"At that moment he was engaged in giving orders for salvaging his ship. (Surely the restrained statements of the war). I asked him what he had done with my diver. He did not reply and the officer of the watch told me to be silent. The ship had now listed through four or five degrees and come to a standstill. I saw from a clock that it was quarter past six. I went further aft, where a number of officers were standing and began to watch the battleship Queen Elizabeth, which lay about 500 metres astern of us.
"The crew of that battleship were standing in her bows. A few seconds passed and then the Queen Elizabeth, too, blew up. She rose a few inches out of the water and fragments of iron and other objects flew out of her funnel, mixed with oil which even reached the deck of the Valiant, splashing everyone of us standing on her stern.
"An officer came up and asked me to tell him on my word of honour if there were any other charges under the ship. I made no reply and was then taken back to the hold. After about quarter of an hour I was escorted up to the officers' mess, where at last I could sit down, and where I found Bianchi. Shortly afterwards I was put aboard a motorboat, which took me to (a jail near) Ras el Tin.
"I noticed that the anchor, which had been hanging at the bows, was now underwater. During transit an officer asked me whether we had got in through the gaps in the mole. At Ras el Tin we were locked in two cells and kept there until towards evening. I asked whether I could be given a little sunlight, as I was again very cold. A soldier came, felt my pulse and told me that I was perfectly all right.
"Towards evening we were put into a small lorry and transported therein to a prisoner of war camp in Alexandria. I found some Italians in the camp who had heard the explosions that morning. We lay down on the ground, without having had any food, and though we were soaked through, we slept till the following morning. I was taken to the infirmary for treatment of my knee injury and some Italian orderlies gave me an excellent dish of macaroni. The next morning I was removed to Cairo."
De la Penne sank into the obscurity of so many thousands of his POW compatriots, until in 1944, after Italy's surrender, he was returned home. There, with Bianchi, he received the Gold Medal for gallantry in war. It was pinned on his chest by a man whose face he knew - Valiant's Captain Morgan, by then promoted to Admiral and head of the Allied Naval Mission in Italy.
I must confess to being puzzled by de la Penne's description of his treatment - no food and delayed medical attention. Admiral Morgan's presentation of that gallantry medal to his former enemy is more in accord with my knowledge of British seamen.
CHAPTER FOUR
Now to Marceglia and his diver Schergat, two men on a tiny craft whose object was the destruction of the armour-clad massivity of battleship Queen Elizabeth.
Their's was a text-book operation: in through the opened boom-gate, feeling strong shock waves from the patrol boat's charges, taking evasive action to avoid a couple of destroyers under way, until, as Marceglia reported, "In no time at all I found myself face to face with the whole massive bulk of my target."
He got past the anti-torpedo net (without mentioning how), and submerged his pig under the hull directly in line with the great funnel-a most tender spot for any ship, regardless of size.
Big ships are fitted with bilge keels. These are long steel fins several feet wide rivetted along the hull on each side, and their object is to help reduce, by pressure against the water, the ship's rolling. They also happen to be peculiarly suited for the clamping of objects thereon.
With his diver Marceglia secured a steel wire from bilge keel to bilge keel, so that it looped under the hull from side to side. Smack in the centre of this wire, that is to say directly under the ship's main keel, he secured his warhead. It hung down about five feet from the hull. Satisfied, he set the fuse. The time was 4.15 a.m.
"I tried to analyse my sensations at that moment," Marceglia writes. "I found that I did not feel particularly thrilled, but only rather tired and just starting to get cold. We got astride our craft again; my diver made me urgent signs to surface, as he was just about all in.
"I pumped in air to surface. The craft only detached itself from the bottom with difficulty, then at last it started to rise, at first slowly, later more rapidly. So as not to burst out of the water too suddenly, I had to exhaust; the air bubbles attracted the attention of the watch aft. He switched on a searchlight and we surfaced right into its rays. We ducked down on the craft to make the target as small as possible and prevent our goggles from reflecting the light. Shortly afterwards the searchlight was switched off. (Another puzzling aspect: a lookout could see bubbles rising in the dark, but not a human torpedo and its crew caught in his searchlight. Perhaps, in his natural state of tension and tiredness, Marceglia only thought he was held by the light's full glare, where as he might have been in the diffusion at its edge. Or maybe at that time the lookout, too, was tired, and thought he was seeing things. But there is no doubt at all about what was ticking quietly beneath Queen Elizabeth's belly.) "We started on our return, which took us past the bows of the ship. A man was walking up and down the foc's'le deck, I could see his cigarette glowing. Everything was quiet aboard." Inexcusable slackness? Not on the facts. On the enemy's own admission, Queen Elizabeth had lookouts posted fore and aft, even though she was moored in a heavily protected harbour, and presumably safely screened from submarines. So she was, against conventional craft. But at that time very little was known about the Italian pigs, and certainly no lookout aboard the battleship would have seen one.
