Starting from spring 1942 the Germans had deployed in the Black sea, along the Danubian fluvial way, a small but efficient number of coastal motor patrol vessels and submarines. The Germans, however, could not completely afford this urgent necessity. Admiral Reader asked the Italian Navy High Command to take part in these far theaters and on great Ladoga Lake (1) with a mixed flotilla composed of Mas, CB midget submarines, and suicide boats (in Italian "barchini" ="punts").

They were crafts fit to counter the frightening Soviet fleet in the Black Sea, composed of a battleship (Pariskaja Kommuna), four heavy cruisers (among them the Molotov, based on a pre-war Italian project) approximately ten naval destroyers (some of them heavy ones, of the Kharkov class), the flotilla leader Tasken, approximately 29 small and medium tonnage submarines and numerous patrol and transport units.

Favorably impressed by the numerous successes obtained from these assault crafts in the course of the first two years of war in the Mediterranean Sea, Raeder had therefore good reason to consider the Italian support. Tthe first formal request for Italian participation in Black Sea was made by this German Admiral the 14th January 1942, just in light of the great Germanic offensive in South Ukraine. Interestingly enough, it is to be noticed that in the course of the period of co-belligerence (1940-1943), it was the only time in which Germany asked Italy a specific request for military support, just in consideration

MAS at high speed

"..of the superiority of light torpedo crafts, either submarines or surface ones, of the Regia Marina regarding those which we had" [ Raeder, ndr ]

The first big problem was how to deploy these units in the Black Sea. In fact the only reasonable solution was land transport, since the Turkish Dardanelli Strait was closed by international convention to military naval traffic. In order to try to resolve this difficult issue, the Italian Navy Command gave proof of great ability and imagination by preparing in short time a special column composed of 28 motor vehicles, three tractors, nine trucks, tankers and trailers. This long column of vehicles left the base of La Spezia the 25th April and after having successfully passed innumerable obstacles and difficulties (the drivers and the engineers had in some cases, to demolish buildings along the way in order to let the cumbersome vehicles pass), the column reached Wien, where the boats were put in Danube waters. From here they reached the Rumanian port of Costanza (2th May). Starting from this last port of call, with a fast and easy navigation, all the Italian units finally reached the Russian port of Yalta, it would have become their first operative base.

A few days after their arrival in this locality situated along the southern coast of the Crimea peninsula, the Italian units were ready to act against the numerous Soviet warships and transport present in the quadrant of sea situated between the Sevastopol fortress, the Strait of Kerch and the bases of Novorossijsk and Tuapse. From May 1942 to May 1943, Italian units carried out an intense and shining activity, obtaining various sinking and earning the respect of the German allies and of the Russian adversaries.

The 11th and 13th June 1942, the Mas torpedoed and sunk a 5,000 ton steamboat and a 10,000 tons transport (crippled, sunk by Germans Junker 87). Subdivided, for tactical and emergency reasons, among the bases of Yalta and Feodosia, the Italian units had to face the rabid aerial offense of the enemy, who in those zones had beyond 700 aircraft, comprised of either fighters, bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Not being able to count on an adequate aerial protection (the Germans, hardly engaged in the conquest of the fortified system of Sevastopol and Balaclava and then on the front of Mariupol, Rostov, Krasnodar, almost never gave an air escort to Italian crafts), Mas and midget submarines had to endure the first losses. Just at dawn of of the 13th June, a group Soviet fighter and fighter-bombers Yak and Ilijushin, supported by about a dozen torpedo boats, attacked the port of Yalta causing the sinking of the submarine commanded by Sottotenente di Vascello Farolfi. But the loss was nearly compensated by two shining tricolor victories.

In fact, the 15th and the 18th June, in the course of a nocturnal operation, CB submarines number 2 and 3 succeeded to torpedo and sink Soviet submarines S32 and SHCH 306 (with a respective displacement of 1,070 and 705 tons), which were sailing on the surface.

Soviet Submarine S32

On June 18th, the Mas met a day of glory and blood, too. Two Italian units attacked a column of large enemy motor barges loaded with soldiers, escorted by six gunboats, directed toward Sevastopol. In the action, which caused the confirmed sinking of a Soviet transport, Lieutenant Bisagno, who was aboard Mas 571, was mortally wounded.

Between the end of June and the first days of July, Italian units participated, along with Germans and Rumanians, in the conquest of the fortresses of Sevastopol and Balaclava. In these operations, Capitano di Corvetta Todaro, distinguished himself with his unit, by repeatedly attacking the numerous enemy naval crafts (either surface ones and submarines) used to evacuate specialists, political commissaries and high officers of the Soviet Army.

In the course of this huge battle, which took place in the Crimea waters from May to July 1942, the four Mas made 65 war missions, while torpedo motorboats and CB submarines made, respectively, 56 and 24 war missions.

On 29 June, German Admiral Schuster (Chief Commander of Kriegsmarine South Group), in demonstration of the courage and the excellent work of Italian crews and crafts, sent Admiral Riccardi his personal congratulations, pointing out in an official radio communicate

“the fighting spirit of Italian crews commanded by Capitano di Fregata Mimbelli”.

In August, during the Kriegsmarine motor barges flotilla's operations were tasked to move from the Crimea east coast to the Azov Sea in the west coast, men, weapons and supplies destined to support the new offensive towards Caucaso mountains. A Italian Mas was entrusted with the duty to counter enemy gunboats and torpedo motorboats attacks.

The night between 2nd and 3rd August, Mas 573 (Capitano di Corvetta Castagnacci), 568 (Sottotenente Legnani) and 569 (Sottotenente Ferrari) attacked, southwest from Kerch, the heavy cruiser Molotov ("Kirov" class) (2) and naval destroyer Kharkov ("Leningrad" class ), which were enroute to intercept the German transport mission.

