Dive Fin History

[Sam Miller III]

I do not read write or understand German--but as previously stated I have a German heritage.

Michael Jung authored "Sabatage Unter Wasser , published by Mittler, 2004, --ISBN 3-8132-0818-4
(Michael inscribed my copy 23 January 2005)

Page 38, there is a 1/2 page picture of diving fins-- the description is as follows

Die Flossen der Mark a Superaga warendem Fischschwanz nachgebildet und wurden von Pirelli noch viele Jahrenach =dem Krieg produzuiert

I assume the fins were produced by Pirelli in Italy for the Germans

<< My uncle who was a US Army combat engineer at the bridge head crossing at Remagen told me they used the "Frogmen" to attempt to blow up his pontoon bridge --a few rounds from the old trusty 50 Cal and they changed their minds and swam to shore and captivity-- so the fins were used in WW 11 >>>

Sam Miller, 111

 

[Akimbo]

<< My uncle who was a US Army combat engineer at the bridge head crossing at Remagen told me they used the "Frogmen" to attempt to blow up his pontoon bridge --a few rounds from the old trusty 50 Cal and they changed their minds and swam to shore and captivity-- so the fins were used in WW 11 >>>

That's an important fact that the History Channel missed in their episode on the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine at Remagen. I spend a numbers of days at Dräger's division near Lubeck that made chambers for a client. There were some photos on the wall of German combat swimmers with their O2 rebreathers.

 

[Sam Miller III]

In the same book Michael Jung's "Sabatage Unter Wasser several pages were devoted to the bridge head at Remagen
Pages 128 to about 132 along with a photograph of the bridge along with an inscription in German..

Sam Miller, 111

 

[David Wilson]

Count me interested.

I'll see what I can come up with, mainly focusing on France.

I wonder what fins the the German combat swimmers of World War II used? I stumbled across this site on Italian Combat Swimmers, who were quite effective. My "guess" would be that they used the de Corlieu fin but Pirelli (who made oxygen rebreathers) "may" have copied them or even the Churchill.

Superga (wartime fin below) eventually merged with Pirelli in 1951. One good source on the equipment used by the Italian frogmen of the Gamma group is Welcome to Luigi Ferraro's official site | Luigi Ferraro. Look at the "War hero" section of Luigi Ferraro's site. Ferraro later invented Cressi Rondine fines and later still Technisub Caravelle fins as well as the cult Pinocchio mask.

This Wikipedia site indicates that Dunlap made fins for the British combat swimmers during the war but started with the Churchill fins. I wonder what motivated them to make the tooling instead of just getting the Churchills from the US?

If I recall the story correctly, the US supplied the UK with a shipment of Churchill fins, but the ship was torpedoed on its way to the UK and the cargo was lost. The UK didn't want to wait for a second opportunity and went ahead and moulded their own, based, it is said, on the picture of a Hollywood starlet wearing a pair of the fins on the side of a swimming pool. Eventually, a cargo of Churchills did arrive from the US in the UK.

 

[David Wilson]

I do not read write or understand German--but as previously stated I have a German heritage.

Michael Jung authored "Sabatage Unter Wasser , published by Mittler, 2004, --ISBN 3-8132-0818-4
(Michael inscribed my copy 23 January 2005)

Page 38, there is a 1/2 page picture of diving fins-- the description is as follows

Die Flossen der Mark a Superaga warendem Fischschwanz nachgebildet und wurden von Pirelli noch viele Jahrenach =dem Krieg produzuiert

I assume the fins were produced by Pirelli in Italy for the Germans

I have a Masters degree in German and the quotation from Jung means something along the lines of "The Superga brand fins were copied from a fish's tail and were manufactured by Pirelli for many years after the War." Pirelli merged with Superga in 1951. This accords with one of my online finds:

Here's a close-up of the fin; "sinistro" is Italian for "left", indicating which foot it is for:

And I agree that German combat swimmers would very likely have used the same fins as their Italian allies during World War II.

 

[David Wilson]

If anybody's interested in what happened in the late 1940s fin-wise within Europe, I'll be happy to pass on what I've discovered.

Count me interested.

OK, I'll make a start. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, recreational divers in Europe would have had two basic options if they wanted to equip themselves with fins. Option I - purchase or "liberate" some war-surplus frogman gear. Option II - make your own out of whatever materials were available. I'll focus on the former.

Italy
Cressi of Genoa remains famous even nowadays as a fin manufacturer. In the late 1940s, however, the company's focus was on diving masks and it simply resold Superga models:

Note the last section on the left-hand page of the 1947 Cressi price list.

