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Memories of an Italian Naval Signalman Part One 鈥� Enlisting in 1937 and at war with the Allies 10th June 1940

Part one of an oral history interview with Mr. Artemio Ettore Torselli conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

Mr. Artemio Ettore Torselli was born in the Borganovo Val Tidone Hospital, Italy on 24th January 1920. Mr. Torselli and some friends decided to volunteer for the Royal Navy and he reported for duty on 27th October 1937 at the Naval Depot in Venice. Mr. Torselli undertook a signalman鈥檚 course. Having missed his boat for Embassy duty in the Far East Mr. Torselli was assigned to the light cruiser 鈥楤artolomeo Colleoni鈥� (5,000 tons) for two years service in the Far East. Mr. Torselli visited Port Arthur, Peking, Tien Tsin, Nagasaki, Yokohoma and Tokyo during the first year of this tour.

鈥淥n the 2nd of September 1939 we were at Dairen, North Korea, we used to re-fuel and water. I don鈥檛 know perhaps the Italian Navy had a contractor, so we used to re-fuel and water complete. We got the navigation order at 2.30 in the morning to leave, to sail from Dairen to Seoul, the capital of Korea on an official visit to the then Emperor of Korea. It was expected to last about a week, something like that. I was on the Command Bridge as an Able Signalman. My duty was to midnight and then I was relieved by another one and the usual, you know when we relieved each other, we used to say, 鈥楢nything new on the horizon?鈥� sort of thing. I said, 鈥楴o, so far it is still sailing order at 2.30 in the morning.鈥� I left and went to my hammock to have a sleep and when I got up in the morning I went on the Bridge and I looked at the sun, 鈥榦h, we have changed course, we have inverted the course now.鈥� Some of the other sailors they knew what the position was, 鈥榃here are we going?鈥� some of us asked, 鈥榃here are we going?鈥� 鈥榳ell we are going to Seoul.鈥� We knew or somebody heard different, 鈥極h, you have? 鈥榦h,鈥� he said, 鈥� alright.鈥� So he went on the Command Bridge to the Officer and he said, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 up?鈥� Only two or three hours after sailing we got orders from Rome to invert the course, go back to Dairen, re-fuel completely for immediate and wait for orders.

鈥榃hy?鈥� 鈥楨ngland has started the war.鈥� 鈥極h, dear鈥� we said, 鈥榯hat is a nasty happening.鈥� Later in the day because we were in contact with Rome all the time with the radio operator on board we had before at Peking. There was a POWerful radio station at the Italian Embassy to communicate with Italy but we had a new radio transmitter that we could communicate, it was very powerful, we could communicate with all the world. So we were by the Navy Department ordered to invert the course, go back to Dairen, re-fuel and wait for orders.

Later in the day or next morning we got the orders, I think actually at the time the Captain asked to be allowed to call in Shanghai because we鈥檇 got some gear there because there was some marine, there was a gun boat. So we got permission to leave Dairen for Shanghai then we would get further order from Shanghai. We were two or three days in Shanghai. I鈥檓 just recapping the position because we were a few days in Dairen then we sailed into Shanghai and we were there a little while and we left Shanghai on the 1st of October 1939. Then we, as England was at war, the Italian Navy Department asked permission from the British Navy if we could re-fuel at Singapore. We got permission and we were told when we reached a point along the Malaysian coast then you will meet a British Destroyer to lead you through the mine field to a position where you can re-fuel. And so we did, when got to that certain position we met this Destroyer called that and it said, 鈥楩ollow us鈥� and so we did and to the point where we dropped the anchor. We re-fuelled there and then you see we left, we were there two or three days, something like that. The next call was at Massaua which was a Naval base on the Red Sea, on the Italian colony Eritrea.

On the way from Singapore one morning in the distance on the horizon we see a big liner and of course I happened to be on duty on Command Bridge and the Officer, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 that ship?鈥� I said, 鈥極K!鈥� I looked I could see the flag, French flag on the stern of the ship, I said, 鈥榦h, he鈥檚 a French liner.鈥� Well I think France entered the war at the same time as England so we weren鈥檛 at war and I said, 鈥楢lright,鈥� I watched this liner and I could see through the long distance binocular I could see that there was something wrong on board that ship. Because they were running about and putting out the rescue boats and things like that, I told the Officer of the Watch, I said, 鈥業s something wrong with that ship because it looks like, unexpected like that 鈥� 鈥� and he said 鈥榃e can鈥檛 do anything.鈥� 鈥楴o,鈥� I said, and then I noticed our turret guns were manoeuvring and exercising like they used to do all the time, I spotted them and said to the Officer, 鈥榯here you are, the guns are manoeuvring and they got the wind up on that liner, like that!鈥� So I said, 鈥業 would advise to tell the Gunnery First Officer to stop manoeuvring鈥� so they stopped and so the Officer of the Watch said, 鈥楯ust ask where they come from?鈥� on the International system. So I asked and they said where they are coming from and I wished them bon voyage and that was that.

