A Tribute to an Italian War Hero – Luigi Durand De La Penne

In the fall of 1969 I was a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve and a long-time navigator of the first fully British nuclear submarine, HMS Valiant (SSN 02) at the time on a courtesy visit and docked in the inland basin of Port of La Spezia. on the west coast of Italy. The HMS Valiant was the second nuclear ship of the Royal Navy, the first being the submarine HMS Dreadnought (SSN01) that had an American S5N reactor. Due to a misunderstanding with Vice Admiral Herman Rickover, the United States refused to supply Britain with underwater pressurized water reactors, so we had to build our own. Thus, the HMS Valiant was all British and was given an 80 megawatt reactor and a very advanced and quiet turbine propulsion unit, elements of the design of which were, paradoxically, later copied by the United States Navy for their submarines.

After three weeks of arduous exercises with NATO warships in the Mediterranean, all eager to gain valuable and rare experience in tracking a nuclear submarine, we docked in the inner basin of the port of La Spezia. As was the custom during courtesy visits, local dignitaries and senior Italian naval officers were invited to an official party in the officers’ room. That night he was doing “meet and greet” duty on the sub’s casing for the party in the control room. A somewhat gray-haired Italian vice admiral poked his forehead, saluted the quarterdeck and approached me while I was in my best uniform (with a sword) next to the hatch that led down to the party.

“Good evening, sir,” I greeted him, waving, “welcome to HMS Valiant.”

“I sank the last HMS Valiant!” he growled, returning my greeting.

“Well sir, try not to sink this one, please” was all I could think of in response; because he was Vice Admiral de la Penne. He really enjoyed the after party, took me to a great lunch in town the next day and told me, in his own words, how the previous HMS Valiant sank in 1941. This is his story.

On December 19, 1941, when he was Lieutenant Commander in the Italian Regia Marina, he led three teams of two Italian frogmen to Alexandra Harbor mounted on two-man chariots. On December 3, 1941, the Italian submarine Scire left La Spezia with three torpedo tanks secured to its upper shell and en route, embarked Commander de la Penne with his five trained frogmen from the island of Leros in the Aegean Sea.

The Serce headed to a position just over a mile from the Alexandra harbor entrance, reached periscope depth, and dropped the carts. The three tanks entered the port when the barrier protecting the entrance was opened to let out three British destroyers. Most of the British Mediterranean fleet was anchored inland, including the WWI battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant. De la Penne’s partner, Lieutenant Emilio Bianchi lost his oxygen supply and had to surface for a few minutes. De la Penne headed alone for HMS Valiant. When he was a few feet away, the tank’s engine stopped working and he had to push it underneath the battleship that was about four feet away from the flat, sandy bottom of the harbor.

After placing their cargo, both de la Penne and Bianchi had to surface near the stern of HMS Valiant and were captured. Bianchi had broken his arm and was taken to the infirmary, treated, and then, after questioning that led to nothing but the name, rank, and serial number of each of them, they were locked in a compartment of the hospital. lower deck, coincidentally just a little past the charge they had put under the battleship. With fifteen minutes to go to the expected time of the explosion, de la Penne warned HMS Valiant’s captain, Charles Morgan, in time for all ship personnel to emerge from the lower decks. Both de la Penne and Bianchi were slightly injured when their cargo exploded, but were evacuated to the upper deck in time to witness the charges placed by the other two maiales commanding HMS Queen Elizabeth, the British destroyer HMS Jervis, and the Norwegian tanker Sagona. . . After all the charges were detonated, both battleships sank into the sand and remained motionless for a few months until temporary repairs could be completed and the ships were refloated. The full ceremonial colors, the bugle-blasting sunset, the parades on the upper decks, and the gun drills were held in the meantime as the battleships rested at the bottom of the harbor, so that from the shore it looked like they were still afloat and fully operational. , although something very loaded.

Aftermath

Italy agreed to an armistice with the Allies on September 8, 1943, and de la Penne was released from confinement as a prisoner of war. He agreed to help the Royal Navy with its underwater weapons and its frogman program.

He was involved in the planning and execution of the Royal Navy’s frogman raid on the German fortifications in La Spezia when a mixed team of Italian and British frogmen sank the Gorizia and Bolzano cruisers in the harbor.

Admiral Charles Morgan, who had been the captain of HMS Valiant when Luigi Durand de la Penne sank his back in 1941, never forgot de la Penne’s chivalry in warning him of the danger to British personnel on the lower decks of HMS Valiant and thus save many lives when those covers were evacuated. He tried to get de la Penne a British medal, but failed because Italy was not officially an ally of Great Britain. In March 1945, Crown Prince Umberto of Italy, with Admiral Sir Charles Morgan, now in command of the British naval forces in the Adriatic, inspected Italian naval barracks at Taranto and awarded medals to personnel for bravery in service. Crown Prince Umberto of Italy, who was aware of Admiral Morgan’s attempts to obtain a British medal for de la Penne, asked him to present de la Penne with Italy’s highest medal of valor, the ‘Valor Militare’ on behalf of the the prince.

Vice Admiral Luigi Durand de la Penne died on January 17, 1992. He was a very brave man and it is an honor for me to have met him and to hear from his own lips the story of the sinking of the battleship HMS Valiant.