desicat
Posts: 542
Joined: 5/25/2008 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: kev_uk And the consensus is that the French were 'surrender monkeys'...what were the Italians? Italian frogmen of the 10th Light Flotilla were incredibly courageous and had an impressive list of achievements. This fits in well with torpedo attack success as they were really quite deadly! To my knowledge there are only a very few books that chronicle their adventures and one of the ones I have found is only in German and Italian. The below is taken from Wiki but seems accurate. Wiki references a few books and links too. "The Decima MAS saw action starting on June 10, 1940, when Fascist Italy entered World War II. In more than three years of war, the unit destroyed some 72,190 tons of Allied warships and 130,572 tons of Allied merchant ships. Personnel from the unit sank the World War I-era Royal Navy battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth (both of which, after months of work, were refloated and returned to action), wrecked the heavy cruiser HMS York and the destroyer HMS Eridge, damaged the destroyer HMS Jervis and sank or damaged 20 merchant ships including supply ships and tankers. During the course of the war, the Decima MAS was awarded the Golden Medal of Military Valour and individual members were awarded a total of 29 Golden Medals of Military Valour, 104 Silver Medals of Military Valour and 33 Bronze Medals of Military Valour. Chronicle of operations." "March 25, 1941: The Italian destroyers Crispi and Sella departed Leros island in the Aegean at night, each carrying 3 small (2-ton) MTs (Motoscafo da Turismo) motor assault boats of the Decima MAS. Each MT (nicknamed barchini or "little boats") carried a 300 kg (660 lb) explosive charge in its bow. The one-pilot craft were launched by the destroyers 10 miles off Suda Bay, Crete, where several British Royal Navy warships and auxiliary ships were at anchor. The MTs were specially equipped to make their way through obstacles such as torpedo nets; the pilot steered the assault craft in a collision course at his target ship, and jumped from his boat before impact and warhead detonation. Once inside the bay, the six boats located their targets: the heavy cruiser HMS York, a large tanker (the Norwegian Pericles of 8,300 tons), another tanker, and a cargo ship. Two MTMs hit the York amidships, flooding her aft boilers and magazines. The Pericles was severely damaged and settled on the bottom, while the other tanker and the cargo ship were sunk. The other barchini apparently missed their intended targets, and one of them was stranded on the beach. All six of the daring Italian sailors were captured. The disabled York was later scuttled with demolition charges by her crew before the German capture of Crete, while the Pericles sank in April 1941 en route to Alexandria."
< Message edited by desicat -- 1/24/2015 11:25:41 PM >
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