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Luigi Durand de la Penne

Luigi Durand de la Penne
Born 11 February 1914
Genoa, Italy
Died 17 January 1992 (aged 77)
Genoa, Italy
Allegiance  Kingdom of Italy
 Italian Republic
Service/branch  Regia Marina
Italy Marina Militare
Years of service 1934–1956
Rank Vice Admiral
Unit Decima Mas
Battles/wars Italo-Ethiopian War
World War II
Other work Member of Italian Parliament

Luigi Durand de la Penne (11 February 1914 – 17 January 1992) was an Italian Navy naval diver in the 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. He joined the Decima MAS in 1935.

On 22 August 1940, in the Gulf of Bomba, the Italian submarine Iride, being a human torpedo carrier, was sunk by a torpedo released by a British Fairey Swordfish bomber. The air attack happened during an exercise, in shallow water, when four human torpedo squads were around, including officers Teseo Tesei and Luigi Durand de la Penne. The divers were able to make an immediate rescue action. Of the 12 Iride crewmen who survived, two died during an unsuccessful attempt to surface, nine were retrieved alive (two of them died soon, due to wounds), and one was too shocked to leave the sunken submarine. De la Penne tried to persuade him to surface, and even gave him his own aqualung, but the seaman refused surfacing and died.

As part of a team of divers he took part in the human torpedo attacks on British vessels in the Mediterranean. In December 1941, he was one of a team of six (Emilio Bianchi, his second; Antonio Marceglia with Spartaco Schergat; Vincenzo Martellotta with Mario Marino) that attacked Alexandria harbour. They used an Italian manned torpedo known as S.L.C. (Siluro Lenta Corsa, also known as "maiale"), actually a small underwater assault vehicle with a crew of two. As a result, four ships were disabled: the British battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth (by Marceglia and Schergat) and HMS Valiant (by Martellotta and Marino), and the oil tanker Sagona and the destroyer HMS Jervis. De la Penne personally placed the limpet mine under the hull of the Valiant.


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