italians fought for the Allies, and the Olterra was towed into Gibraltar and men found what had happened in it.
• September 20: The British midget submarines known as X-craft set out to attack the GermanTirpitz 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 2: A bigger Italian frogman-carrier called Siluro San Bartolomeo or SSB was going to attack Gibraltar; 33 feet long it carried four frogmen, but Italy surrendered and the attack was called off.
• 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.

1944

• April 15: X-craft attacked the floating dock Laksevåg at Bergen in Norway, but sank a cargo ship by mistake instead.
• May: 14 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 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.
• June 21: 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 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 other sank the Bolzano. 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.
• 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 both approx 5000t. 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 in any war are certainly known of after this.
• 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.

1945 and after

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.
Some nations including Italy have continued to make and keep human torpedoes after 1945.

Craft

Italian

• Siluro a Lenta Corsa (Italian, Low Speed Torpedo – SLC), also known as maiale (Italian, pig)
• Siluro San Bartolomeo (Italian, St. Bartholomew Torpedo – SSB)

British

• Chariot, Mark 1
  • Length: 6.8 m
  • Breadth: 0.9 m
  • Height: 1.2 m
  • Speed: 2.5 knots
  • Weight: 1.6 tonnes
  • Maximum diving depth: 27 m
  • Endurance: 5 hours (distance would depend on water current)

Museums

• There are three chariots on public view in Eden Camp Museum near Malton in North Yorkshire in England.
  • One is a captured Italian maiale.
  • One is an original British Mark II which was found derelict in a scrapyard in Portsmouth and restored. In that make its two riders sat back to back.
  • One is a working chariot that was made in 1992 in Milton Keynes with the outside appearance of a British wartime Mark I, but its internal working parts are different. It has been filmed in action for the television. It has a dummy warhead.
• Original SLC's are displayed at the Italian naval museum in Venice.
• There is an Italian SSB maiale in the Naval Museum at Groton in Connecticut in the USA.

Movies and fiction

• A film, Above Us the Waves, was released in 1955; it concentrates on the midget submarine attack on Tirpitz
• The film The Silent Enemy (released in 1958) does not represent real events accurately. In particular, in the real world there was no attack on the Olterra, and no underwater hand-to-hand battle between Italian and British frogmen. The breathing sets used by the film actors representing the Italian frogmen seem to be British naval type rebreathers and not authentic Italian rebreathers. The three chariots seen in the movie, representing Italian maiali, were crudely-made film props.
• Ian Fleming who wrote the James Bond stories was in Naval Intelligence stationed at Gibraltar in the war and undoubtably involved in analysis of the Italian operations.
  • The chariot seen in the James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is a realistic-looking but non-functioning film prop.
  • Underwater vehicles (but not chariot-shaped) featured in the James Bond film Thunderball.
• Fictional chariot operations, set during and after WWII, have appeared in stories in very many comics.

Chariots for sport diving

At least two makes of chariot-like diver-riders for sport divers have been in the diving gear trade since 1960.
One of those makes was tradenamed "Dolphin" and was made on the Isle of Wight in the 1960s or 1970s: both its ends tapered to a point.
Another make was USA-made and looked like a naval chariot but its hull was thinner.

References

• C. Warren and J. Benson - Above Us The Waves (Harrap 1953)
• Junio Valerio Borghese - Sea Devils (1954)
• Robert W. Hobson - "Chariots of War" (Ulric Publishing 2004) ISBN 0954199715
• Jack Greene and Alessandro Massignani - The Black Prince and the Sea Devils: The Story of Prince Valerio Borghese and the Elite Units of the Decima Mas (2004) ISBN 0306813114

Compare to

• Midget submarine
• X class submarine

External links

• The British Chariots, diving gear and personal experiences
• Chariots in armed forces service after 1945
• Eden Camp Museum
• Commando Supremo: Italy at War
• British submarines of World War 2

See also: Human torpedo, 1944, 1945, 1992, Aegean Sea, Alexandria, Algeciras, Algiers, Arno, Askvoll