Caproni workshop Riva

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The San Nicolò battery that housed the workshop

The Caproni workshop in Riva on Lake Garda was an assembly yard for the construction of miniature submarines during the Second World War . In the workshop, the final assembly of a new type of miniature submarine took place, which was then subjected to tests in Lake Garda.

history

prehistory

After the air raid of the RAF to Milan in the night of 14 to 15 February 1943, the be moved in the Milan district Taliedo and accelerated Gianni Caproni led companies Aeroplani Caproni SA decentralization of its production.

The shipbuilding sector was outsourced from Taliedo to Rovereto in several companies located there. This affected the small submarine type CB built by Caproni . The outsourcing also concerned the project submitted by the engineer Secondo Campini for the construction of a compact CD-type submarine operated with an innovative recoil drive , also known as the Campini-De Bernardi model.

Construction of the workshop

After September 8, 1943 , the Kriegsmarine showed interest in the project and on March 22, 1944 they awarded Caproni an order for 50 boats. The order stipulated that two prototypes should be made available for tests in Lake Garda within 90 days.

In the following years, the assembly of the small submarine CD was set up in the former Austro-Hungarian battery San Nicolo at the industrial port of Riva. The Campini office with the technical draftsmen, on the other hand, was in downtown Riva. The workshop was managed by the engineer Antonio de Pezzini, who was also responsible for the Caproni works in Torbole . In the meantime the Navy had set up a command post in Torbole, which was probably responsible for the supervision of the work and tests.

Japanese naval mission

Hideo Tomonaga

Not only the German Navy, but also the Imperial Japanese Navy were interested in the project. Between June 6 and 7, 1944, a Japanese naval mission with the Naval Attaché Mitsunobu Tōyō from Meran , where the mission had been relocated after September 8, 1943, to Riva. The goal was the Caproni workshop to find out about the progress of the work. The Japanese had already shown interest in the boats before the German order, and when the order was placed in March 1944, the German navy empowered Caproni to hand over the construction plans to the Japanese allies if necessary.

The mission also included Japanese naval officers Hideo Tomonaga, Genzo Syozi and Masaki Inaba, who then turned up in Taliedo near Caproni to negotiate the acquisition of the project drawings. Tomanaga and Syozi committed suicide on the U 234 in 1945 when the German submarine with essential military material, including construction plans, was seized by an American destroyer en route to Japan .

Construction, testing and whereabouts

It is unclear how many boats were assembled and tested in Riva. Depending on the source, there is talk of one or two submarines. In addition to assembly, work was carried out on the coordination of the oxygen- powered recoil drive for underwater travel, which caused some problems. At least one prototype was tested in the waters below Ponale Street with somewhat satisfactory results.

For the tests in Lake Garda, the Germans confiscated the passenger ship Angelo Emo , which was moored in the port next to the assembly yard and which served as an auxiliary ship and probably as a target ship . Spare parts were requisitioned from other passenger ships to keep the Elmo operational. On March 25, 1945, the ship was set on fire by low-flying aircraft and was no longer usable. After repeated air raids in the period that followed, the Emo finally sank in the port of San Nicolò.

The Allied secret services had been informed of the construction of the micro-submarines in Riva since October 1944. The Resistance had sent the relevant reports and had already threatened the plant management in Rovereto with the bombing by the Allies if the boats were to be completed.

The Allies must have attached a certain importance to the project, since immediately after the liberation of Riva on April 30, 1945 by the 10th US Mountain Division, units of the Special Forces appeared in Riva and, depending on the source, confiscated one of the two prototypes and sent them to the United States brought. According to other statements, both prototypes were sunk in the lake by the Germans when the Allies approached. The technical drawings, on the other hand, were not completely destroyed; in both the United States and Italy, in the archives of the War Museum in Rovereto, there are blueprints of the miniature CD-type submarine assembled in the Caproni workshop in Riva.

At the Battery San Nicolò there is nothing to indicate the events of the Second World War.

literature

  • Giorgio Danilo Cocconcelli: Tunnel factories. Le officine aeronautiche Caproni e FIAT nell'Alto Garda 1943–1945 , Apostolo Giorgo, Milan 2002 ISBN 978-88-87261-11-0 .
  • Annalisa Cramerotti: Il mezzo d'assalto Campini - De Bernardi in: Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra (ed.): Annali N. 23 2015, Osiride Edizioni, Rovereto 2016.
  • Achille Rastelli: Caproni e il mare. Progetti e realizzazioni per la guerra navale di un grande gruppo industriale milanese. Museo Aeronautica Gianni e Timina Caproni di Taliero, Milan 1999 ISBN 978-88-87261-05-9 .
  • Paolo Savegnago, Luca Valente: Il mistero della Missione giapponese. Valli del Pasubio, giugno 1944: la soluzione di uno degli episodi più enigmatici della guerra nell'Italia occupata dai tedeschi. Cierre, Verona 2005 ISBN 978-88-8314-305-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Achille Rastelli: Caproni e il mare. Progetti e realizzazioni per la guerra navale di un grande gruppo industriale milanese. P. 63
  2. ^ Achille Rastelli: Caproni e il mare. Progetti e realizzazioni per la guerra navale di un grande gruppo industriale milanese. P. 96
  3. ↑ Giorgio Danilo Cocconcelli: factories tunnel. Le officine aeronautiche Caproni e FIAT nell'Alto Garda 1943–1945 p. 249
  4. ↑ Interview with one of the technical draftsmen (Italian) (PDF; 428 kB), accessed on March 6, 2018
  5. ↑ Paolo Savegnago, Luca Valente: Il mistero della Missione giapponese. Valli del Pasubio, giugno 1944: la soluzione di uno degli episodi più enigmatici della guerra nell'Italia occupata dai tedeschi. Pp. 271-275
  6. ^ Achille Rastelli: Caproni e il mare. Progetti e realizzazioni per la guerra navale di un grande gruppo industriale milanese. P. 96
  7. ↑ Giorgio Danilo Cocconcelli: factories tunnel. Le officine aeronautiche Caproni e FIAT nell'Alto Garda 1943–1945 pp. 249–251
  8. ↑ Annalisa Cramerotti: Il mezzo d'assalto Campini - De Bernardi p. 233
  9. ↑ Paolo Savegnago, Luca Valente: Il mistero della Missione giapponese. Valli del Pasubio, giugno 1944: la soluzione di uno degli episodi più enigmatici della guerra nell'Italia occupata dai tedeschi. P. 270
  10. ↑ Annalisa Cramerotti: Il mezzo d'assalto Campini - De Bernardi pp. 225 and 233

Coordinates: 45 ° 52 ′ 37.8 ″  N , 10 ° 51 ′ 24.8 ″  E