Italia (airship)
The Italia was an airship of the Italian general and airship designer Umberto Nobile . It was a semi-rigid airship , i. H. a structure stiffened on the underside by a metal latticework, otherwise held in shape by internal gas pressure. It largely corresponded to that of the predecessor ship N 1 Norge .
The Italia was completed in 1928 for the Nobile North Pole Expedition , on which it was damaged in the Arctic Ocean on May 25, 1928 and was lost. In addition to its name Italia , it had the designation N 4 , whereby the letter N, analogous to the Z on the zeppelins, referred to the builder Nobile.
history
After his successful crossing of the North Pole with the airship N 1 Norge , Umberto Nobile had in the meantime dealt with a larger airship project, which was then not implemented, as well as an airship design for Japan . In the summer of 1927 he began to construct the semi-rigid airship N 4 Italia for another north polar expedition, this time with numerous - mainly physical - research tasks. The Norge had only contributed to the research of the aurora by measuring the electrical conductivity of the air .
On April 15, 1928, Italia started its journey near Milan to the base station on the Kongsfjord on Spitsbergen . A repair visit to the German airship port Seddin near Stolp was necessary to repair the damage . There she started again on May 3, 1928, to arrive after a stopover in Vadsø in northern Norway on May 6 at the Kongsfjord near Ny-Ålesund , Spitsbergen. Here she had an open top tent hangar and the supply ship Città di Milano .
From May 13th to 15th the Italia undertook a successful research trip to the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago 1600 km away . The driving distance of almost 4000 km exceeded that of the later North Pole trip.
On May 23, she started her journey to the North Pole with a crew of 16 and the expedition leader's dog. The next day, it circled for two hours at a height of up to 150 m above the pole, but a strong wind prevented a landing . Actually, a research group with measuring devices should carry out scientific tasks during a planned stay of one week. The earth's magnetism , gravity and ocean depth should be measured. So only the Italian flag and the heavy papal cross were thrown off.
On the way back, the airship got into bad weather. On the morning of May 25, 1928, it lost so much altitude that the driver's gondola hit the pack ice and tore off, killing the engine operator Pomella. Nine survivors were left on the ice near Foynøya Island , four of whom were injured, including the expedition leader Umberto Nobile. His dog was unharmed.
Six crew members floated away in the keel frame and the motor gondolas with the steeringless airship hull. No trace of them was ever found. The Czech expedition member František Běhounek describes in his book The Stranded People of the Polar Sea ( Trosečníci polárního moře ) that almost half an hour later, a column of smoke rising on the horizon near the White Island was observed from the site of the accident . Since this corresponded to the wind direction, the final crash of the remains of the ship should have been marked.
Among the demolished the airship objects one was next to other objects tent (in terms of size but for all stranded very nearly enough) a certain amount of, provisions , a 12 mm revolver brand Colt with 100 cartridges, a supply of Zündhölzchen and a portable shortwave transmitter that is not on board as planned (33 m wavelength , 25 watts transmission power, tested range 400 nautical miles , 12 volts operating voltage), enough batteries and material for the time being to build an improvised antenna mast, as well as navigation instruments and various tools.
With the revolver it was possible to kill a polar bear that had come near the camp and thus to increase the stocks considerably. With the help of matches, the wooden remains of the gondola were used to prepare hot meals. Nevertheless, two Italian crew members left to seek help on foot. They were joined - although slightly injured - by the Swedish oceanologist Finn Malmgren (1895–1928), who is very popular in his country , because he gave the Italians little chance of survival without an experienced polar companion. He died under circumstances that are not entirely clear, although it is assumed that he was the victim of cannibalism on the part of his comrades.
However, the radio station became the key to salvation. He survived the crash (in contrast to the film depiction in The Red Tent , see below) apparently undamaged. While the search for an echo of the official long-wave transmitter of the Italia was discontinued as hopeless after a while, radio amateurs all over the world began to be interested in the 33 m wavelength , as newspapers had reported such an emergency device on board the airship. It was then also an enthusiastic radio amateur, the young Russian teacher Nikolai Reinholdowitsch Schmidt (1906–1942), who was the first to receive the SOS signals from the stranded in Wochma, thus enabling a targeted search.
The accident triggered a major international rescue operation, in the course of which the famous Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen , who had accompanied Nobile's first polar expedition, was killed. On the other hand, Italy under Mussolini could not be persuaded to take part in the rescue operation even by broad indignation from the local population. It got on relatively late after international pressure with two small aircraft. The Swedish first lieutenant Einar Lundborg finally managed to land in an airplane near the tent of the stranded. The conditions were optimal and Lundborg wanted to save everyone within two days. The petite Nobile was flown out of the injured because of the low payload. He was also supposed to help coordinate the rescue operation from the Swedish relief base. On the second flight, Lundborg got rid of its superfluous weight in order to be able to transport the also injured Cecioni, who weighed more than 100 kilograms, but did not come to a standstill in time when landing and crashed at the end of the runway . After the uninjured Lundborg was flown out a few days later by his compatriot Schyberg, Sweden stopped its rescue operation. The last survivors of the Italia were rescued by the Soviet icebreaker Krassin after 49 days on the pack ice .
