Salvatore Todaro

Salvatore Tòdaro (born September 16, 1908 in Messina , † December 13, 1942 in La Galite , Tunisia ) was an Italian naval officer and submarine commander.

Second World War

During the Second World War , as corvette captain , he commanded the submarine Capellini , with which he drove through the Strait of Gibraltar and operated from Bordeaux in the Atlantic . On October 15, 1940, he sank the Belgian merchant ship Kabalo , which was sailing under the British flag. He initially dragged the 26 shipwrecked crew members towards the Azores for four days and four nights . After repeated problems, he took the 26 castaways on board and brought them ashore. A few days later, several European newspapers reported the incident, Todaro was given nicknames such as " Don Quixote " or "Gentleman of the seas". A month later, Todaro sank the British merchant ship Shakespeare and took on the shipwrecked crew again.

At the end of 1941 his boat was badly damaged in a battle with the British auxiliary cruiser Eumaeus , and several crew members died. Todaro sank the British ship with the on-board cannon, but was followed for days by British warships and only escaped because he laid his boat on the seabed. Only with luck did he return to Bordeaux , where he was unable to work for several months. Although his rescue operations in the Atlantic were repeatedly criticized by the Germans, he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . Todaro was transferred to the special forces of the Navy, with which he fought in the Black Sea and Tunisia . He died in an enemy air raid in the port of La Galite.

After the Second World War, the Italian Navy named a corvette (1966-1994) and the submarine Todaro (2004) after him.

psychology

In his free time Todaro occupied himself with Freud's psychology , but above all with CG Jung . He read books on philosophy , parapsychology, and magical practices. Todaro was said to have clairvoyance .

Web link

• Entry on marina.difesa.it