Raffaele Rossetti

Raffaele Rossetti (12 July 1881 – 24 December 1951) was an Italian engineer and military naval officer who sank the main battleship of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I. He was also a politician of the Italian Republican Party.

Born at Genoa, Raffaele Rossetti graduated as engineer from the University of Turin in September 1904. He went to study in the Italian Naval Academy of Livorno, where become lieutenant for the Italian Navy Engineering Corps.

In December 1906 he graduated in the speciality of "naval mechanics engineering" at the Politecnico di Milano.

In 1909 was promoted to captain and in 1911 went to Libya during the Italo-Turkish War with the cruiser Pisa. During the first years of World War I worked as Director of the Navy Arsenal in La Spezia and was promoted to major.

While working there he started to create a new weapon, based on his idea of a torpedo manned by a person, to be linked to enemy vessels underwater and explode under the ship hull. This weapon was called "mignatta" (leech) and was the precursor of the maiale of World War II and the actual human torpedo.

At the 1st November 1918 Rossetti used his "mignatta" to assault the formerly Austrian battleship Viribus Unitis, which, unknown to him (the transfer had taken places a few hours before the action, when Rizzo had already left his base) had already changed hands to the newly established State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. After entering the Pola harbour undetected, Rossetti placed limpet mines below the hull of the battleship; he was however discovered and captured, and he informed the crew that the ship was going to sink, although he did not reveal that he had placed mines on the hull. However, the explosions were delayed, and the crew started reboarding the ship, believing he was lying. Shortly thereafter, the mines exploded, causing the Viribus Unitis to capsize and sink, with heavy loss of life. Rossetti was awarded the Italian Gold Medal of Military Valor. This event is generally known as Raid on Pula.

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