Human torpedo

CGI image of two frogmen with Siebe Gorman CDBA rebreathers riding a human torpedo.

Human torpedoes or manned torpedoes are a type of rideable submarines that were used as secret naval weapons in World War II. The basic design is still in use today. 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. They are a type of Diver Propulsion Vehicle.

They were electrically propelled torpedoes, with two crewmen in 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 it was difficult to steer. The British copies were named Chariot.

Construction

A typical manned torpedo has a propeller and hydroplanes at the rear, side hydroplanes in front, and a control panel and controls for its front rider. It usually has two riders who sit facing forwards. It has navigation aids such as a compass, and nowadays modern aids such as sonar and GPS positioning and modulated ultrasound communications gear. It may have an air (or other breathing gas) supply so its riders do not have to drain their own apparatus while they are riding it. In some the riders' seats are enclosed; in others the seats are open at the sides like in sitting on a horse. The seat design includes room for the riders' swimfins (if used). There are flotation tanks (typically four: left fore, right fore, left aft, right aft) which can be flooded or blown empty to adjust buoyancy and attitude.

Timeline

• 1918: November 1: two men of the Regia Marina, Raffaele Paolucci and Raffaele Rossetti, in diving suits , rode a primitive manned torpedo (nicknamed Mignatta or "leech") into the Austro-Hungarian Navy base at Pola (Istria), where they sank the Austrian battleship Viribus Unitis and the freighter Wien using limpet mines. They had no breathing sets and they had to keep their heads above water, and thus they were discovered and taken prisoner.
• 1938: In Italy the "1^a Flottiglia Mezzi d'Assalto" (First Fleet Assault Vehicles) was formed as a result of the research and development efforts of two men - Major Teseo Tesei and Major Elios Toschi of the Italian Royal Navy. The pair resurrected the idea of Paolucci and Rossetti.
• 1940: Commander Moccagatta of the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) reorganised the 1st Fleet Assault Vehicles into the Decima Flottiglia MAS (Tenth Light Flotilla of assault vehicles) or "X-MAS", under the command of Ernesto Forza. It secretly manufactured manned torpedoes and trained war frogmen, called nuotatori (Italian: "swimmers").
• 1941: An attack on Valletta Harbour was a disaster for the X MAS and Major Teseo Tesei lost his life. The Decima Flottiglia MAS attacked the port of Alexandria with three maiali. An 8,000 ton tanker, and the battleships HMS Valiant and Queen Elizabeth were sunk in shallow water putting them out of action for months.
• 1942 October: two British chariots were carried aboard the Shetland Bus fishing-boat Arthur to attack the Tirpitz on Operation Title. They were swung overboard once in Norwegian waters but both became detached from their tow-hooks in a gale and the operation was a total failure.
• 1943 January 1/2: British submarines Thunderbolt, Trooper and P311 take part in Operation Principal. P311 is lost en route to La Maddelena but the other two boats have some success at Palermo, launching two and three Chariots respectively. The Ulpio Traiano is sunk and the stern torn off Viminale. However the cost was high with one submarine and one chariot lost and all but two charioteers captured.
• 1943 January 18: Thunderbolt took two chariots to Tripoli for Operation Welcome. This was to prevent blockships being sunk at the harbour mouth, so denying access to the Allies. Again, partial success was achieved. This was the last operation in which chariots were carried in containers on British submarines, although some others followed with the chariots on deck without containers.
• 1943 October 2: A bigger Italian frogman-carrier, 10 metres (33 ft) long and carrying four frogmen, called Siluro San Bartolomeo, or SSB, was going to attack Gibraltar, but Italy surrendered and the attack was called off.
• 1944 June 21: A British-Italian joint operation was mounted against shipping in La Spezia harbour. The chariots were carried on board an MTB and the cruiser Bolzano was sunk.
• 8 July 1944: A German Neger-type torpedo manned by Lt. Potthast heavily damaged the Polish light cruiser ORP Dragon off the Normandy beaches.
• 27-28 October 1944: The British submarine Trenchant carried two Mk 2 Chariots (nicknamed Tiny and Slasher) to an attack on Phuket harbor in Thailand. See British commando frogmen#1944 for more information about this attack. No manned torpedo operations in combat in any war are known with certainty of after this date.
• Immediate post-war period: The British Chariots were used to clear mines and wrecks in harbours.

For other events, see Operations of X Flottiglia MAS and British commando frogmen.

Some nations including Italy have continued to build and deploy manned torpedoes since 1945.

Types

Italy

World War II

Italian manned torpedo, a maiale, at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum.

cockpit of a Maiale.

• Siluro a Lenta Corsa (Italian, Low Speed Torpedo – SLC), also known as maiale (Italian for "pig"). Image at this link. Pages 6-11, issue 39, Historical Diving Times has several large photographs of one recovered after an attack on Malta on 26 July 1941.
• Siluro San Bartolomeo (Italian, St. Bartholomew Torpedo, also called SSB). It was never used in action. Image at this link.

For information on Italian manned torpedo operations, see Italian commando frogmen.

After 1945

• CE2F/X100 is a make of chariot made after 1945. There is an image of it on this link. They are made in Italy. Range 50 miles (80 km). 2 riders. The Pakistan Navy has several of them. India and Argentina also have some. [1] Recent upgrades include:
  • control module with a GPS
  • autopilot
  • launcher for five minitorpedoes (optional)

Britain

World War II

• Chariot Mark 1. 6.8 m (22 feet 4 inches) long, 0.9 m (2 feet 11 inches) wide, 1.2 m (3 feet 11 inches) high, speed 2.5 knots (4.6 km/h) , weight: 1.6 tonnes , maximum diving depth: 27 m. Endurance 5 hours (distance would depend on water current)
• Chariot Mark II, had two riders, who sat back to back.

