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voor de liefhebbers van midget submarines in Poolse boekjes :)

Secrets of Gibraltar (1960)
aka Tajemnice Gibraltaru (Miniatury morskie 049)
by Jan Piwowoncki

A special unit was established at La Spezia to train underwater naval crews and on 18 August 1940 the Italian submarine Iride was located and sunk near Tobruk by British ships whilst carrying three 'pigs' and their crews. On 30 October 1940 another Italian submarine - the Gondar - was successfully attacked by British forces some 22 miles [35 km] off Alexandria and sunk with her complement of three 'pigs' and their crews including, Lt Toschi, one of the inventors of the 'pig', who was taken prisoner. On the same night a sister submarine - the Scire - launched three 'pigs' off Algeciras in an attack on Gibraltar harbour. Due to mechanical defects, two 'pigs' sunk but their crews were able to swim to the Spanish coast and were repatriated to Italy. The other crew got to within 100 yards [91 m] of the British cruiser 'Barham' before their 'pig' also broke down and they were forced to give themselves up. The British Navy were able to salvage one of the 'pigs' which was subjected to a very detailed examination.

Another attack delivered from the same submarine took place at Gibraltar on 6 May 1941 but all three 'pigs' sank without reaching their targets.

In July 1941, two 'pigs' accompanied by eight motor torpedo boats succeeded in penetrating the harbour at Valetta, Malta, but all were destroyed before they could attack, and the other inventor of the 'pig', Lt Tesei, was killed.

On the night of 20 September 1941 the Scire was back at Gibraltar with yet another complement of three 'pigs' and this time all successfully penetrated the defences and placed their charges under two tankers and an ammunition ship, all of which were sunk. Another large merchant ship was badly damaged by the blast and all six crewmen reached their 'safe house' in Algeciras after scuttling their craft in deep water.

Publisher: Wydawnictwo Morskie 
Series: Miniatury morskie - Epizody z Drugiej Wojny Swiatowej na Morzu
First published: 1960 
Language: Polish
Format: PDF 
Pages: 68
Size: 15 Mb

Thanks to Backfire66 & Starboard :)