"We got out of the obstructed zone and, at last, took off our masks. It was very cold; I couldn't prevent my teeth chattering. We set off for the spot on which we were to land."
Well clear of the shore, Marceglia started the fuse of his pig's self-destructing charge and sank her, then they swam ashore. Once on land - an area specially selected because of its relative freedom from guards - they cut up their rubber suits and breathing apparatus into unrecognisable pieces and buried them under rocks. It was 4.30 a.m., which meant they had been in the water for eight hours.
Now, for themselves personally, came the crucial part. It had been arranged that a submarine would be lying off the Nile delta at certain times for the next couple of nights, waiting to pick them up. But this required them to take a train to the port of Rosetta, and they would have to board it in Alexandria.
At first everything went smoothly. They made Alexandria city without trouble, posing as French sailors amongst the polyglot lot which inhabited the town at the time. Still free, they even heard the big bang of what they'd brought with them. But from then on their satisfaction began to dim. Just about flawless in regard to military matters, the Italian Intelligence had fallen down on one vital point; an aspect which any British or Australian matloe, visiting a bar or Sister Street, could have put them right on. The Gyppos would take only local currency, piastres: the frogmen had been issued with English money.
By the time they managed to get their sterling changed, of necessity having to keep away from the normally frequented areas, night had fallen. Now, of course, patrols were everywhere, yet they did manage to make Rosetta,, Here, in a fly-blown hostelry, they also managed to avoid searching police, and when darkness fell again they made for the seashore. About, like young turtles, to enter the friendly sea, they were caught by Egyptian police. Shortly afterwards they were in the hands of the British Naval authorities.
Thus the mission of Marceglia and Schergat came within an ace of being perfectly accomplished. But the main part of it had proved terribly successful, and they were later awarded their country's high award of the Gold Medal for gallantry.
Martellotta, the pilot of the third pig, starts his report with: "Aboard the submarine Scire at 16.30 (4.30 p.m.) on December 18, I received from Lieutentant-Commander Borghese the following operational orders: `Attack to be made on a large loaded tanker and six incendiaries to be distributed in its immediate neighbourhood.'
"The presence which had been notified of 12 loaded tankers
in harbour in Alexandria, with a total tonnage of 120.000, was sufficient indication of the importance of the order received: the fire which might be started would be capable of reaching such proportions as to bring about the entire destruction of the harbour itself, with all the units present and all the shore installations.
"Nevertheless, I felt obliged to reply: `Sir, I shall obey your orders; but I should like you to know that my diver and I would rather have attacked a warship.'
"The captain smiled at this remark of mine and, to please me, since he was aware that there was a possibility of an aircraft-carrier having returned to the harbour, he modified the original operational orders to read: `Search to be made for the aircraft-carrier at its two normal anchorages and attack to be made on it if found; otherwise, all other targets consisting of active war units to be ignored and a large loaded tanker to be attacked with distribution of the six incendiaries in its immediate neighbourhood.'"
After reaching the vicinity of the boom and the patrolling motorboat, Martellotta goes on: "I felt shocks from depth charges and violent pressure against my legs, as though they were being crushed against the craft by some heavy object. I put on my mask and, so as to avoid injury from the frequent shocks being inflicted at vulnerable parts of my body, I ducked in such a way as to lie low in the water, but with heart, lungs and head above the surface.
"I told Marino, my diver, to put on his mask also and to take up a similar position, but facing aft, since I was unable myself to keep an eye open in that direction, engaged as I was in looking ahead and having only the limited area of visibility which the mask allowed. We arrived in these positions at the entrance of the harbour. We did not find obstructions, as we had expected, at the pier-heads: the channel was clear. (It had been made clear for those destroyers to enter.)
"We went ahead very slowly. Suddenly Marino thumped me on the shoulder and said: `Hard-a-starboard.' I instantly swerved in the direction indicated, putting on speed, but the craft struck the buoys of the fixed interior barrier, being driven against them by the waves from the bow of a ship which had caught me up as it entered the harbour.
"It was a destroyer, showing no lights and going at about 10 knots; I distinctly heard chains clashing at her bows and saw members of the crew on deck getting ready to moor. It was then thirty minutes after midnight on December 19th. I got going again and, taking advantage of the waves made by a second destroyer as it entered the harbour, I slipped in with it, still surfaced and passing within about 20 metres of the guardship."
Safely in amongst the cattle, the wolf started looking for its choicest target. Fortunately, no carrier was in the fold that night. But it held a plenitude of big targets, one of which Martellotta judged to be a battleship. He was ready to attack when he realised that the object of his attention and desire was a cruiser. This 10,000-tonner with its 8-inch guns would have been choice enough, but there were his orders, so perforce Martellotta obeyed them and went hunting for a tanker.
He was just about to slide clear of the cruiser when from her quarter-deck the light of a torch lanced at him. He stopped the pig; along with his diver, he froze. Time and his heart seemed to stop. As abruptly as it had flashed on, the torch went out. Still they waited. Nothing happened; no yells of alarm, no smashing flail of bullets which could not possibly have missed. All about them, quiet and peaceful, the great harbour slept.
