How 6 Men Sank 2 Battleships — Raid on Alexandria 1941
Nautical Lore
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In the early hours of December 19th 1941, a British sentry aboard HMS Valiant spotted two men in the water alongside the hull.
They were quickly captured, hauled out and taken below. The men were Italian,
wearing rubber diving suits, and they refused to say what they were doing there.
Three hours later Valiant was on the bottom of the harbour with a hole in her
twenty-one feet below the waterline. So was the battleship Queen Elizabeth,
several hundred yards away, with Admiral Cunningham's flag flying from her mast.
There were six Italians in the harbour that night. Between them they had three
underwater sleds, three warheads, and no way of getting home. By breakfast they
had removed the entire operational battleship strength of the Mediterranean Fleet.
Subscribe for more WWII naval history: @nauticallore
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So not only did the Royal Navy have no presence in the Mediterranean at that time, they had no presence in the Pacific as well after the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse.
How 6 Men Sank 2 Battleships — Raid on Alexandria 1941
Nautical Lore
12,685 views
In the early hours of December 19th 1941, a British sentry aboard HMS Valiant spotted two men in the water alongside the hull.
They were quickly captured, hauled out and taken below. The men were Italian,
wearing rubber diving suits, and they refused to say what they were doing there.
Three hours later Valiant was on the bottom of the harbour with a hole in her
twenty-one feet below the waterline. So was the battleship Queen Elizabeth,
several hundred yards away, with Admiral Cunningham's flag flying from her mast.
There were six Italians in the harbour that night. Between them they had three
underwater sleds, three warheads, and no way of getting home. By breakfast they
had removed the entire operational battleship strength of the Mediterranean Fleet.
Subscribe for more WWII naval history: @nauticallore