Chariot manned torpedo

The Chariot was inspired by the operations of Italian naval commandos, in particular the raid on 19 December 1941 by members of the Decima Flottiglia MAS who rode "Maiali" manned torpedoes into the port of Alexandria and there placed limpet mines on or near the battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth as well as an 8,000-ton tanker, causing serious damage which put both battleships out of operational use until 1943.

[7] The Mk.II is easily visually distinguishable from the Mk.I in that the crew would sit fully enclosed within the hull save for their heads which would protrude.

A Chariot's limited range meant that it had to be transported relatively close to its objective before its crew could ride it to the target under its own power.

Two Chariots were transported to occupied Norway in October 1942 aboard a fishing vessel, the Arthur, with the objective of attacking the German battleship Tirpitz in Trondheim Fjord.

In order to avoid detection by the Germans, the unmanned Chariots were towed submerged under the vessel for part of the way, but both worked loose in bad weather and were lost.

[4] Later in the war, due to problems encountered with this method, Chariots were instead secured to the deck of the submarine using chocks.

Nevertheless, interspersed among a number of technical equipment failures and bad luck, there were some notable successes, which are set out below.

On 3 January 1943 a number of Chariots launched from the submarines HMS Thunderbolt and HMS Trooper attacked and sank the Italian Capitani Romani-class cruiser the Ulpio Traiano in Palermo harbour, and severely damaged the Italian troop ship, a former ocean liner, Viminale.

[10] At the same time P311 was scheduled to attack targets at La Maddalena; the Italian heavy cruiser Gorizia and Trieste.