Explosive motorboat
The explosive motorboat
MT
(
Motoscafo da Turismo
) also known as
barchino
(Italian for "little boat"), was a series of small explosive motor boats developed by the
Italian Royal Navy
, which was based on its predecessors, the prototype boat MA (
Motoscafo d'Assalto
) and the MAT (
Motoscafo Avio Trasportato
), 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.
[1]
By the end of September 1938 the Navy Department ordered six explosive boats. The one-pilot vessels were built by the companies Baglietto of
Varazze
and CABI of
Milan
, which was also to supply the engines.
[2]
The small vessels were used by the Italian Navy in at least two major operations in the
Mediterranean theatre
during
World War II
, and sank a number of ships, including the British heavy cruiser
HMS York
.
Delivery and trials
[
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]
The first six boats were delivered in early 1939, immediately after which test trials were conducted off
La Spezia
. The MT explosive motorboat revealed some weaknesses. The deck was made of
tarpaulins
, which exposed the hull to leakage from splashing at high speed. The naval command demanded the addition of a solid wooden deck and a larger
freeboard
of 0.9 m (later enlarged to 1.1 m) and sent the boats and machine parts back to the manufacturer so that they could implement the requirements. In March 1939, the Navy Department ordered a further 12 explosive boats, increasing the total number to 18.
[2]
MT deployment
[
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]
The 18 motor boats were not operational until November 1940, when a full trial was carried out with a reduced warhead against
an old warship
.
[3]
That was just six months after Italy's entry into World War II as an ally of
Nazi Germany
. More extensive testing before the official line-up showed once again that the boat's operational performance was limited.
[2]
Consequently, an improved sea-going version, which also included a reverse gear, was designed, the MTM (
Motoscafo da Turismo Modificato
).
[3]
Specifications
[
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]
The MTs had a length of 5.62 m (18.4 ft) and a beam of 1.62 m (5.3 ft). They were propelled by a 71 kW (95 hp)
Alfa Romeo
AR 6cc
Inboard motor
[2]
and developed a maximum speed of 61 km/h (33 kn) at full load.
[3]
The boats were specially equipped to be launched from a surface
mother ship
and then make their way through obstacles such as
torpedo nets
. The pilot would steer the assault craft on a collision course at his target ship, and then would jump from his boat before impact and warhead detonation.
[4]
The pilot's cockpit was at the rear, in order to ensure an even distribution of weight with the 330 kg explosive charge inside the bow.
[3]
Contrary to Japanese
Shinyo
-class motorboats
, MT boats, though very dangerous to use in combat, were not designed as suicide weapons: Installed over the
transom
, the pilot had a crude ejector seat and after bailing out, the seat acted as a miniature raft to keep the pilot out of the water and immune from the lethal shock of the underwater explosion.
[5]
Another very innovative design was the
Isotta-Fraschini
Z-drive transmission system, featuring an inboard engine and twin outboard contra-rotating propellers.
[6]
Operational history
[
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]
On 25 March 1941, the destroyers
Francesco Crispi
and
Quintino Sella
departed from
Leros
island in the
Aegean
at night for the allied naval base at
Souda Bay
,
Crete
, each one carrying three MTs. The destroyers released their MTs some 10
nm
off Suda Bay. Once inside the bay, the six boats located their targets: the British
heavy cruiser
HMS
York
, the Norwegian tanker
Pericles
of 8,300 tons, another tanker, and a cargo ship. Two MTs hit
York
amidships, flooding her aft boilers and magazines. The
Pericles
was severely damaged and settled on the bottom. The other
barchini
apparently missed their intended targets, and one of them was stranded on the beach. All six Italian pilots were captured. The disabled
York
was later scuttled with demolition charges by her crew before the
German conquest of Crete
, while the disabled
Pericles
sank in April 1941 while being towed to
Alexandria
.
[7]
On 26 July 1941, two
human torpedoes
(
Maiale
) and ten
MAS boats
(including six MTs) launched an unsuccessful attack on the British naval base at
Valletta
,
Malta
. The MTs were transported and lowered off La Valetta by the sloop
Diana
. The force was detected early on by a British
radar
facility, but the British
coastal batteries
held their fire until the Italians approached to close range. Fifteen
Decima MAS
crewmen were killed and 18 captured. All six MTs, both human torpedoes and two MAS boats (MAS 451 and MAS 452
[8]
) were lost either to the coastal artillery or aircraft. One of the MTs hit a pile of the
bridge
linking
Fort Saint Elmo
with the breakwater, which collapsed with the blast, blocking the entrance to the harbor. The bridge was never restored, and a new one was not built until 2012.