We got to the Aden Gulf before the Indian Ocean one afternoon and it was very warm. And we were just on the wings of the Command Bridge, there were passage ways and looking across the sea because there were the dolphins swimming a group of 10 to 15, something like that. It was so nice, they came over and down like that, all in the same, we found it very interesting. So the Officer of the Watch was with me watching the dolphins all of a sudden we heard a gun fire. The Officer said, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 that?鈥� 鈥業 don鈥檛 know!鈥� he said, 鈥榬ight.鈥� We went round the other side looking towards the Gulf of Aden and we see this smoke with gun fire. The Officer said, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 that?鈥� I said, 鈥業 guess it鈥檚 directed to us because there is no other shipping in the area.鈥� So I answered with a morse system and they asked 鈥業dentify Yourself. 鈥� So I gave them the international name of the ship, IACU it was international sign - that was the four letters that told it was an Italian registered ship because Italy, every ship had got an identity group of letters like that. I told the Officer of the Watch, 鈥楾his is mighty strange we know Aden is a British Colony and England is at war but they can see the bloomin鈥� Italian flag on the mast and the name of the ship, I don鈥檛 know.鈥� So I answered and I gave them the name at the end of the signal and alright and off we go. We called at Massaua, it was an Italian Naval Base, and there somebody had got a barmy idea to say that we were going to be based there. Oooh, good grief! The personnel of the engine room they said, 鈥榃e are not going to stay here, something is going to happen. I鈥檓 going to drop something on my toes or I put my hand on a steam carrying pipe and so that I鈥檒l be sent to Italy for health reason.鈥� We were pretty worried because Massaua was, ooh dear, hell, temperature up to 50潞, something like that. But after two or three days we got order, 鈥榬eady to sail at such a time鈥� like that, that was 鈥� talk about pleasant!

But before then when we came out of the Suez Canal at Port Said, when it was getting dark they fixed up a picture show on the deck and the Egyptians were on the canal bank watching the film while they worked, quite strange you know. Laughter! When we got out oh, after midnight I went on duty on the Command Bridge and we entered the Mediterranean. A gale force 9, it was tipping the superstructure any old how, like that, and the temperature, we were in shorts and it was dropping all the time, put a duffle coat on and the uniform but I was still cold. Oh, after two days when we got in view of the Italian coast there was a mountain and there was snow on the top.

And we got ordered to call in to Italy, to Gaeta, a great Naval base there. But we didn鈥檛 like the idea because we knew it was a very small place and of course we happened to find the whole of the Second Fleet which was up to 30, 40 ships like that, we didn鈥檛 like that. But we stopped there for a spell doing manoeuvres with other ships and things like that and then we were posted to La Spezia on the west coast, a Naval Base. We were there oh, quite a spell, that would have been possibly January/February 1940. As we were, how can I put it, a single unit, we weren鈥檛 attached to any formation or anything like that, they got us to tow the targets for the other ships to fire and things like that. We had to be ready in a morning two hours before the other ships, go out towing the target. We hooked it up with two miles of cables, steel cables and towed it out to sea and then the other ships they used to come and do the firing with their guns like that. And we usually ended up sometimes very often, they ended up firing, oh perhaps five or six o鈥檆lock in the afternoon. After they鈥檇 finished firing they went into harbour but we had to tow the perishing target back to the harbour that would take until ten o鈥檆lock. We were about fed up with that! I managed to get weekend leave, a car used to leave to Northern Italy just 40 miles out of Milan. I thought I鈥檓 going to a take chance to have a weekend leave and I managed it. We entered the harbour, the port I got the chap to get my document ready, as soon as we entered the harbour I went to the Officer of the Watch and said, 鈥楬ere you are, put your paw mark on this!鈥� 鈥榳hat the hell are you talking about?鈥� 鈥榳ell, I鈥檓 going on leave!鈥� 鈥榶ou lucky 鈥� 鈥� It was 48 hours.

When I went back on Monday morning, 鈥榳e want you to back on board at eight o鈥檆lock鈥�. When I got on board the whole of the top deck was packed full of mines because around the top deck there was a sort of tram line and the mines were all trapped, they laid there. To the chap on board I said, 鈥楬ere, what鈥� s the big idea?鈥� I don鈥檛 know鈥� he said, 鈥榯hey put them all on board yesterday and the day before.鈥� 鈥榃hat鈥檚 the idea?鈥� Well thank the Lord we didn鈥檛 have to drop them at sea! They came and they took them off. It was quite a relief because if you have to drop them you have to go to a certain place in the sea, where the depth is - and know where you have dropped them so other shipping don鈥檛 go and ram into them there.

At the beginning of May (1940) we were sent to Naples to pick up the wartime extra men on board, I think there was 150 men wartime crew and we were there a couple of days. They had called back all the sailors like that and they told them where to go and they came. We had added to the Second Naval Division, another ship called Giovanni della Bande Nere, which was the same type (light cruiser), had got the Divisional Admiral on board and we had got four destroyers as escort like that. So we stood there, we took on board all the extra men and I remember we were due to sail at five o鈥檆lock in the afternoon but the Admiral gave order to delay to six o鈥檆lock so that we could have the evening meal. So we sailed out of Naples, which is a Gulf, and we were well sheltered in the islands just out at sea. As soon as we were free in the sea it turned nasty, real bad weather, the mistral wind blowing from the north, oh dear! I remember just for a bit of fun, they had been recalled, although they had been on board before, but they were not able seaman - after we had ate the meal we were just on the deck. They had been on duty and the mistral got us dancing like that it was nasty, very nasty and so another chap he said, 鈥楲et us have a bit of fun!鈥� I see all these new chaps on board, he said 鈥極oooh, look out, one two three鈥� and they were all sea sick. They threatened to throw this chap overboard so I told them to get out of the way and to leave them alone because we were in trouble if not.鈥�

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