British commando frogmen
Britain's commando frogman force is now the Special Boat Service (SBS), whose members are drawn largely from the Royal Marines. They perform various operations on land as well as in the water. Until the late 1990s, all members of the Special Air Service (SAS) Boat Troop were trained as commando frogmen.
History
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Before 1942
In 1909 the British designer Commander Godfrey Herbert received a patent for a manned torpedo. During World War I, it was rejected by the War Office as impracticable and unsafe. Instead, in the inter-war period the Italian Navy successfully trained the special frogmen corps Decima Flottiglia MAS equipped with a new and powerful craft: a slow speed human torpedo (SLC: siluro a lenta corsa, best known as maiale). Italian manned torpedoes were first used against Britain in 1941 when Italian commando frogmen, some riding manned torpedoes, attacked British naval bases at Malta, Gibraltar and Alexandria. In the last operation six Italian frogmen rode three SLC's into the harbour and damaged the British battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant, and the tanker Sagona (the six frogmen were then captured). After these operations had shown how powerful and effective this weapon was the Royal Navy was convinced to create their own programme. This was also fictionalised in the 1958 film The Silent Enemy.
1942
- April: The British Navy formed the "Experimental Submarine Flotilla", initially based at Sladen suits.
- 1942 June: The Experimental Submarine Flotilla moved to "Port ZD" (Port D) at sinus trouble. The strangeness of the Chariots added to their problems. They were trained to ride and steer for a long time under water, and to then cut through harbour defence nets. The hardest part was learning to work with the Chariots' warheads.
- August: The first group of trained British charioteers moved to Base HHZ on Loch Cairnbawnin Scotland to train in deeper waters - better matching the Norwegian Fiords, and to simulate attacking bigger better-defended places. One died in training.
- September: The Norwegian Navy officer Asenfjord, a branch of Trondheim Fjord in Norway.
- Operation "Title":[2]
- 26 October: The fishing boat Arthur operated by three Norwegians left Britain with seven British frogmen and two chariots hidden aboard.
- 28 October: Arthur reached Norway's coast near Edøya.
- 30 October: Arthur unloaded the chariots and began to tow them to the target.
- 31 October: A storm broke the fastening bolts of the chariots, which were lost. The attack was called off.
- 1 November: The Arthur was scuttled at Breidvik. The ten members of the operation set off for Sweden in two groups. Nine reached Sweden; Germans captured one and later shot him as a spy.
- This operation was later portrayed in the 1955 war film, X-Craftmidget submarine attacks on the Tirpitz.
- This operation was later portrayed in the 1955 war film,
- Late November: Britain sent 26 Chariots to Tenth Submarine Flotilla". Three submarines received containers on their decks to carry the Chariots.
- Operation "Principle":
- 28 November: The British submarine near Sardinia and sank with all hands.
- 30 November: The British submarines Thunderbolt, Trooper and Unruffled (P46), left Malta carrying Chariots.
- After December 17: First known British frogman use of Sladen suit and weighted boots riding a Chariot, was by British Clearance Divers.
1943
- Operation "Principal":[3]
- 3 January: The submarines HMS Thunderbolt and HMS P311 carrying two chariots each and HMS Trooper carrying three, with their respective crews, left to carry out this operation, the first by Britain involving the use of chariots. P311 was scheduled to attack targets at La Maddalena, while the other two submarines headed for the coast of Sicily near Palermo in a Force 5 wind.
- One of the chariots which the Trooper carried was ridden by Sub-Lieutenant Rodney Dove and Leading Seaman Jimmy Freel. As it was launched, a big wave washed it over the submarine, causing the loss of its limpet mines and the gear to attach the warhead to a ship.
- The chariots put mines on ships and patrol boats and sank some of them, but none of the mines exploded.
- One chariot put its warhead on the Italian cruiser Ulpio Traiano(under construction), and afterwards smaller explosives on four ships. Ulpio Traiano sank.
- Dove's chariot (Chariot XVI) put its warhead on the Italian troop ship Viminale (formerly a liner), by tying it to the sternpost with ropes, causing severe damage but not sinking it. While being towed from the harbour for repairs, it was torpedoed by a British submarine and damaged again. Later in the year, while en route for repairs for the second attack, it was sunk by American torpedo boats.
- Because of bad weather two chariots did not reach the harbour.
