Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II

armoured deck slowed it down fractionally, so that it
exploded in the forward magazine beneath. She broke
in two and sank within 40 minutes, carrying 1255
men down with her, including the commanding admiral,
Bergamini. Her sister-ship the Italia was also hit
by a missile which passed through the deck and side
just forward of 'A' turret (ie, the most forward turret)
before exploding in the sea. She took in 800 tonnes
(787 tons) of water, but managed to make Malta,
though she played no further part in the war.
More successes followed. On 11 September, the
10,000 tonne (9842-ton) American cruiser USS
Savannah was disabled, as, two days later, was HMS
Uganda (8500 tonnes; 8365 tons). Better still was the
attack Jope himself carried out on the 33,000-tonne
(32,478-ton) British battleship HMS Warspite, which
was giving fire support off the Salerno beaches. The
missile hit the Warspite amidships, and penetrated six
decks before exploding against the bottom of the ship,
blowing a large hole in her. She took in a total of 5000
tonnes (4921 tons) of water, lost steam (and thus all
power, both to the ship herself and to all her systems),
and had to be taken in tow. She reached Malta but was
out of action for the next 12 months. The British
AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILES
Above: The Ruhrstahl X-1, also known as the Tritz-X', was
one of the least sophisticated air-to-surface weapons, but
one of the most successful. On 9 September 1943, two of
these guided bombs sank the Italian battleship Roma.
cruiser HMS Spartan and the destroyer HMS Janus
were also sunk by X-ls, and the American cruiser
USS Philadelphia was badly damaged.
THEHENSCHELHs293
The Ruhrstahl X-1 development programme began at
around the same time that Wagner's team at Henschel
began work on the Hs 293. Surprisingly, development
took longer, but it proved to be much simpler to train
aircrew to 'fly' the bomb than the missile, and the two
were eventually deployed together. Initially, the RLM
had tried to persuade Henschel to produce a missile
which levelled out just above the water some distance
before reaching the target, and another which would
actually submerge and act like a conventional torpedo,
but the company refused on the grounds that such
a course would be too ambitious, since there was no
experience on which to draw. Instead, it put forward
the concept of a straightforward guided glider bomb,