The two large Soviet units, commanded by Commodore N.E. Basisty went near the coast, opening fire with their 181, 122 and 100 mm. guns, against objectives situated between Iwan Baba and Feodosia. Realizing the great danger (the attack of a powerful 11,500 ton cruiser, armed with nine 181 mm. guns, against a flotilla of German small barges which were in that part of sea, certainly should have ended in total disaster). The Mas 573 and 568 commanders decided to immediately attack the large enemy unit. Torpedoes from Mas 573 missed, but Legnani's Mas 568 came to a very short distance from the cruiser and launched its two torpedoes: the first missed, while the second succeeded in hitting the aft hull of Molotov cruiser, which was hammering Italian units with its 100 and 45 mm. guns. After the strike, Mas 568 tried to outrun the adversary with a quick evasive maneuver, but was chased at full speed by the destroyer Kharkov, which had arrived to help the Molotov. With remarkable cold blood, Commander Legnani ordered his men to drop from rear all ten little depth charges the unit had aboard, triggering them on the minimal explosion depth. The Depth charges exploded in a fast succession, immediately ahead of the Kharkov, which was still in chase, damaging it so badly that it forced the Russian destroyer to stop the chase. Both the Molotov and Kharkov retired from the combat toward the east to reach their base as soon as possible. Mas 568, which in only 15 minutes succeeded in damaging the two enemy units, managed to return to Yalta, damaged and attacked by some Soviet aircraft that were drawn by the explosions.

On the morning of 3rd August, Mas 573 and 569 returned to Feodosia. After this brilliant action, which ended in the crippling of Molotov (the unit was towed to Bathumi port and put in a shipyard where it needed two years of repairs which saw the complete substitution of about twenty meters of the aft hull: part that was taken from the twin unit Frunze, in that time in construction) and in damaging of Kharkov (the destroyer was in shipyard repair for some weeks), Italian Mas made about a half dozen war missions, sinking only a 3000 ton steamboat.

On 9 September 1942, just after the official visit by Admiral Reader at the Italian base of Yalta, the base was violently attacked by a squadron of Soviet fighter-bombers, which hit and sank Mas 571, Mas 573 and a barge, succeeding also in seriously damaging Mas 567, 569 and 572.

In the period comprised between October 1942 and January 1943 (in the same time of the Russian winter's offensive, which forced Axis forces to surrender at Stalingrad and to withdraw from Caucaso and Don river line) Italian craft activity (either surface and submarine units) was heavily conditioned by the worsening of the conflict and by the shorting in oil supply, at the point that the Command of Italian Navy decided to allow the crews to return home, leaving the German sailors all remaining operating crafts (a part of the German sailors were trained at the Italian base of Pola, in Istria, and in the motor factory Isotta Fraschini, in Milan).

In spite of this, from January to March 1943 Italian units continued to fight. on April 17, during the German operation to re-conquest a large bridgehead in Novorossjisk area, seven Mas (losses during 1942 were replaced with the arrival of new crafts from Italy) along with some German torpedo motorboats, were deployed at Anapa to attack the Russian coastal traffic. After some fruitless combats, all operations in that sector were suspended on April 25th.

MAS in the Black Sea

After having abandoned Feodosia and Iwan Baba bases, which was too exposed to the rising Russian air offensive, the talian Mas made their last mission off Yalta on May 13th. On May 20th, in the course of an official ceremony, Italians left their crafts to the Kriegsmarine. The last units with Italian crews that continued to operate in the Black sea were CB coastal submarines, which, from the new Sevastopol base madeanother 21 missions, from June to August 1943; among these only one (that from 25th to 26th August) had a positive result: CB commanded by Tenente di Vascello Armando Sibille succeeded to torpedo and to sink a Russian submarine of unidentified class. After this, the last submarines were withdrawn and stored in the Rumanian Costanza port, where in August 1944, they were captured (in very bad condition) by the Russians.

NOTES: On Ladoga Lake, the 12th Mas Squadron (units N.527 e 528) was commanded by Capitano di Corvetta Bianchini. The crafts were transported from La Spezia to the coast of this great lake, situated north of St. Petersburg, by a truck column that made more than 3,100 kilometers in 26 days. On 15 August, 1942, the two Italian torpedo motorboats began their brilliant if limited activity with the sinking by Mas 527 commanded by Tenente di Vascello Renato Bechi, of a Soviet gunboat of the "Bira" class. The 28th August, Mas 528 sank an enemy unit: a large "maona" with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons, loaded with soldiers. On the 29th September the two Italian Mas tried to torpedo a Russian armed motorbarge and on 22 October, a few days before the lake's glaciation, they had their last battle, attacking with torpedoes and machine guns three enemy gunboats nearby. In November, the two Mas were given to Finland Navy and the crews returned in Italy.

Molotov cruiser. This unit was classified by Russian Registry as "light" but, if it is compared with similar units in other Navies of the same period, its result for tonnage and armament, make it more similar to a "heavy" type.

CRUISER MOLOTOV STATISTICS

Construction Marti shipyards, Nikolaiev: construction Nov.1936, launched 03/22/1939, commissioned 06/16/1941
Displacement Normal: 8,800, Full: 11,500
Dimensions (Meters) L: 191.5, W: 18, D: 6.1
Engines 6 Boilers and 2 Turbines for 110,000 HP
Speed 30-35 Knots
Range 3,500 miles at 19 knots
Armor Vertical 76, Horizontal 51
Armament (mm) 9- 181/57 mm; 6 - 100/47 mm; from 6 to14 - 45/46 mm a.a.; 6 - 533 mm. torpedo launchers ; one aircraft launcher and two aircraft.
Crew 730

Article and Photos provided courtesy Alberto Rosselli