The Siluro San Bartolomeo (St. Bartholomew Torpedo) was an Italian Human Torpedo designed during World War II, used by the Decima Flottiglia MAS for commando style operations. When using the Siluro a Lenta Corsa MaialeHuman Torpedo had noticed some limitations, demonstrating the need for an updated version. The project was managed and developed by the engineer of the Genio Naval, Mayor Mario Masciulli, with the help of Captain G.N Travaglino and engineer Guido Cattaneo. The improvement in the materials available for the assembly and parallel new technologies led to a far superior product to the point of not being able to identify and as an outgrowth of the "Siluro a Lenta Corsa" SLC Maiale.
Just three Siluro San Bartolomeo had been manufactured before the date of the Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces; two remained in La Spezia and one which was sent to Venice was found at the end of the war. Both of La Spezia were consigned to the La Castagna Task Force, an old battery of the Decima Flottiglia MAS under the command of Lieutenant Augusto Jacobacci (Siluro San Bartolomeo pilot). Those had been designated to attack Gibraltar, but the action was suspended with the armistice.
A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some European countries, police work. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver, combatant diver, or combat swimmer. The word frogman first arose in the stage name the "Fearless Frogman" of Paul Boyton in the 1870s and later was claimed by John Spence, an enlisted member of the U.S. Navy and member of the OSS Maritime Unit, to have been applied to him while he was training in a green waterproof suit.
Junio Valerio Scipione Ghezzo Marcantonio Maria Borghese, nicknamed The Black Prince, was an Italian Navy commander during the regime of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party and a prominent hardline neo-fascist politician in post-war Italy. In 1970, he took part in the planning of a neo-fascist coup, dubbed the Golpe Borghese, that was called off after the press discovered it; he subsequently fled to Spain and spent the last years of his life there.
Human torpedoes or manned torpedoes are a type of diver propulsion vehicle on which the diver rides, generally in a seated position behind a fairing. They were used as secret naval weapons in World War II. The basic concept is still in use.
The Decima Flottiglia MAS was an Italian flotilla, with commando frogman unit, of the Regia Marina created during the Fascist regime.
Italian submarine Iride was a Perla-class submarine built for the Royal Italian Navy during the 1930s. Originally, she was named Iris until July 1936, but was renamed shortly before her launch.
Marquis Luigi Durand de la Penne was an Italian Navy admiral who served as naval diver in the Decima MAS during World War II. He was born in Genoa, where he also died.
Britain's commando frogman force is now the Special Boat Service (SBS), whose members are drawn largely from the Royal Marines. They perform various operations on land as well as in the water. Until the late 1990s, all members of the Special Air Service (SAS) Boat Troop were trained as commando frogmen.
COMSUBIN is the Italian Navy's special operations unit.
Teseo Tesei was an Italian naval officer, who invented the human torpedo used by the Regia Marina during World War II.
The Raid on Alexandria was carried out on 19 December 1941 by Italian Navy divers of the Decima Flottiglia MAS, who attacked and disabled two Royal Navy battleships in the harbour of Alexandria, Egypt, using manned torpedoes.
The auxiliary ship Olterra was a 5,000 ton Italian tanker scuttled by her own crew at Algeciras in the Bay of Gibraltar on 10 June 1940, after the entry of Italy in World War II. She was recovered in 1942 by a special unit of the Decima Flottiglia MAS to be used as an undercover base for manned torpedoes in order to attack Allied shipping at Gibraltar.
Spartaco Schergat was an Italian military frogman during World War II.
The explosive motorboat MT also known as barchino, was a series of small explosive motor boats developed by the Italian Royal Navy, which was based on its predecessors, the prototype boat MA and the MAT, an airborne prototype. Explosive motorboats were designed to make a silent approach to a moored warship, set a collision course and run into full gear until the last 200 or 100 yards to the target, when the pilot would eject after blocking the rudder. At impact, the hull would be broken amidships by a small explosive charge, sinking the boat and the warhead, which was fitted with a water-pressure fuse set to go off at a depth of one metre.
Mario Elbano Masciulli Manelli, Baron Miglianico was a prominent military engineer of the Italian Regia Marina, Major of Genio Navale and belonging to the recognized Decima Flottiglia MAS as director of the Office of Submarine Secret Weapons during Second World War. He was awarded the Silver Medal of Military Valor.
Mario Marino was an Italian sailor of the Regia Marina during World War Two. As a diver and human-torpedo operator with the Decima Flottiglia MAS, he won the Gold Medal of Military Valour for the Raid on Alexandria on 19 December 1941. A 97-ton submarine-support speedboat of the Italian Navy launched in 1984 is named after him.
Mario Falangola was an Italian admiral during World War II.
Mario Arillo was an Italian naval officer during World War II.
Italian submarine Gondar was an Adua-class submarine built for the Royal Italian Navy during the 1930s. It was named after a city of Gondar in northern Ethiopia.
Italian submarine Ambra was a Perla-class submarine built for the Royal Italian Navy during the 1930s. She was named after the gemstone amber.
Mario Giorgini was an Italian naval officer during World War II. He commanded the I Flottiglia MAS, the special operations unit of the Royal Italian Navy, from February 1940 until his capture during an attempt to carry out a manned torpedo raid on Alexandria in September of the same year. After the war he became an admiral in the Marina Militare.
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