- All the chariots were lost; either scuttled, through equipment malfunction or human error. One charioteer died in the attack. The British submarine Unruffled recovered two others. Five had to land and were taken prisoner. Two of these prisoners later escaped from guards in Rome and hid in the Vatican until the Americans liberated Rome in 1944. Two others, involved in a quite separate operation (see below), escaped from guards in Libya. In the middle of Tripoli they found a British Army unit and were returned to England.
- Dove ended up in a
- 3 January: The submarines
- This left eight charioteers with two Chariots on Malta.
- 18 January-19: These two chariots were carried by submarines to attack ships that the Germans were going to use to block Tripoli harbour. The frogmen arrived too late and a blockship was sunk in the harbour mouth. None of the men or chariots returned to Malta.
- January: At Loch Corrie and Loch Cairnbawnin Scotland more charioteers were being trained.
- 16 April: Britain sent 14 new charioteers to Malta. In the days following they sent the new Chariot Mark II, also called the "Terry". Its riders sat back to back. It could manage 4.5 kn (8.3 km/h). The warhead was 1,100 lb (500 kg) of Torpex high explosive.
- June: During this month, the British submarine HMS Unseen (P51) carried three chariots from Malta to Sicily. The divers surveyed 100 mi (160 km) of coast, examining beaches to find dangers for armies who would be landing there later.
- 11 June: The other British charioteers went to Loch Cairnbawn.
- Late June: Britain sent six more charioteers to Malta, for an operation to attack Taranto.
- 25 June: Mussolini was replaced by Pietro Badoglio as the head of the Italian government. As a result, the attack on Taranto was called off, and the British frogmen were all sent to Scotland. After this, there was only one British chariot attack in the Mediterranean.
- July: At Loch Cairnbawn a charioteer died through an accident.
- 20 September: The British midget submarines known as . The Scharnhorst was absent but the Tirpitz was damaged in the attack.
- 24 September: Britain sent 4 chariots and 12 charioteers from their Scottish base to Lunna Voe in Shetland to train for operations among the Norwegian islands.
- 14 October: A British in Scotland. Four days later another torpedo boat brought Job back to Shetland.
- October or November: A British torpedo boat carrying two chariots and four charioteers went from Lunna Voe to Nordfjord in Norway and landed a man to wait until a German ship came. In two days no German ship came, the boat went back to Shetland.
- 11 November: A British torpedo boat carrying two chariots and four charioteers sailed from Lunna Voe to Tevik Bay in Norway and landed a man to wait until a German ship came to Askvoll harbour. In two days no German ship came. It snowed, and they thought that Askvoll harbour would be blocked with ice. As the torpedo boat returned to Shetland it ditched the chariots because of bad weather, and it brought the charioteers back.
- 31 October: On this day or earlier British and American forces entered Naples.
- October or November: British frogmen went to Brindisi in Italy where they were combined with those Italian frogmen who were in the Allied-controlled areas and those Italian frogmen who had been prisoners in Britain, as a single organization.
1944
- 15 April: Bergen in Norwaybut sank a cargo ship by mistake instead.
- May: 14 British charioteers were sent to Trincomalee in Sri Lanka.
- In the run up to the Normandy Landings British Chariots were used to surveythe seabed along Normandy's coast in preparation for the troop landings.
- 2 June: After the Italians had left the Italian partisans. In August one successfully crossed the Arnoto reach the Allies, but the other three were captured trying to do the same.
- 6 June: Operation Overlord ("D-day"). British frogmen (not using Chariots) demolished many beach obstacles that Germans had set to stop an attacking army. One (Sub-lieutenant Hargreaves) drove an army tank onto land.[5]
- 11 September: X-craft repeated their attack on the floating dock Laksevåg at Bergen in Norway and sank it.
- 27 October-28: The British submarine MTBin the area. The Trenchant carried the four charioteers back to Trincomalee. There were no further chariot operations in combat.
1945 and after
- 31 July 1945: Lieutenant XE-craft XE3 attacked the Japanese warship Takao in the Johore Strait near Singapore and sank it. For this action, they received the Victoria Cross.
- The British Chariots were used in the immediate post war period to clear mines and wrecks in harbours.
By the end of the war, the British human torpedo operations had earned their participants 20 medals and 16 men had been killed.
Clearance Diving Teams
were formed to clear unexploded ordnance and other military hazards left over from the war.
See also
- Special Boat Service#History for a list of later SBS operations; not all involved frogmen
References
- Notes
External links
- Underwater Trust For more information about British Frogmen and Charioteers.