The breathing apparatus was failing, the torpedo was sinking, and beneath him lay the last hope of British naval power in the Mediterranean.

The Italian Navy's Midnight Disaster: When Frogmen Crippled a Fleet

How British Commandos Turned Alexandria Harbor Into a Graveyard

Six Italian frogmen on human torpedoes crippled Britain's Mediterranean fleet in Alexandria harbor.

The harbor of Alexandria lay still beneath the Egyptian stars on December 19, 1941—but beneath its dark waters, six Italian frogmen were already dying.

Lieutenant Luigi Durand de la Penne clung to his malfunctioning 'maiale'—literally 'pig,' the Italians' nickname for their human torpedoes—as it sank toward the muddy bottom. His breathing apparatus failed. His partner, Petty Officer Emilio Bianchi, was losing consciousness from oxygen poisoning. Yet de la Penne refused to surface. Below him, moored in apparent safety, sat HMS Valiant—one of only two British battleships left in the Mediterranean.

The Italians had launched from the submarine Scirè, surfacing just 1.3 miles from Alexandria's heavily guarded harbor entrance. Three two-man teams rode their submersible craft through minefields, anti-submarine nets, and patrol boats. What followed would become the most successful naval commando operation of World War II.

De la Penne, after his torpedo failed at depth, physically dragged the 300-kilogram warhead across the harbor floor for the final forty meters, positioning it directly beneath Valiant's hull. Captured and brought aboard the very ship he had just mined, he remained sile…

💡 After the war, de la Penne received his Italian Gold Medal of Military Valor from the very British admiral whose ship he had sunk—who had personally recommended him for the honor.