[9]
The MTs were eventually superseded by the MTMs by the fall of 1941.
[3]
The MTMs were deployed to the
Black Sea
at German request, in support of
Operation Barbarossa
from March 1942 to May 1943 and along the
Libyan
-
Egyptian
coast from August to September 1942, in both cases with little success.
[10]
On 29 June 1942, during the Black Sea campaign, a number of MTMs supported a diversionary German landing near
Balaklava
. One of the explosive boats was intentionally run aground and set off on a beach occupied by Soviet troops in order to create confusion about the main landing point.
[11]
Later in the war, the Italian Navy developed a third type of explosive motorboat, the MTR (
Motoscafo da Turismo Ridotto
), a light version of the MTM for being carried to the intended target by submarine,
[3]
[12]
on the same containers used to transport
human torpedoes
.
[13]
An attempt against Allied naval forces in the
Messina Strait
was aborted when the submarine carrying the MTRs, the
Ambra
, was depth-charged on 25 July 1943 by Allied aircraft. The containers were distorted by the explosions and the boats became jammed inside.
[14]
After
Italy signed an armistice with the Allies
, the
Italian Social Republic
, a fascist
puppet state
in northern Italy which remained part of the Axis, continued to build and use MTMs. During the last days of the war in Europe, on 16 April 1945, one MTM hit and heavily damaged the
French
destroyer
Trombe
off
Liguria
.
[10]
Israeli navy
[
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]
At least four MTMs survived World War II to be used by
Shayetet 13
, the naval commandos of the
Israeli Navy
, during the
War of Independence
. Three of them, transported by the former
United States Navy
patrol yacht
INS
Ma'oz
(K 24)
, attacked the Egyptian
sloop
El Amir Farouq
and a
BYMS-class
minesweeper
in the Mediterranean on 22 October 1948, off the
Sinai Peninsula
. The sloop sank in five minutes, while the minesweeper was severely damaged and had to be written off. Unlike the Italian procedure, the Israelis allocated a fourth boat to rescue the pilots.
[15]
[16]
Another MTM was deployed to the
Red Sea
, tasked with infiltrating secret agents into
Jordan
.
[15]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Borghese, Valerio (1995).
Sea Devils: Italian Navy Commandos in World War II
. Naval Institute Press, p. 28.
ISBN
1-55750-072-X
- ^
a
b
c
d
Fock, Harald (1996).
Marine-Kleinkampfmittel. Bemannte Torpedoes, Klein-U-Boote, Kleine Schnellboote, Sprengboote gestern ? heute ? morgen
. Nikol, pp. 110?111.
ISBN
3-930656-34-5
(in German)
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Greene and Massignani (2004), pp. 38?39
- ^
Greene and Massignani (2004), p. 141
- ^
"HistoQuiz/la Decima MAS"
.
www.histoquiz-contemporain.com
. Archived from
the original
on 22 February 2016
. Retrieved
12 November
2015
.
- ^
"BARCHINO ESPLOSIVO MODIFICATO RIVA | Edoardo Napodano"
.
www.edoardonapodano.it
. Retrieved
12 November
2015
.
- ^
Borghese, pp. 74?84
- ^
Vernon, Caroline
(1992).
Our Name Wasn't Written ? a Malta Memoir
. Imagecraft, p. 36.
ISBN
0-646-07198-X
- ^
Fort St Elmo is finally linked to the breakwater
Archived
18 October 2018 at the
Wayback Machine
by Annette Vella, 25 July 2012
- ^
a
b
Italeri 1/35 MTM Barchino by Ray Mehlberger
Archived
19 October 2012 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Borghese, pp. 178?179
- ^
Borghese, Valerio (1952).
Sea Devils: Italian Navy Commandos in World War II
. Naval Institute Press, p. 28.
ISBN
1-55750-072-X
- ^
Borghese, p. 48
- ^
Borghese, p. 256
- ^
a
b
Greene and Massignani (2004), p. 199
- ^
Goodman, Hirsch; Mann, Shlomo (1982). "Navy".
IDF in its Corps: Army and Security Encyclopedia
(in Hebrew). Vol. 10. Revivim Publishing. p. 44.
- Greene, Jack; Massignani, Alessandro (2004).
The Black Prince And The Sea Devils: The Story Of Valerio Borghese And The Elite Units Of The Decima Mas
. Da Capo Press.
ISBN
0306813114
.