SILURI UMANI aka "Human Torpedoes" 1954
This Italian war film was produced by Carlo Ponti and Dino De Laurentis and released through Paramount Pictures. The cast is led by Raf Vallone with support from Franco Fabrizi, Nerio Bernardi, Christian Marquand and Carlo (Bud Spencer) Pedersoli.
The film starts in the year before Italy joined the Second World War. At an Italian Navy base the Navy is experimenting with small explosive motor boats. The light one man craft are equipped with a powerful auto engine and loaded with a 660 lb warhead. The boats are to be driven at top speed into the side of enemy ships. While dangerous, the boats are not suicide craft. The one man crew are to lock the controls in place and then leap overboard.
The training, led by the Commanding Officer, Raf Vallone is intense. Several men wash out and one is killed. After the war is joined, the men and their craft are transported to the island of Leros in the Aegean Sea. The Italians have decided to attack Allied shipping using Souda Bay on the Island of Crete. The crew takes full advantage of shore leave while waiting for the right weather conditions.
Raf Vallone is called back to Navy headquarters in Rome for a conference. On the way back, Vallone hops a ride on a submarine. This turns out to be a less than wise idea. The submarine is attacked just off Leros by British aircraft and sent to the bottom. Vallone and 5 others survive in a sealed compartment.
The rest of Vallone's men, all trained divers, join in the rescue attempts. The rescue is very much a touch and go matter for the men trapped. The rescuers just barely manage to get an airline attached in time. They then use a cutting torch to open the damaged escape hatch. Vallone and the others are brought up to safety.
The weather has now turned for the good and the operation is set in motion. Aerial reconnaissance shows several warships and tankers anchored in the bay. On March 25th 1941, two Italian destroyers load the small craft on board and set off. In the dead of night they approach Souda Bay and launch the motor boats, which slowly work their way into the bay. The light craft are able to go over the anti-submarine barriers covering the anchorage.
Now that the 6 boats are inside the anchorage, Vallone signals for full attack speed. The roaring engines alert the British ships and shore batteries that there is something amiss. Fire from the ships and shore destroys one of the boats and kills another of the pilots. Vallone and two other pilots lock their controls and eject into the water.
Two of the boats hit the British heavy cruiser, HMS York, while the third sinks a large tanker. The next morning Vallone and the others are picked out of the water by the British. They spend the rest of the war in POW camps.
This is a pretty good war film with plenty of action and real equipment on display.
A bit of history - The HMS York was badly damaged and had to be beached to prevent her sinking. The ship was scuttled by the Royal Navy two months later to prevent her capture by German paratroopers during the May 1941 invasion of Crete. The large 8,000 ton tanker was re-floated, but sank under tow to Alexandria. There was one other big use of the MT boats by the Italians. They tried an attack on the main harbour at Valletta, Malta. The attack though was spotted on radar and all the boats were destroyed.
Raf Vallone was on screen from 1942 to 2000. TWO WOMEN, EL CID, THE GODFATHER part III, THE Italian JOB, NEVADA SMITH are just a few of his films.
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