Chariot (manned torpedo)
 Manned torpedo chariot
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The Chariot (dt. = Chariot ), officially a torpedo of the type Mark was a manned torpedo the Royal Navy in World War II , in 1942, of several prior Gibraltar recovered or seized Italian SLC was developed. Its use took place in the European theater of war as well as in the Pacific .
Development history
After British naval units were able to secure several Italian SLCs and an undamaged alluvial torpedo off Gibraltar , Winston Churchill commissioned the Royal Navy to develop its own maritime small-scale weapons. This happened against the background of the obvious military strength of such units, which had been impressively demonstrated to the British naval forces on the night of December 18th to 19th, 1941. That night, three Italian SLC entered the port of Alexandria unnoticed and mined the British battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant , which were anchored there and were seriously damaged by the subsequent explosions.
Churchill entrusted Admiral Max Kennedy Horton with overall management for the development of British small-scale weapons , which also included the Wellmann submarine . Commander GM Sladen was responsible for the equipment and Commander WO Shelford for the diving equipment in cooperation with Siebe, Gorman & Company Ltd. The development basis was the Italian SLC , which was adapted almost identically to the British standard torpedo Mark I (colloquially known as the Chariot ). The British did not show great ingenuity in developing their own device, so the Chariot can be seen as the British counterpart to the Italian SLC .
In a first step, a true-to-scale wooden model was built on the Italian basis, which was given the name Cassidy . The Cassidy was equipped with diving and trim tanks as well as compressed air bottles for blowing out and received the usual rudders and rudders. The British standard torpedo of the Second World War, the Mark I with a diameter of 533 mm, served as the basis . The first diving exercises were then tried out with the Cassidy , which also served as training for the upcoming crews. At the same time, the Royal Navy tested the diving suits and breathing equipment they had developed for this purpose.
In June 1942 the first manned torpedo was delivered to the British naval forces. The operating weight of the Chariot (Mark I Torpedo) was 1,575 kg, of which the detachable warhead housed in the bow weighed 300 kg. After evaluating the following sea trials, an improved version soon followed, the Chariot II (Mark II torpedo). It was delivered in the spring of 1944 and was designed so that the two crew members could put their legs inside the fuselage. The Chariot III (Mark III torpedo) reached a speed of 4.5 kn, had an extended range of 30 nm and could carry a 1,000 kg warhead. In total, at least 80 chariots of all subtypes were built by the end of the war .
Successful transport of two Chariots under a Short Sunderland aircraft was tested, but was not used. Transport on speedboats or other ships not designed for this also seemed impossible and was viewed as a makeshift solution. The Royal Navy therefore converted two of their conventional submarines. Following the Italian model, the Thunderbolt and P311 were each given two 8-meter-long pressure-resistant containers in which the Chariots were brought to their area of operation.
Missions (selection)
- October 1942: Probably the best-known use of Chariots and at the same time the baptism of fire was the Operation Title commando operation planned by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) on the German battleship Tirpitz at the end of October 1942. The two Chariots No. VI and VII dared to attempt an attack on the one in Norway Asenfjord battleship. A camouflaged fishing cutter with forged German papers and a peat camouflage load acted as carrier ships. The Chariots Plan and peat hidden, stood the fishing boat from England with destination Norway to sea. Shortly before reaching the coast, the two chariots were disembarked and held under the cutter hull. Due to the poor location at sea, however, both torpedoes broke loose from their mounts and sank. The company had failed.
- January 3, 1943: A planned major strike of five manned torpedoes ( Chariots XV, XVI, XIX, XXII and XXIII), which were to attack the port of Palermo from their carrier ships Thunderbolt and P 311 , began tragically when the submarine P 311 was discovered on its approach by the Italian torpedo boat Partenope and sunk with all crew members and chariots . The remaining chariots of the Thunderbolt submarine were successfully disembarked and sank the Italian light cruiser Ulpio Traiano (3,362 t) and badly damaged the merchant ship Viminale .
- June 1944: In June 1944 the heavy cruiser Bolzano, which fell into German hands after the armistice of Cassibile, was sunk in a combined attack from Italian SLC and Chariots . The Royal Navy lost the Chariots LVIII and LX.
- October 1944: Two Chariots with the numbers LXXIX and LXXX sank the Dutch steamers Sumatra (4,859 GRT) and Volpi (5,292 GRT), which the Japanese had lifted and were ready for towing, near Phuket . Both chariots were lost in the process.
Stop operations
As early as the turn of the year 1944/1945, the operations of the Chariots in Europe were completely discontinued due to a lack of suitable targets. They were also followed by the ventures in the Pacific. The background was reports of torture and reprisals by Japanese units against captured Chariot crews.
Others
It is interesting to note that the German Navy High Command was aware of the existence of the Chariots . The German Navy even published a sketch with all the important technical details in the magazine “Marine-Umschau” from the year 1944. However, the German naval command did not take advantage of this when building up the small combat units of the Kriegsmarine , which had begun in the spring of 1944. Instead, they developed their own manned torpedoes such as the Negro and Marder .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harald Fock: Naval small weapons. Nikol Verlagsvertretungen, 1997, ISBN 978-3930656349 , pp. 24-25.