Alexandria Harbor Raid
—Jason
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In December 1941, the struggle between the Allied and Axis powers in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations was in flux. British forces were locked in a life and death struggle in North Africa against the combined German and Italian militaries pushing toward the Egyptian border. The British garrison on the island of Malta was under daily air raids from the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica Italiana. The British Royal Navy was stretched dangerously thin attempting to escort convoys, engage the Italian Navy, and guard strategic bases spread throughout the Mediterranean Sea.
In November 1940, the British Royal Navy had scored a stunning success in heavily damaging the Italian Navy, known as the Regia Marina, during the aerial nighttime attack during the raid on Taranto. The threat of Italian battleships had been neutralized and the lack of heavy surface warships severely curtailed Axis operations to engage the Royal Navy’s warships or convoys. This also limited the naval resources to escort Italian and German transports resupplying the Axis forces in North Africa. Despite this success, Axis forces were still active in the theater and inflicted losses on the British.
With the heavy surface warships of their fleet damaged or destroyed, Italian naval planners needed a way to even the odds against the Royal Navy. Their solution was bold and unorthodox: small teams of specially trained naval commandoes, known as frogmen, would attack British warships while they sat in harbor. The attacking frogmen would attach magnetic mines to the keels of enemy warships which were set to denotate minutes or hours later. The resulting explosion had enough force to break the keel, or backbone, of the ship and either heavily damage or destroy the target.
The plan called for three torpedoes, to be specially modified for use as miniature submarines, piloted by six frogmen, two in each torpedo, to be carried near to the target via a larger parent submarine. Once near the harbor the larger submarine would surface, allowing the commandoes to board the mini-subs and then wait at a pre-determined rendezvous location. Since the operation called for the mother submarine to surface, the raids had to be carried out under the cover of darkness. The miniature submarines were slow and unwieldy. The frogmen would have to find their targets in the dark and approach with caution, so they were not spotted by anyone. Once under the enemy ships, the front of the submarine had to be detached, as this was the mine, and attached to the bottom of the target.
The difficulties involved in this type of operation were as dangerous as they were complex for everyone involved. The mother submarine had to be extremely careful to avoid detection on its way to the target. The mini subs themselves had to get into the confines of the harbor without being detected and sunk. The frogmen had to be aware of the amount of oxygen they consumed as they guided their subs to the targets. After placing the mines, the frogmen would have to find an isolated part of the harbor where they could surface. Once ashore, the frogmen then had to steal a small boat in order to get back to their parent submarine and freedom, all ideally before the mines exploded.
The proximity of the harbor at Alexandria, Egypt to the Suez Canal made it the most important British naval base in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The British had increased the number of warships operating from port and constructed considerable defensive emplacements. If control of the Suez Canal were to be lost, supplies of oil, food, materials, and men both to and from Great Britain’s Asian holdings would be cut off. The British Royal Navy stationed several of their battleships and support warships to guard against Axis naval or air attacks. Those Allied battleships were the targets that the Italians sought to eliminate.
On the night of 19 December 1941, the Italian frogmen got their chance to attack heavy surface warships of the British Royal Navy. Two battleships, the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant, were anchored in Alexandria Harbor. Luck was on the side of the Italians as three British destroyers were entering the harbor as the mini submarines approached. The defensive nets that guarded the harbor were opened, allowing the Axis commandoes to follow their adversaries into the heart of the port. The Italian frogmen piloted their mini subs under the keels of the two battleships and set about attaching the mines. Another mine was placed on the keel of a large oil tanker.
One team forced to breach the surface due to malfunctioning equipment and were taken prisoner by the crew of the HMS Valiant. When they did not disclose the nature of their mission, the Valiant’s captain ordered the men to be taken below decks. This placed them in the brig, which was located under the waterline of the battleship and right above where the mine would soon detonate. As the minutes ticked away, one of the Italians broke their silence and told the British guards that he wanted to talk to the captain. He warned of an imminent explosion but did not elaborate and the captain ordered him back into the compartment. The British did not have enough time to find, much less disarm the bomb.
The Italian mines simultaneously exploded under the three ships resulting in devastation. The Queen Elizabeth was severely damaged and quickly sank to the bottom of Alexandria Harbor. Fortunately for the crew, the ship settled evenly on her keel and stayed upright. The Valiant was also heavily damaged and settled beside her fellow battleship. After the explosives detonated, the remaining four Italians were captured by the British. Overall, the human casualties were incredibly light: only eight British crewmembers were killed and even the two originally imprisoned Italian frogmen survived. Despite being captured, the strike force had inflicted severe damage well beyond their limited numbers.
Both battleships were knocked out of action for months and the Royal Navy’s tenuous advantage in the Eastern Mediterranean was wiped out. HMS Queen Elizabeth would receive emergency repairs in Alexandria harbor before sailing to New York City via the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The six Italian frogmen had conducted a daring raid that went down as one of the most successful actions of the Regia Marina in World War II.