Despite the special circumstances of the rescue operation - even Cecioni encouraged Nobile to be the first to board Lundborg's plane - the latter was later accused of allowing himself to be rescued as captain early instead of last and thus violating iron principles.
Scientifically, the last trip of the Italia was not a failure. Some results of the work before the crash could be saved. In addition, experiments and measurements had been carried out while waiting for the rescue.
Expedition participant
| Surname | task | fate |
|---|---|---|
| crew | ||
| General Umberto Nobile | Expedition leader | Flown out of Lundborg on June 23 |
| Corvette Captain Adalberto Mariano | First Officer | from which after an unsuccessful attempt to get help on July 12, Krasin added |
| Corvette Captain Filippo Zappi | Helmsman | from which after an unsuccessful attempt to get help on July 12, Krasin added |
| Lieutenant Alfredo Viglieri | Helmsman, hydrograph | from July 12, Krasin added |
| Felice Trojani | engineer | from July 12, Krasin added |
| Natale Cecioni | senior technician | from July 12, Krasin added |
| Lieutenant Ettore Arduino | chief machinist | lost |
| Constable Attilio Caratti | machinist | lost |
| Vincenzo Pomella | machinist | killed in crash |
| Calisto Ciocca | machinist | lost |
| Renato Alessandrini | Riggers | lost |
| Giuseppe Biagi | Radio operator | from July 12, Krasin added |
| scientist | ||
| František Běhounek | Czech physicist | from July 12, Krasin added |
| Finn Malmgren | Swedish meteorologist and oceanographer | Died while trying to get help on the march to Svalbard |
| Aldo Pontremoli | Italian physicist | lost |
| Rapporteur | ||
| Ugo Lago | journalist | lost |
| Other participants | ||
| Francesco Tomaselli | journalist | not on board on the North Pole voyage |
| Ettore Pedretti | Radio operator | not on board on the North Pole voyage |
Technical specifications
- Length: 104.00 m
- Width: 18.50 m
- Height: 19.60 m
- Volume: 18,500 m³
- Propulsion: 3 Maybach IV L airship engines, each 245 PS ( Maybach-Motorenbau )
- Cruising speed: 97 km / h
- Top speed: 117 km / h
reception
broadcast
The search for the survivors of the Italia accident was processed in a radio play by Friedrich Wolf . The piece with the title SOS ... rao rao ... Foyn - "Krassin" saves "Italia" was set to music by Funk-Hour Berlin in 1929 and is the oldest completely preserved radio play in German.
movie theater
The Italia accident was u. a. Template for the Soviet-Italian film The Red Tent, starring Sean Connery , Claudia Cardinale and Mario Adorf ( Krasnaya palatka - 1969).
watch TV
In 1967 the Italian disaster was filmed as a two- parter by ZDF under the title “Nobile - Seven Weeks on the Ice”. Günter Mack played the main roles as Nobile, as did Claus Biederstaedt , Volkert Kraeft and Günter Strack .
literature
- Franz [František] Běhounek: Seven weeks on the ice floe . In: Arena non-fiction series science and adventure . 1st edition. tape 7 . Arena, Würzburg 1973, ISBN 3-401-03651-3 (Czech: Trosečníci na kře ledové . License from Brockhaus Verlag, Wiesbaden; German first edition 1929 by FA Brockhaus, Leipzig).
- Umberto Nobile: Flights over the Pole . Brockhaus, Leipzig 1975 (Italian: Ali sul Polo . Translated by Egon Wiszniewsky).
- Wilbur Cross: Tragedy at the Pole . Schneekluth, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7951-1769-0 (American English: Disasters at the pole . Translated by Susanne Aeckerle).
- Ovidio Ferrante: SCA N4 Italia . In: Monograph Aeronautiche Italiane . No. 63 . Rome 1985 (Italian).
- Ovidio Ferrante: Umberto Nobile . C. Tatangelo, Rome 1985, LCCN 87-113823 (Italian, two volumes).
- Fergus Fleming: Ninety degrees north. The dream of the pole . Rogner and Bernhard bei Zweiausendeins, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-8077-0172-9 (English: Ninety Degrees North . Translated by Michael Hein, Bernd Rullkötter).
- Willy Meyer: The fight for Nobile . Attempt to objectively present and evaluate the performance of the Italian airship. Radetzki, Berlin 1931 (preface by František Běhounek, Arthur Berson and Leonid Breitfuß ).
- Rudolf Lasarewitsch Samoilowitsch : SOS in the Arctic. The Krassin's rescue expedition . Union branch, Berlin 1929.
- Walter Erich Schäfer : Malmgreen . SÜRAG, Stuttgart 1929 (radio play).
Web links
- Junkers planes rescue members of the Nobile expedition ( Memento from June 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Bayern2 calendar sheet: Airship Italia crashes while traveling to the North Pole ( Memento from December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ Title of the 1955 edition of his book Trosečníci na kře ledové , published in 1928
- ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner : My life for the white wilderness . The expeditions of Roald Amundsen. Klett, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-12-920043-6
- ↑ Italia in the Internet Movie Database (English)