But the strain was enormous. It started a hard ache in Martellotta's head. He gagged on the mask mouthpiece; took it out and vomited. When he replaced it the same thing threatened. There was only one answer; to proceed on the surface. This was not in the plan; it negatived the pig's most vital advantage, while at the same time it hideously increased the danger.
And still Martellotta went on; and there, suddenly, were the tankers.
He carried out his attack on the surface, keeping the pig close in under the fat-bellied ship's stern while Marino rigged the loop-wire and secured to it the warhead. A few minutes before four o'clock Marino started the fuse - just as a smaller tanker scraped alongside the big one.
"When Marino rose to the surface and saw her, he said: `Let's hope she stays here another two hours and then she'll have her hash settled too.' Next, we started off again, for distribution of the incendiaries: we moored them, after setting their fuses, about 100 metres from the tanker and 20 metres apart."
This was a fearsome situation for the Fleet and its base. Yet in all my research through British and Italian histories, I can find no reference to the effect of these incendiaries. It has to be assumed that either they failed to explode, or if they did, then efficient and prompt fire-fighting procedures made their contribution, one that was so potentially disastrous, quite abortive.
As with their two compatriots, Martellotta and Marino got safely clear, destroyed their gear and the pig so as to leave the British no clue as to the method of their attack, and then:
"I set off with Marino to get clear of the harbour zone and enter the city: we were stopped at a control point and arrested by some Egyptian customs officials and police, who summoned a second lieutenant and six privates of the British Marines.
"We were taken to an office occupied by two lieutenants of the Egyptian police, who started cross examining us; while I was answering the questions put to me in as evasive and vague a manner as I could, a British naval commander arrived and requested the senior of the two Egyptian officers to hand us over to the British. The Egyptian refused to do so in the absence of any authority from his Government, pointing out that, as he had found us to be Italians from the documents we carried and Egypt was not at war with Italy, he would have to get special instructions.
"The British commander, after obtaining the necessary authorisation from his Admiral, made a personal application to the Egyptian Government for the instructions required and succeeded in getting us handed over.
"My waterproof watch was on the table with the other articles taken possession of and I never took my eyes off it. Shortly after 5.54a.m. a violent explosion was heard, which shook the whole building. A few minutes later, as we were getting into a car to follow the British officer, a second explosion was heard, further away, and after the car started a third. At the Ras el Tin naval headquarters we were briefly interrogated, courteously enough, and then despatched to the concentration camp for prisoners of war at Cairo."
And, in 1944, to receive the third pair of Gold Medals.
It was an extraordinary brave, brilliant and frightenly effective operation. Just how much so is revealed by one who should have known.
"A further sinister stroke was to come," Churchill wrote in his memoirs, detailing a speech he made before a secret session of the House of Commons early the following year. "On the early morning of December 19th half a dozen Italians in unusual diving suits were captured floundering about in the harbour of Alexandria. Extreme precautions have been taken for some time past against the varieties of human torpedo or one-man submarine entering our harbours. Not only are nets and other obstructions used but underwater charges are exploded at frequent irregular intervals in the fairway.
"None the less these men had penetrated the harbour. Four hours later explosions occurred in the bottoms of the Valiant and the Queen Elizabeth, produced by limpet bombs fixed with extraordinary courage and ingenuity, the effect of which was to blow large holes in the bottoms of both ships and to flood several compartments, thus putting them both out of action for many months.
"One ship will soon be ready again, the other is still in the floating dock at Alexandria, a constant target for enemy air attack. Thus we no longer had any battle squadron in the Mediterranean. Barham had gone and now Valiant and Queen Elizabeth were completely out of action. both these ships floated on an even keel. They looked all right from the air. The enemy were for some time unaware of the success of their attack, and it is only now that I feel it possible to make this disclosure to the House even in the strictness of a Secret Session. The Italian Fleet still contains four or five battleships, seve
ral times repaired, of the new Littorio or the modernised class..."
And we had none. Six men had reduced the status of British naval forces in the Mediterranean from a Battle Fleet to a collection of submarines, destroyers, many of them ancient, and a few cruisers.
It was a tremendous chance for the Italian General Staff. Happily, that august body held little of the imagination, enterprise, and plain common guts of the men in the Tenth Light Flotilla. Thus the chance to smash at our forces in North Africa and Malta was let slip, and thus time was gained, during which both naval and air replenishments were sent to Admiral Cunningham in the Mediterranean.
But that is strategy. The tactics of those six brave men will go down in history as a text-book method of dragging down heavy capital ships with comparative coracles.
CHAPTER FIVE
On this bridge in this area - Atlantic destroyer, out of Halifax bound Liverpool - wet-weather gear was as common a sight, and for that matter almost as necessary, as the compass.
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