Raid on Alexandria (1941)

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Raid on Alexandria (1941)


caption:Italian manned torpedo
partof=World War II
date=19 December 1941
place=Alexandria, Mediterranean Sea
result=Decisive Italian victory
combatant1=flagicon|United Kingdom United Kingdom
combatant2=
commander1=flagicon|United Kingdom|naval
Charles Morgan
commander2=
strength1=Fleet in harbour
strength2=1 Submarine
3 Human torpedoes
casualties1=2 Battleship (sunk)
1 Tanker (sunk)
1 Destroyer (sunk)
8 killed [ [http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1941-12DEC2.htm#prof Naval-History.net] ]
casualties2=6 POW |

The Raid on Alexandria took place on 19 December 1941, in the Alexandria harbour.

The raid

On 3 December, the submarine "Sciré" of the Italian Royal Navy ("Regia Marina") left the naval base of La Spezia, carrying three manned torpedoes. [Borghese, page 135] At the island of Leros in the Aegean Sea, the submarine secretly picked up six crewmembers 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). [Borghese, pp. 134-136]

On December 19, "Sciré", at a depth of 15 meters, released the manned torpedoes 1.3 miles from Alexandria commercial harbor, [Borghese, page 143] and they entered the naval base when the British open their defenses to let three of their destroyers pass. After many difficulties, de la Penne and his crewmate Emilio Bianchi successfully attached a limpet mine under HMS "Valiant", but had to surface as they attempted to leave and were subsequently discovered and captured.

Questioned, both of them kept silent, and were therefore confined in a compartment aboard "Valiant".Fifteen minutes before the explosion, de la Penne asked to meet to Valiant's captain Charles Morgan, and then told him of the imminent explosion, but refusing to give further information.He was returned to the compartment, but when the mine exploded, both he and Bianchi were not injured by the blast. [Borghese, pp. 148-151]

The other four torpedo-riders were also captured inland by the Egyptian police and handed over to the British, [Borghese, page 152] but not before their mines sank the battleships HMS "Valiant" and "Queen Elizabeth", the 7,750 tons Norwegian tanker "Sagona", and the destroyer HMS "Jervis". [Sadkovich, page 217] 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. ["...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]

This represented a strategic and dramatic change of fortunes against the Allies in the central Mediterranean for several months. The Italian fleet had achieved the naval supremacy. ["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]

Notes

References

*"Frogmen First Battles" by retired U.S Captain William Schofield's book. ISBN 0-8283-2088-8
*"The Black Prince and the Sea Devils: The Story of Valerio Borghese and the Elite Units of the Decima Mas", by Jack Greene and Alessandro Massignani, Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2004, 284 pages, hardcover. ISBN 0-306-81311-4
*"Sea Devils" by J. Valerio Borghese, translated into English by James Cleugh, with introduction by the United States Naval Institute ISBN 1-55750-072-X
*"The Italian Navy in World War II" by Marc'Antonio Bragadin, United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, 1957. ISBN 0405130317
*"The Italian Navy in World War II" by Sadkovich, James, Greenwood Press, Westport, 1994. ISBN 031328797X

External links

* [http://www.regiamarina.net/xa_mas/actions_us.htm "Principal Operations of the 10th Light Flotilla" - RegiaMarina.net ] en icon