"Everything was entrusted to us. A man with his boat hurled at insane speed against a large ship: a human torpedo". The director Antonio Leonviola could not have described it better, when in making his film, "Torpedo Umani" in fact, he decided to tell the genesis of the insidious actions carried out during the Second World War.
Today, 80 years later, one of the greatest feats accomplished by the men of the X MAS Flotilla occurs: the attack on Suda Bay. The first in a series of successes, the one in the inaccessible island of Crete was the culmination of months of preparation and training, leading 6 between officers and non-commissioned officers of the Royal Navy to sink a heavy cruiser, the Y, and an oil tanker, the Pericles. All this was possible thanks to a deadly weapon, destined to enter the enemy's ports to strike the quiet safety of his fleet: the Modified Touring Speedboat.
Although fictionalized, Leonviola's cinematic reconstruction clearly gives an idea of how lethal the so-called explosive boats were: "The speedboat contained 300 kilos of TNT, even enough for a battleship. On impact against the target a secondary charge tore open the bow, while a main charge sank the enemy hull and burst deeply to produce the maximum destructive effect. And we, we were Doomed to death like a Japanese Kamikaze? No. 50 meters before the collision, by blocking the controls, we could have released the seat back and jumped into the water ". And that's exactly what happened to Suda.
At dawn on 26 March 1941, Lieutenant Luigi Faggioni, Lieutenant Angelo Cabrini, Chief Gunner Alessio De Vito, Chief Engineer Tullio Tedeschi, 2nd Chief Mechanic Lino Beccati and Gunner Sergeant Emilio Barberi, at commanded by as many MTMs, they got as close as possible to the targets, stabilized the rudder, then launched their hulls at maximum speed against the enemy targets. All six protagonists of the heroic enterprise were saved, but were taken prisoner by the British. Upon returning to his homeland, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valor.
To honor the memory of that action, to the two material authors of the sinking of the opposing major unit, Angelo Cabrini e Tullio tedeschi, the two homonymous UNPAV type fast craft intended for the Incursion Operational Group.
Photo: (opening) web / Navy