For information on British manned torpedo operations, see British commando frogmen.

Egypt

This photograph was taken at a military parade in Cairo in 1963. It shows two chariots, each two-seat, and their riders' legs are enclosed.

Germany

World War II

• Neger. Used in World War II. An extreme form of a genuine manned torpedo that carried the weapon, a second torpedo, underneath which was launched at the target. Speed: 4 knots (7.4 km/h). One seat. The torpedo was named after its inventor Richard Mohr. (Mohr and Neger are German words for "negro".)
• Marder and Biber. Very small submarines which carried two torpedoes and one or two men.

There were other types which never ran into production.

See also: German commando frogmen

Japan

Captured Kaiten torpedo at the USS Bowfin museum in Hawaii

World War II

• Kaiten. It was a steered fast torpedo and in practice was a suicide weapon. As such their operations differed substantially from those of the Italian, British and German.

Russia/USSR

After 1945

• Siren. It is or was made after 1945. It is longer than a British or Italian Chariot because it has 2 warheads. It has 2 riders. It was designed to exit through a submarine's torpedo tube. See Russian commando frogmen#Equipment.

USA

After 1945

There are pictures and descriptions of modern USA Chariot-like underwater frogman-carriers used by SEAL's and a fast surface boat that can submerge, here:

• http://www.specialoperations.com/Navy/SDV/ (SDV = Swimmer Delivery Vehicle)
• http://stiddmil.com/ (STD = Swimmer Transport Device)); downloadable catalog (11 megabytes, prints to 16 A4 pages)

Yugoslavia/Montenegro/Croatia

After 1945

The Yugoslav Navy (JRM) frogmen used the type R-1 manned torpedo for a variety of missions, including: mine clearance, infiltration, clandestine surveillance and security, and assault missions on enemy shipping and naval objects. These apparatuses were relegated to the navies of Croatia (HRM) (1991) and Montenegro (2007).

Museums

• There are three chariots on public view in Eden Camp Museum near Malton, North Yorkshire in England:
  • A restored original British Mark II, which was found derelict in a scrapyard in Portsmouth. In this design, the two riders sat back to back.
  • A working chariot that was made in 1992 in Milton Keynes with approximately the outside appearance of a British wartime Mark I, but with differing internal working parts. It has been filmed in action for the television. It has a dummy warhead. Image at this link. It was last used in 2006.
  • A replica Italian maiale made soon after 1945 by the same Italian firm (Caproni) who made the wartime maiali. As at July 2008 this was on loan to the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth, Cornwall until the end of 2008, but as at 16 March 2009 it was back in Eden Camp.
• Original SLC's are displayed at the Venice Naval History Museum.
• There is an Italian SSB maiale in the Naval Museum at Groton, Connecticut in the USA.

Movies and fiction

• The film Above Us the Waves (released in 1955) concentrates on the midget submarine attack on Tirpitz battleship. The film has a scene of a fight between British and German frogmen at an anti-submarine net; this never happened in the real attack on the 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.
• A film The Eagle Has Landed briefly features a German paratroop Officer, a Colonel played by Michael Caine and his men who have been sent to man chariots on the Channel Islands.
• Ian Fleming who wrote the James Bond stories was in Naval Intelligence stationed at Gibraltar in the war, and was likely aware 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. When seen it is in a kit store. It does not take part in any action; the action happens up a mountain in the Swiss Alps.
• Underwater vehicles (not chariot-shaped) featured in the James Bond film Thunderball.
• Fictional chariot operations, set during and after World War II, have appeared in stories in many comics.

Chariots for sport diving

At least two makes of chariot-like diver-riders for sport divers were on sale in the diving gear trade for a while after 1960.

One of those makes was tradenamed "Dolphin" and was made on the Isle of Wight. In the 1960s or 1970s, both ends were tapered to a point.

Another type was USA-made and looked like a wartime chariot but its hull was thinner.

Media

• 
  Controls of British MK 1 chariot, at Eden Camp museum in England
• 
  Stern end of British MK 1 chariot, at Eden Camp museum in England
• 
  Side view of front of British MK 1 chariot, at Eden Camp museum in England
• 
  Side view of rear of British MK 1 chariot, at Eden Camp museum in England
• 
  pilot's seat of British Mk 2 chariot, Eden Camp museum in England
• 
  British Mk 2 chariot, Eden Camp museum in England
• 
  Human torpedo pioneer Teseo Tesei, of the Regia Marina, was killed during an operation in 1941
• The R-1 manned torpedo, as originally used by Yugoslav Navy frogmen
  The R-1 manned torpedo, as originally used by Yugoslav Navy frogmen
• 
  Błotniak

See also

• Midget submarine
• X class submarine
• Frogman
• Wet sub

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 0-9541997-1-5
• 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 0-306-81311-4
• Mitchell, Pamela - Chariots of the Sea Richard Netherwood (1998) ISBN1-872955-16-9

External links

• The British Chariots, diving gear and personal experiences
• Chariots in armed forces service after 1945
• Vostok: a French 2-man diver-rider that may be a chariot (article in French)
• Underwater Heritage Trust
• Eden Camp Museum
• More images of the restored British Mark II chariot
• Comando Supremo: Italy at War
• British submarines of World War 2
• Chariots, accounts of operations, pictures
• Roll of honour, awards and images for chariots and midget submarines.
• Underwater Warriors
• Japanese suicide weapon：Human　torpedo　Kaiten(Japanese)
• HNSA Ship Page: Italian Siluro San Bartolomeo