Italian auxiliary ship Olterra
| Italian auxiliary ship Olterra | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean of World War II | |||||||
Olterra at anchor shortly before being broken up at Vado Ligure, 1961 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| United Kingdom | Italy | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Lionel Crabb |
Licio Visintini † Ernesto Notari | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Harbour defences |
1 mother ship 9 human torpedoes | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
6 merchant ships sunk 2 sailors killed |
3 divers killed 3 prisoners 2 manned torpedoes lost | ||||||
The auxiliary ship Olterra was a 5,000 GRT Italian tanker scuttled by her crew at Algeciras in the Bay of Gibraltar on 10 June 1940, after the entry of Italy into the Second World War. She was recovered in 1942 by a special unit of the Decima Flottiglia MAS to be used as a clandestine base for manned torpedoes to attack Allied shipping at Gibraltar.