The Silent Enemy (1958)
The Silent Enemy (1958)
The Silent Enemy
The story begins with a dramatisation of the Italian manned torpedo raid on Alexandria (1941) in which two British battleships were sunk. The British are worried that this new Italian tactic will give the enemy naval supremacy in the Mediterranean.
From Spain, an Italian expert on underwater operations is secretly watching the British base in Gibraltar and planning new attacks.
Maverick diver Lionel Crabb is brought in to head the British response. He creates a team of divers to intercept the Italian attacks and defuse the bombs. The Italians plan a major attack on a British convoy, but Crabb and another diver manage to infiltrate the Spanish docks from which the Italians are planning the attack, identifying the ship (the Olterra) which the Italians attack from.
Crabb leads an unauthorised pre-emptive strike on the ship carrying the torpedoes and destroys it, winning the George Medal.
18 Jul 1958