La Linea connection

Many attacks were made on shipping in the anchorage of Gibraltar, both from the Olterra and a new position, the Villa Carmela, close to the shore in La Linea, Spain, only 400 yards from a convoy of merchant ships anchored there.  The villa had been acquired by Antonio Ramogino as a base for the Italian swimming attack frogmen (the Gruppa Gamma) under the pretence of an extended honeymoon home for himself and his wife Conchita. (I was to meet her later in Venice, when she referred to the villa as the most advanced base of the Italian Navy in enemy waters).

Villa Carmela (Pic: Regia Marina Italiana)

On one memorable night, there came from the villa a group of swimming frogmen towing limpet mines, which they placed under the British Merchant ships "Meta", "Shuma", "Baron Douglas" and "Empire Snipe". All of them were sunk or damaged. One of the frogmen, Vago Giari, in later years was to become a very good friend and brave diving companion of mine. But that´s another story!

Italian diver Vago Giari - a dear friend who I am hoping to visit in Italy some time

Olterra becomes Italian HQ in Spain

The Italian 4900ton tanker Olterra in Algeciras

When Italy entered the war an innocent looking merchant ship, the Olterra, limped out of the Mediterranean Sea and into the Spanish port of Algeciras, only a few miles across the bay from Gibraltar. Her engine was supposedly broken down. In the autumn of 1942, Italian naval officers and engineers arrived secretly in Algeciras and started work turning the Olterra into a base for two-man torpedo attacks on Gibraltar. The Spanish were led to believe that the ship was simply having repairs but this was not the case, of course, for they were busy cutting a large hatch into the hull - well below the water line - for the exit and entry of the two-man torpedoes that were to be assembled inside her hull.