This said, I did find on a Cressi-owned site the following image also dated 1947:

This is the prototype of the Cressi Rondine fin with its full-foot fitting and open-toe. I remember reading somewhere that it was constructed from recycled motor vehicle tyre rubber, but I can no longer find the reference. The Rondine was designed by Luigi Ferraro, who was a prominent Italian combat swimmer during World War II and something of a polymath. He later invented Technisub Caravelle fins, which combined a rubber foot pocket with a plastic blade. Returning to the Rondine, however, Cressi waited a few years before launching its iconic Rondine fin during the early 1950s. Giovanni Cressi and Luigi Ferraro's US patent 2,737,668 for "fins for swimmers" was filed in 1953 and published in 1956:

By 1954, the Cressi Rondine was seen in swimming displays:

That's all I have time for at the moment. I'll post more later in another message.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

...The Rondine was designed by Luigi Ferraro, who was a prominent Italian combat swimmer during World War II and something of a polymath. He later invented Technisub Caravelle fins, which combined a rubber foot pocket with a plastic blade...

David,

I just went downstairs to my fin collection, and pulled out my Caravelle fins. I bought them at the Naha Air Force Base BX (Base Exchange) in Okinawa when I was stationed there in 1968. I then had the metal shop make a "U" shaped piece of stainless steel for each blade, and I sandwiched a tire inner tube between that and the blade with the inside of the "U" cut out to make my first scoop fins. Except for a small tear along the outside of one foot pocket, the fins are still in remarkable shape. I'll get some photos of them, and give the markings here too. They were manufactured by La Spirotechnique in Italy, I believe (I'll check that out). I was able to easily separate one blade from the foot pocket, while the other took some doing (it was sticking). But it came out, and the foot pockets have just received a very thick coating of silicone spray. You can see that pair at the top outside row of my fin collection (about 1:00 position) in the post on page 3 in this thread. Here are the photos of the modified Caravelle fins:

The Caravelle fins with the modified blade to use the scoop fin concept.

Here the fin blades have been separated from the Caravalle full foot bootie.

The bottom of the Caravelle full foot bootie.

The top of the Caravelle full foot bootie.

SeaRat

 

[David Wilson]

Luigi Ferraro (above) designed the Caravelle fin in 1963 for an Italian company, Technisub, which eventually merged with the French La Spirotechnique company.

The Caravelle is often regarded as a technological success but a commercial failure, because it combined a detachable plastic blade with a rubber full-foot pocket, anticipating the introduction of composite fins by another Italian company, Mares, more than a decade later, but it did not sell well among the diving community of the early 1960s. You can read more about these two inventions on the Luigi Ferraro website at Inventor and Entrepreneur | Luigi Ferraro, which is a treasure-trove of information about this Italian innovator.

The Caravelle was even well-known in the USSR, where it was copied by a Soviet manufacturer:

The unnamed fins above were made in the "Sport" Experimental Factory in Leningrad. They had closed heels and open toes. The foot pocket was made of rubber, while the blade was made of plastic. The blade could be separated from the foot pocket, which enabled the latter to be used as a bathing shoe if desired. Note from the third image how this fin was manufactured in 1975, sized 36-38 and priced 3 roubles and 50 kopecks.

 

[David Wilson]

Returning to the subject of early post-World War II fins in Europe, I would recommend any diving equipment historian to study the illustrated article "VIAGGIO NELLE ATTREZZATURE SPORTIVE DEGLI ANNI ’50 (2ª puntata)" by Fabio Vitale on pages 11-13 of the October 2001 issue of HDS Notizie at http://www.hdsitalia.org/sites/www.hdsitalia.org/files/documenti/HDSN21.pdf. A Spanish version of the article can be found at HDS España - Efemerides. The article reviews 16 different West European fin models available during the 1950s. My only criticism is that there are no UK-made fins among them. Out of interest, I made a translation, using some online language tools and my knowledge of French to help me get to grips with the Italian and Spanish. Here is the first page:

If you want more, let me know. There are three more pages.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

...This said, I did find on a Cressi-owned site the following image also dated 1947:

This is the prototype of the Cressi Rondine fin with its full-foot fitting and open-toe...

If you'll look at this photo from David Wilson's post closely, you'll see a very old "trick" to allow full-foot fins that are close-fitting not to chafe the toes. Wear woman's pantyhose. This was an actual technique used.

...

• ease chafing between feet and footwear, or between thighs.

I have been looking at my collection, and I have several very old rubber full-foot fins. Two pair are original Duck Feet full foot fins, and one is swimable. I've had them in the pool, but the other pair leaves black marks on the side of the pool when I do a turn, so I haven't used it in about five years.

I also have a pair of AMF Voit Viking V-66 fins, which are the Large size, and are a long fin. I'm planning on getting them into the pool soon. They are black, and were very stiff. They've been sitting with silicone on them for several years, and may now be swim-able. I'll get some photos later. I used these style fins for my second version of Scoop Fins.

Now I'm going to take this in a different direction, and will return to swim fins later. I'm going to introduce you to the Aqueon, which was commercially available in about 1970-1980 or so.

A bit later, I'll discuss my diving with the Aqueon, with some notes I took during those dives and my general impression.

SeaRat