Tribute to an Italian war hero – Luigi Durand De La Penne
In the autumn of 1969, I was a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve and the long-time navigator of Britain’s first nuclear-powered submarine, HMS Valiant (SSN 02), then on a courtesy call and docked in the inner basin of Port from La Spezia on the west coast of Italy. HMS Valiant was the Royal Navy’s second nuclear-powered ship, the first being the submarine HMS Dreadnought (SSN01) which had an American S5N reactor. Due to a misunderstanding with Vice Admiral Herman Rickover, the United States refused to supply Britain with submarine pressurized water reactors, so we had to build our own. Thus, HMS Valiant was entirely British and received a very advanced and quiet 80 megawatt reactor-turbine propulsion unit, the design elements of which were, paradoxically, later copied by the US Navy for their submarines.
After three weeks of grueling 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 wardroom. That night I was doing ‘meet and greet’ duty in the submarine housing for the party being held in the control room. A grizzled Italian vice admiral came forward, saluted the quarterdeck, and approached me as I stood in my best uniform (with sword) by the hatch leading down to the party.
“Good evening, sir,” I greeted him, waving, “welcome to HMS Valiant.”
“I sank the last HMS Valiant!” she growled, returning my greeting.
“Well sir, try not to sink this one please,” was all I could think of in response; for he was Vice-Admiral de la Penne. He thoroughly enjoyed the after party, took me to a great lunch in town the next day and told me, in his own words, how he sank the earlier HMS Valiant in 1941. This is his story.
On December 19, 1941, when he was a Lieutenant Commander in the Italian Regia Marina, he led three teams of two Italian frogmen to the port of Alexandra mounted in two-man carts. On December 3, 1941, the Italian submarine Scire left La Spezia with three torpedo cars secured to her upper deck and, en route, embarked Commander de la Penne with his five trained frogmen from the island of Leros in the sea. Aegean.
The Serce proceeded to a position just over a mile from the entrance to Alexandra Harbor, reached periscope depth, and released the cars. The three tanks entered the harbor as the boom protecting the entrance opened to let out three British destroyers. Most of the British Mediterranean fleet was anchored inland, including the World War I 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 towards HMS Valiant. With a few yards to go, the car’s engine gave out and he had to push it under the battleship, which was about four feet from the flat, sandy bottom of the harbor.
After placing their charge, 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 an interrogation that yielded nothing more than the name, rank, and serial number of each of them, they were locked in a compartment in the lower deck, coincidentally just above the cargo that had been placed under the battleship. With fifteen minutes to go before the expected time of the explosion, de la Penne warned HMS Valiant’s captain, Charles Morgan, in time for all of the ship’s personnel to be removed from the lower decks. Both de la Penne and Bianchi were slightly injured when their cargo went off, but were evacuated to the upper deck in time to witness the charges being placed by the other two maiales under the HMS Queen Elizabeth, the British destroyer HMS Jervis and the Norwegian tanker Sagona. . . After all the charges had detonated, both battleships sank to the sand and lay immobile for some months until temporary repairs could be completed and the ships refloated. Meanwhile, the battleships were resting at the bottom of the harbor, so that from the shore it appeared that they were still afloat and fully operational. , if something heavily loaded.
aftermath
Italy agreed to an armistice with the Allies on September 8, 1943, and de la Penne was released from his confinement as a prisoner of war. He agreed to help the Royal Navy with its underwater weapons and frogman programme.
He was involved in the planning and execution of the Royal Navy frogman raid on the German fortifications at La Spezia when a mixed team of Italian and British frogmen sank the cruisers Gorizia and Bolzano in the harbour.
Admiral Charles Morgan, who had been captain of HMS Valiant when Luigi Durand de la Penne sank her 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 thereby saving many lives when those decks were evacuated. He had tried to get de la Penne a British medal, but failed because Italy was not officially allied with 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, were inspecting the Italian naval barracks at Taranto and awarding personnel medals for bravery in service. Crown Prince Umberto of Italy, who knew 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 I am honored to have known him and heard his story of the sinking of the battleship HMS Valiant from his own lips.