Climbing boat (explosive boat)
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The climbing boat , also called Barchini saltatori , was a small-scale explosive device of the Royal Italian Navy during the First World War . It was presented to the Italian naval command in June 1917 by the engineer Attillo Bisio, the creator of the Italian speedboats . With lightning-fast trim changes in the stern and bow area of the ship, it was supposed to overcome the barriers of the warships of the Austrian Navy in the port of Pola and then attack and sink the ships with torpedoes . The use of torpedoes instead of the later conventional explosive charge in the bow was necessary because at that time no suitable engines were available that would have made high attack speeds possible.
Development history
The idea for the climbing boat came from the Italian naval office in 1916 in order to test the effectiveness of small and faster operating small combat units against larger naval units. The Revel blasting boat was specially designed for this purpose, but its prototype had proven useless and was abandoned. The trial tests of the prototype of the climbing boat proved successful, and by the end of 1917 the naval management had awarded four construction contracts to the Venice Naval Arsenal. The four climbing boats delivered were named Grillo , Cavaletta , Locussta and Pulce .
Roughly, they looked like a mixture of a motorboat and a caterpillar vehicle. On both sides of the boat there were rollers on which endless chains of staples lay, which were provided with 15 cm long grippers and arranged at a distance of one meter. Another test in February 1918 showed that a 5 meter wide wooden barrier could be overcome in 100 seconds. The armament of the boat did not consist of explosives in the bow area of the boat, but of two 45-cm torpedoes, one of which was attached to a drop frame on each side. The crew consisted of an officer and 3 men. In order to maintain the secrecy of the new combat concept, the boat had a self-destruct system. Due to the boat's low speed, it was towed to the target area by speedboats and waited there for optimal visibility and weather conditions.
Calls
The Austrian ships lying in Pola were to be attacked and sunk from Venice. The Italian naval command had planned a single precise blow for this. However, there were five due to ailments, all of which were unsuccessful. The first of these attacks occurred on the night of April 8-9, 1918, and all four climbing boats were involved. An enormous loss of time, caused by the inexperience of the tow crew, led to such a delay that the attack had to be abandoned. On April 12, 1918, the second attempt was made with the boats Cavaletta and Pulce , but due to a navigational error, the boats were detached from the tugs too early and subsequently got lost in a sea mine area . As a safe return was not possible and the boats threatened to be discovered, the two boatmen decided to sink their boats themselves.
On May 6, 1918, the climbing boat Grillo , pulled by a speedboat, set sail for Pola. The Locussta was not operational at this time due to maintenance. However, the attack had to be canceled due to unfavorable weather conditions. The same thing happened on another advance on May 9, 1918 with the same boat. The next attack by the same boat, carried out on May 11, 1918, failed due to a defect in a torpedo launch frame that was noticed late.
On May 13, 1918, the attack finally seemed to succeed. Brought to the vicinity of Pola by a MAS speedboat, the Grillo overcame two bar locks in front of Pola and one net lock and approached her targets. But then the slow moving boat was sighted by the guards of the Austrian ships. In the headlights of the warships, the Grillo was massively fired. The commander was also unable to blindly unleash the torpedoes in the hail of bullets and thus achieve a lucky hit. Amazingly, the two torpedoes were not exploded by the fire. In order not to let his boat fall into enemy hands, the commander decided to sink himself, which he succeeded. The sinking of the Grillo was accelerated by a direct artillery hit. All four crew members were then taken prisoner of war.
At the beginning of November 1918 the last remaining climbing boat , the Locussta , was supposed to attack the ships anchored in the port of Fiume , but the operation was no longer carried out due to the end of the war on November 11, 1918. The boat was scrapped in 1921.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harald Fock: Naval small weapons. Manned torpedoes, small submarines, small speedboats, explosives yesterday - today - tomorrow. Nikol, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-930656-34-5 , pp. 105-108.