Spartaco Schergat - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Spartaco Schergat was an Italian military frogman during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

Biography

Schergat was born in Istria

Istria

Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...

from an Italian irredentist

Italia irredenta

Italian irredentism was an Italian Irredentist movement that aimed at the unification of all ethnically Italian peoples....

and as a voluntary entered in the Royal Italian Navy in 1940. He was a friend of Luigi Durand de la Penne

Luigi Durand De La Penne

Luigi Durand de la Penne was an Italian naval diver in Decima MAS during World War II. De la Penne was born in Genoa, where he also died.De la Penne graduated from the Italian Naval Academy in Livorno in 1934...

, who enrolled him in the elite Decima MAS

Decima Flottiglia MAS

The Decima Flottiglia MAS was an Italian commando frogman unit of the Regia Marina created during the Fascist regime.The acronym MAS also refers to various light torpedo boats used by the Regia Marina during World...

(XMAS).

He is famous because sank -with a "maiale"- the English battleship Queen Elizabeth
HMS Queen Elizabeth (1913)
HMS Queen Elizabeth was the lead ship of the Queen Elizabeth-class of dreadnought battleships, named in honour of Elizabeth I of England. She saw service in both World Wars...

in 1941 during the Raid on Alexandria

Raid on Alexandria (1941)

The Raid on Alexandria was carried out on 19 December 1941 by Italian Navy forces attacking Royal Navy forces in the harbour of Alexandria.-Background:...

. For this military action he received the Italian gold medal in the Second World War

After 1943 he collaborated with the Allies until the end of the war, with the Royal Navy of Badoglio government in southern Italy.

He was elected in the 1950s as deputy of an Italian far right party (MSI

Italian Social Movement

The Italian Social Movement , and later the Italian Social Movement–National Right , was a neo-fascist and post-fascist political party in Italy. Formed in 1946 by supporters of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the party became the fourth largest party in Italy by the early 1960s...

). In 1996 Spartaco Schergat died -after a long struggle with cancer- in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

Sinking of the Queen Elizabeth

As part of a team of divers of the X MAS he took part in the human torpedo

Human torpedo

Human torpedoes or manned torpedoes are a type of rideable submarine used as secret naval weapons in World War II. The basic design is still in use today; they are a type of diver propulsion vehicle....

attacks on British vessels in the Mediterranean. In December 1941, he was one of a team of six (Luigi Durand de la Penne with Emilio Bianchi; Antonio Marceglia with Spartaco Schergat; Vincenzo Martellotta with Mario Marino) who attacked Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

harbour. They used the new Italian secret torpedo S.L.C. ("Siluro Lenta Corsa", also known as "maiale"), a small underwater assault vehicle with a crew of two. As a result, four ships were sunk in Alexandria

Alexandria

: the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

battleships Queen Elizabeth

HMS Queen Elizabeth (1913)

HMS Queen Elizabeth was the lead ship of the Queen Elizabeth-class of dreadnought battleships, named in honour of Elizabeth I of England. She saw service in both World Wars...

(by Marceglia and Schergat) and Valiant

HMS Valiant (1914)

HMS Valiant was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship of the British Royal Navy. She was laid down at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan on 31 January 1913 and launched on 4 November 1914...

(by Martellotta and Marino), and the oilship Sagona with the destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

Jervis.

Spartaco Schergat placed personally the limpet mine

Limpet mine

A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets; they are so named because of their superficial similarity to the limpet, a type of mollusk....

under the hull of the Queen Elizabeth.

Although the two capital ships sank only in a few feet of water and were eventually raised, they were out of action for over one year.

This represented a dramatic change of fortunes against the Allies from the strategic point of view in the central Mediterranean during the next half-year or more. The Italian fleet -with the Alexandria Raid- had achieved naval supremacy in the Mediterranean sea, called in that year Italy's Mare Nostrum by fascist propaganda.

Biography

Sinking of the Queen Elizabeth

See also