SCUBA/ Submarine Vs CruIser In war. 1945

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Bubblesong

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While in London visiting Imperial War Museum, i learned about a SCUBA diver that took on a Japanese CruIser in Singapore. I took photos for others to learn about this too.
The submarine delivered the Scuba Diver under the CruIser, upon which the Scuba Diver attaches mines to the bottom of the Cruiser, solved various white-nuckle problems, and escaped before CruIser got holes blown into it. Photos attached:
 

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Nice! Looks like quite a detailed account. I used to live in London for awhile. Lots of great history! :)
 
Some times I am absolutely amazed at the lack of diving history that is or will be lost …

May I suggest that you check at the local used book store or Amazon or e bay for the following books :
Frogman VC
Ian Fraser
Angus & Robertson
1957
Hard cover
215 pages illustrated
No ISBN or LCCC number
This is the divers personal account of the sinking

Also
Frogman!
Commander Crabb's story
(another famous WW11 British diver)

Secret Invaders
about the COPP

And there are many many more great books on WW !1 "frogmen"

Sam Miller III
 
I'm going to have to check out the book on that. All I have to say is that the diver needed no weights, he had some big brass cajones keeping him down. To think about how risky that operation was is unbelievable.
 
The British and Italians both staged a number of missions using frogmen and midget submarines - in fact, it was the Italian successes with "human torpedoes" (basically oversized DPVs with a warhead that would be attached to the target and detonated by timer after the frogmen escaped) at the end of WWI and beginning of WWII that inspired the British to build their own "chariot" copies and later the much larger X-class and XE-class midget subs.

Perhaps the two most spectacular operations along these lines were when the Italians crippled two Royal Navy battleships in the port of Alexandria, Egypt in December 1941 and when the British used X-craft to damage the German battleship Tirpitz in Kafjord, Norway in September 1943. In the former instance, the two frogmen who mined the battleship HMS Valiant were captured and unbeknownst to their captors, placed in the brig right over the mine they had planted. Both survived with minor injuries; the senior of the two, Luigi Durand de la Penne, was decorated by the Italian government after the war. In a gesture from a more chivalrous time, the former captain of HMS Valiant conferred the medal upon the diver who had almost sunk his ship.

Overall, the brass cojones bit is right - those missions were not something you could expect to get free drinks for afterwards. The British attack on the Tirpitz resulted in the loss of five out of the six assigned X-craft with nine dead and six captured.

Managed to find Above Us the Waves on YouTube, which was the 1955 film dramatization of the Tirpitz attack:
 
@HalcyonDaze
@Bubblesong

Thank you for unearthing the long forgotten 1955 British film "Above Us the waves. " I sat at the ole computer and watched it start to finish- most interesting ! the faceplates, the dry suits, and the rebreathers etc

This is the movie version of the book I listed earlier:
Frogman VC
Ian Fraser
Angus & Robertson
1957
Hard cover
215 pages illustrated
No ISBN or LCCC number

There are numerous books on the subject -- I will list when time allows

Sam Miller,III
 
I skimmed through the movie; there were definitely some liberties taken with the actual events but the overall outline was accurate. Tirpitz was the sister ship of the infamous Bismarck; the Germans stationed it and most of their other heavy warships in northern Norway to threaten Allied resupply convoys headed to the Soviet Union. This required the Royal Navy to keep carriers and battleships in the North Sea to cover the convoys (the US Navy also kept at least one battleship in the area), which were needed in other theaters. The first attempt in October 1942 to take out the Tirpitz with "chariots," Operation Title, failed due to both craft breaking their tows in bad weather.

Operation Source used six X-craft, which were assigned to attack three separate German warships. The battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst were holed up in Kafjord while the "pocket battleship" Lutzow was holed up in Langfjord. X5, X6, and X7 were assigned to Tirpitz, X9 and X10 were assigned to Scharnhorst, and X8 was assigned to Lutzow. All six X-craft were initially towed across the North Sea by full-size S- and T-class submarines to a release point near the target, where the three-man passage crew would be replaced by a four-man operations crew. X9 broke its tow in transit and sank with all three members of the passage crew; the two side-cargoes on X8 began leaking and detonated when jettisoned, forcing the crew to abandon ship and scuttle X8. The operational crews boarded the remaining four X-craft on September 20, 1943 and traveled for two days to reach their targets.

Of the four remaining subs, X10 had to abort its mission due to mechanical and navigational difficulties; in any case Scharnhorst was out on maneuvers at the time. X5 disappeared with all hands and its fate is unknown; X6 and X7 managed to drop their charges under the Tirpitz but were attacked during their escape and abandoned. Six of the eight crew survived to be taken prisoner. The Tirpitz took on over 1,400 tons of water, had almost all of its turbogenerators knocked out, and one of the 15-inch main battery turrets was thrown from its bearings. Repairs took six months; another X-craft raid was ruled out as the Germans had tightened their defenses. As Tirpitz was getting up steam for full-power trials on April 3, 1944 a British carrier strike hit the ship and put it out of action for another three months. The Royal Air Force eventually sank the Tirpitz near Tromso on November 12, 1944 with Lancaster bombers using 12,000-lb "Tallboy" bombs.
 
I'm going to have to check out the book on that. All I have to say is that the diver needed no weights, he had some big brass cajones keeping him down. To think about how risky that operation was is unbelievable.

To say the least!!!! Most of us wouldn't even fun dive in that gear today, let alone go blow up a ship with it!!!!
 
Just to clarify, the attack on the heavy Japanese cruiser Takao by the British frogmen, though certainly brave and skillfully executed, had no military significance. The British were not aware that this cruiser was already heavilly damaged by 2 torpedoes from USS Darter and was chained to another damaged cruiser, Myoko. The ships had only skeleton crews, had no no ammo for their 8" guns, and were used as stationary AA batteries. The explosion of the mines under Takao did not sank the ship but damaged it further. She was surrendered to the British with the end of the war and later used as a target and sunk.
 
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Just to clarify, the attack on the heavy Japanese cruiser Takao by the British frogmen, though certainly brave and skillfully executed, had no military significance. The British were not aware that this cruiser was already heavilly damaged by 2 torpedoes from USS Darter and was chained to another damaged cruiser, Myoko. The ships had only skeleton crews, had no no ammo for their 8" guns, and were used as stationary AA batteries. The exposion of the mines under Takao did not sank the ship but damaged it further. She was surrendered to the British with the end of the war and later used as a target and sunk
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What book or article is your source of your events that happened almost 75 years ago ?
sdm
 
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