10. The Frogmen Devastate British Ships in Alexandria
Between agents in Alexandria and aerial reconnaissance, the Italians had an accurate picture of the harbor’s defenses, which included shore artillery and machinegun emplacements, minefields, net barriers, and intense patrolling on water as well as ashore. The sole entrance was sealed with an antisubmarine net that was only removed to allow authorized vessels to enter or exit the harbor. The raiders lurked underwater near the entrance to the harbor, and snuck in on December 19th, 1941, when the barrier nets were temporarily removed to allow three British destroyers to enter. The frogmen quickly followed the destroyers in. Steering their manned torpedoes, the crews separated, each to their assigned target – the battleships HMS Valiant and Queen Elizabeth, and an aircraft carrier that turned out not to be present, so the crew assigned to attack it settled on the tanker Sagona, instead.
Evading the extensive protections within the harbor, the raiders maneuvered their vessels above or below torpedo nets, until they reached their targets. Diving beneath the ships, the frogmen removed the warheads from their torpedoes, and attached them to the bottom of the enemy hulls. They then set timers for the explosives to go off at 6 AM and beat a retreat. One crew was spotted and captured as soon as they surfaced inside the harbor, while the other two crews swam ashore and made it into Alexandria, where they were captured by Egyptian police a few days later. The explosives went off on time, and both battleships suffered extensive damage that kept them out of action for a year, while the tanker was destroyed, and a destroyer refueling from it at the time suffered significant damage.
