Captain Tony Speir addressed the October meeting of "Midget Submarine Warfare".

Leonardo da Vinci was the first to conceive the idea of using a small underwater craft to sink opposing warships. The first known midget submarine attack took place during the American War of Independence in 1776 when the Turtle, manned by Ezra Lee, attacked the Eagle. The attack took the form of an attempt to drill a hole through the bottom of the Eagle. This was thwarted due to the fact that the Eagle had recently had a copper bottom installed. The first successful attack occurred during the American Civil War when the Confederate vessel Hunley successfully sank the Housatonic in 1864.

In mid 1918 the Austro-Hungarian fleet was holed up in Pola. Two Italian officers volunteered to make an attack. They constructed a 23 foot long submarine that they could ride astride - the first "chariot". After successfully negotiating 8 sets of booms and other obstacles they succeeded in attaching their charges to the battleship Viribis Unibis.

During the Second World War British midget submarines, known as X Craft, were designed to penetrate harbours. They had a crew of four and a range of 36 hours submerged travel at 4/5 knots. They normally had two crews, a towing crew and a fighting crew, and were towed to the target. The X Craft carried out many attacks and testimony to the bravery of their crews is provided by the fact that 4 V.C.s, 64 other awards for bravery and over 100 mentions in despatches were awarded to their crews. The most famous X Craft Attack was that launched on the German battleship Tirpitz. Six X Craft were employed in this attack. Two were lost en route and a third was forced to return home. Three X Craft entered the fjord, but, one was lost in the attack. The remaining X Craft were successful in dropping their charges. The Tirpitz was severely damaged and immobilized.

Italian midget submarines were used in attacks on Valetta, Gibraltar and Alexandria. During the latter attack the British battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant were extensively damaged, the former being out of action for 17 months and the latter for 7 months.

The Japanese made extensive use of midget submarines. During the attack on Pearl Harbour 5 Japanese midget submarines were sunk - the first U.S. shot of the war being fired at one. In May 1942 an unsuccessful attack was launched on Sydney Harbour. Another force attacked Diego Suarez in Madagascar. The British battleship H.M.S. Ramillies was torpedoed and a tanker, the British Loyalty sunk. Ramillies went first to Durban and then the U.K., eventually, being out of commission for a year. U.S. forces were also attacked at Guadalcanal, and, on the 5th January 1945, an unsuccessful attack was launched on the cruiser carrying General Macarthur.

The-Germans developed their submarines late in the war. In August 1944 they were used in an attack on Allied shipping off the coast of France. A daring attack on the bridge at Nijmegan was also attempted.

Captain Ivor Little proposed the vote of thanks for an extremely interesting lecture.

The meeting opened with the viewing of the second part of a video of the 125th Anniversary re-enactment of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Future Meetings

Johannesburg - November 9th - Mr. John Morrison - "Arnhem: A Glider Pilot Remembers".

- December 14th Film Evening.

Durban - November 9th - Mr. Vic Conrad - "The October Russian Revolution, 1917".

Cape Town - November 9th - Mr. Doug Clark - "The Steps to Bosworth Field".

The Johannesburg Meetings take place in the J.C. Lemmer Auditorium, S.A. National Museum of Military History, Saxonwold, Johannesburg at 20h00.

STEWART STILES