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Lieutenant Licio Visintini:
Lieutenant (Tenente
di Vascello)
(born: February 12, 1915 in Parenzo
(Porec/Pola, now Croatia) / died in action: December 8, 1942 - Gibraltar)
Promoted to Ensign in 1937.
Duty aboard the Submarines NARVALO and
ATROPO.
Participated in military actions off Albania
in 1939.
Took part aboard the submarine TORICELLI in
the first war mission of the Italian Navy Submarines in the Atlantic at the
outbreak of WWII.
On his request he was transferred to the X
Flotilla MAS in La Spezia.
After a hard training he became operator of
the Assault Craft.
Promoted to Lieutenant in 1941 he was
Commander of the famous “Orsa Maggiore” (Great Bear) Team of special
operations, which succesfully operated at the British Naval Base in
Gibraltar.
He died in action during a mission with
“manned torpedoes” in Gibraltar on December 8, 1942.
Licio Visintini - Awards:
Medaglia
d'oro al Valore Militare alla memoria - Gold Medal for Military Valour in
Memory
Medaglia
di Argento al Valore Militare sul Campo - Silver Medal for Military Valour in
the Field (Mediterranean Sea, May 1941)
Medaglia
di Argento al Valore Militare sul Campo - Silver Medal for Military Valour in
the Field (Gibraltar, September 1941)
Olterra’s campaign:
(source: wikipedia)
The auxiliary ship Olterra was a 5,000 ton
Italian tanker scuttled by her own crew at Algeciras in the Bay of Gibraltar
on 10 June 1940, after the entry of Italy in World War II. She was recovered
in 1942 by a special unit of the Decima Flottiglia MAS to be used as an
undercover base for manned torpedoes in order to attack Allied shipping at
Gibraltar.
From 24 September 1940 to 15 September 1942, there were six submarine-borne
assaults on Gibraltar. Three of them resulted in the destruction or sinking
of a number of Allied freighters, with a total tonnage of some 40,000 tn.
Three of them were carried out by human torpedoes launched from the submarine
Scirè; the other two were the work of combat swimmers.
After the attacks carried out by the Scirè, the commander of the Decima MAS
realised that, given the limitations of using a submarine as a mother ship
for human torpedoes in Gibraltar, it would be more feasible to mount a secret
base in neutral Spain. A first step in that direction was taken when a member
of the Decima, Antonio Ramognino, rented a bungalow along the coast road near
Algeciras, right in front of a bay used by Allied convoys to drop anchors. The
operations from Villa Carmela were carried out by combat swimmers. Because
Ramognino's wife was a Spanish citizen, he had little difficulty establishing
his ‘home’ there.
At the same time, another officer of the Italian special unit, Lieutenant
Licio Visintini, himself a veteran of previous submarine incursions
against the “Rock”, learned about the Olterra and conceived the idea of a
secret mother ship for the maiali. Maiale (literally “pig”) is the Italian
nickname for the human torpedoes. Under the pretext of raising the ship to
sell it to a Spanish owner, a team of members of the Decima, disguised as
Italian civilian workers, took control of the tanker. The ship was towed to
Algeciras, where “repairs” were started. The Italian Navy personnel were helped
by two civilian members of the crew. They had remained on board the half
sunken oiler along with a Spanish guard for more than two years, in order to
protect the rights of the Italian company which owned the Olterra. Once at
docks, some of Olterra's cargo holds and a boiler room were modified by
Visintini men into a workshop for the assembling and maintenance of human
torpedoes. An improvised observation post was also mounted on the forecastle
to watch the Bay of Algeciras and the Allied ships at anchor there. A scene
of civilian sailors working to overhaul the ship was meanwhile set up for the
outsiders, in order to deceive both British and Spanish authorities. The
torpedoes (in spare parts) and other equipment were smuggled into Spain by
men of the Decima under the pretense of being materials for the ‘works’ on
board the Olterra. Finally, a sliding hatch was open with a cutting torch six
feet below the waterline. This would be the exit door of the manned
torpedoes, which would launch their attacks from the flooding bilge, right
beneath the workshop. The special unit in charge of the operations was dubbed
Squadriglia Ursa Major (Great Bear Squadron), after the star-constellation of
the same name.
By the end of the autumn of 1942, the Olterra was ready for her mission. The
workshop works were completed and all the supplies smuggled from Italy had
reached Spain without raising any suspicion. On 6 December 1942, after taking
part in Operation Torch, a naval squadron consisting of the battleship HMS
Nelson, the battle cruiser HMS Renown, the aircraft-carriers HMS Furious and
HMS Formidable and a number of escort units entered Gibraltar. Visintini
planned a three manned torpedoes mission, each of them carrying 2 divers: the
leading torpedo, driven by Visintini himself and Petty Officer Magro, the
second by 2nd Lieutenant Cella and Sergeant Leone and the third by Midshipman
Manisco and Petty Officer Varini. The targets were designated in the
following order: for Visintini, Nelson, for Manisco, Formidable and for Cella,
Furious.
The assault craft departed from the Olterra during the early hours of 8
December. At 2:15 AM, the first human torpedo reached the area of the boom
defences. The motor launches and sentries inside the British base were
quietly active and alert, conscious of the danger of a potential attack on
the fleet at anchor. One of the security measures taken by the Royal Navy
after the summer incursions of combat swimmers was the deployment at
Gibraltar of an underwater bomb disposal unit, under the command of
Lieutenant Lionel Crabb. A pattern of depth charges was dropped by the motor
barges at an interval of three minutes between each one. The craft of
Visintini and Magro was apparently hit by one of the charges and destroyed
when they were trying to find a breach in the steel net protecting the
harbour. Their bodies were recovered by the British some days later and
buried at sea with full honors. The second “pig” also endured the strong
response of British defences after being uncovered by a searchlight. After an
endless chase by anti-submarine boats, the Italian crew decided to scuttle
their craft and took shelter on board an American freighter. They discarded
their swimsuits before submitting themselves to Gibraltar authorities. The
last manned torpedo was caught in the middle of the general alarm across the
stronghold, but managed to slip beneath the waters and fool the submarine
chasers. The copilot, Leone, became missing during the pursuit and was never
found; Cella, meanwhile, abandoned the craft elsewhere, thinking that he was
still near Gibraltar or, in the best case, stranded close to the Spanish
coast. With the idea of becoming a prisoner of war or being arrested and
interned by Spanish authorities in mind, Cella surfaced, only to find that he
was just a few meters away from the Olterra. His torpedo was recovered by the
Italians the following day. The two divers captured by the British told their
interrogators that the attack was launched by submarine, successfully
deceiving Allied intelligence. Nevertheless, the first human torpedoes
mission ended in failure.
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