On 31 October 1918, King Carl I of Austria-Hungary ordered Vice Admiral Horti and his Germanic and Hungarian officers and men to withdraw from Bora, the empire's largest military port, and to transfer naval power to the newly established Slovenian-Croatian Republic of Serbia. Rear Admiral Vukovich was appointed Commander of the Navy of the New Republic and Captain of the Dreadnought United Forces.
Vice Admiral Horthy during World War I
Across the Adriatic Sea, the Italians did not recognize each other's legal status, viewing Bora as an integral part of their territory. And to achieve this great goal, it is necessary to strike the opponent continuously and ferociously. Of course, it is best not to bleed in the process. Later, this apparent paradox of war was proved by a naval doctor and was perfectly feasible.
USS Naval Force Dreadnought
Raphael. Lieutenant Pauluzzi, Italian Navy medic. Obviously, this is a whimsical guy. The rigorous, stereotypical ward and the beautiful female nurse could not satisfy his passionate imagination and abundant energy. Mr. Lieutenant has always had a startling interest in special attacks on the port of Bora. Due to the large number of driftwood and other defensive barriers in the port, the MAS could not slip in at all. But Pauluzzi had his own solution, believing that he could reach the warship's berth by swimming 3 kilometers with enough explosives. The lieutenant's favorite sport, therefore, was to swim in open water carrying a bucket of the same weight as explosives.
At the red circle is the Italian-obsessed Bora
The Emperor's heavens paid off. Pauluzzi's persistence convinced his superiors that he was the perfect candidate for the task, but did not include his Iron Man plan. The medic was then introduced to the La Spezia Navy Yard, where he met his partner, another Major Rossetti named Raphael, and his new invention, the leech. It was an underwater weapon modified from a 600 mm torpedo, with a total length of 8 meters, a weight of 1.5 tons, a maximum speed of 1.7 knots, and the original warhead was transformed into two detachable magnetic warheads, each filled with 400 pounds of TNT explosives. During the operation, two crew members in diving suits boarded a torpedo, rose or descended in the water through the regulating valve on the switching mine body, and after using a semi-submersible posture to covertly approach the enemy ship, the magnetic warhead was removed and fixed to the bottom of the target ship, the explosion time was set, and then the remaining mine body was withdrawn.
Special combat equipment leeches, the operator is quite hard
After a period of training, the two Raphaels arrived outside the port of Bora on the evening of October 31, 1918, aboard a MAS-95. Taking advantage of the night, they changed into rubber waterproof suits and rode on the torpedo, followed the trend, adjusted the torpedo to the depth of the head just exposed to the water, and carefully rotated the leech by swinging the limbs to increase the resistance, and slowly sailed to the sleeping harbor. It was 22:13. At the entrance, Rossetti turned off the propeller, and the two men spent a quarter of an hour approaching the first obstacle with their hands and feet, illuminated by a searchlight. This is a large iron barrel obstacle area connected by steel cables. They had to use artificial pitch to lift the torpedo through these iron barrel arrays, and after a lot of effort to clear the customs, before they could react, a submarine that only exposed the command tower slowly passed in front of the two. Under the nervous gaze of the Italians, nothing happened.
Major Raphael Rossetti, inventor of the leech, best partner of Pauluzzi
After the submarine left, they restarted the motor and slipped toward the nearby breakwater. Rossetti and Leech hide in the shadows, and The Iron Man Pauluzzi is in charge of head-to-head exploration. Unfortunately, he found a gate-shaped barrier made up of heavy logs studded with metal nails. At this point the tide changed direction, the sky was raining with hail, and the cold, overloaded physical output did not flinch the two Italians, who spent nearly four more hours struggling against the current, passing two obstacles. It was past their supposed rendezvous with the MAS-95, but neither Raphael wanted to give up halfway, for the Italians had the same concept of time, and more importantly, the huge dreadnought of The Combined Forces appeared in front of them.
Raphael. Mr. Pauluzzi
At 4:45, Rossetti and Pauluzzi finally reached the side of the Combined Forces, when the morning light first appeared. When they began to load and unload the warhead, the torpedo sank sharply, and it turned out that one of the intake valves on the mine was accidentally opened, and Pauluzzi hurried to close it, and the torpedo was restored to balance. Exhausted, the two rested for several minutes. After waiting for the gasp, Rossetti first installed a warhead and set the timed explosive device at 6:30. Just as the two were busy, the sentries on the ship found them and immediately organized people to capture the brothers alive. Pauluzzi hurriedly threw away the second warhead, and Rossetti emptied the compressed air from the torpedo and let it sink to the bottom of the sea.
The descendants of leeches, pig-like people torpedoes, and the Italians of World War II used it to do many earth-shattering things
Soon, the two Italians were brought before Captain Vukovic. At first, they just kept asking for prisoner-of-war treatment until the clock came to 6 o'clock. Rossetti suddenly said to Vukovich: Your ship is very dangerous, please abandon the ship as soon as possible. Vukovich was calm and asked the two to give a clear explanation. Rossetti responded: "I can't say it now, but in a moment the warship will explode." When Vukovich heard this, he did not hesitate to order that the Italians had planted bombs on the ship and that everyone should leave at once. The Combined Forces suddenly became lively, and the sailors hurriedly put down their dinghies and prepared to abandon the ships. At this time, Rossetti made an escape request to Vukovich, and to his surprise, the captain happily agreed. As a result, when the two Italians ran happily to the side of the ship and jumped into the water, they were not long before they were caught again by the angry sailors in the boat next to them, and then twisted back to the United Forces.
Left: Pauluzzi; right: Rossetti
On deck, hysterical sailors pressed the Italians where the bomb was hiding, but were quickly stopped by Captain Vukovich, who had heard about it. At this time, the time was exactly 6:30, And Rossetti and Pauluzzi looked at each other, what happened? Why didn't it explode? It is conceivable that at that time, every face on the scene had a big embarrassment written on it. The sailors on the ship were confused and did not know whether to go or stay, the sailors on the dinghy did not know whether to paddle farther or return to the ship, and the so-called bomb was more like an excuse for the Italians to escape in the chaos. It wasn't until 6:44 that a dull explosion accompanied by a huge column of water came from the bow of the ship, and the atmosphere finally came alive, and the Italians won the respect of everyone with their efforts! So the second round of dumplings began. At this point Rossetti again asked Vukovic to escape, and the captain shook them with dignity and pointed to a cable on the side of the ship.
lifeboat
When the two jumped on the lifeboat, they looked back at the huge Joint Force constantly tilting, and finally couldn't help but cry bitterly, all of which was really hard-won. The climax of the eternal tragedy is that in full view of everyone, Captain Vukovich jumped from the highest point of the keel exposed on the water, and when he managed to get rid of the whirlpool and surfaced, he was hit in the head by a huge wooden beam and then disappeared. At 7 o'clock, the United Forces sank in the port of Bora, and more than 300 people on board were killed.
The United Forces in a rollover were surrounded by fleeing sailors
Rossetti and Pauluzzi were then escorted to a medical ship for treatment. There, they learned that another warhead had sent God to glue the 7,400-ton medical ship, the Vienna, and sink it. On 4 November, Italy and Austria signed a peace treaty, and two days later the Italians took over the port of Bora, and the two Raphaels regained their freedom. Back home, they were both warmly welcomed by the populace, and both received gold medals of valor and prizes of 1.3 million lire. Rossetti passed the prize money to Vukovich's widow, calling it "a model of great and generous humanity."