Teseo Tesei


Major Teseo Tesei was an Italian naval officer, who invented the human torpedo used by the Regia Marina during World War II.

Life

Teseo Tesei was born in Marina de Campo, Elba in 1909, the son of Ulisse Tesey and Rosa Carassale. After attending the Collegio degli Scolopi in Florence, he entered the Livorno Naval Academy in 1931, where he distinguished himself for perseverance and inventiveness. He was commissioned as a lieutenant and graduated from the Naval engineering school in Naples in 1933. He subsequently had several posts on both surface ships and submarines. He was a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War with the rank of captain.
In 1929, Tesei had the idea of the manned torpedo, from the Italian device used to sink the Austrian Battleship Viribus Unitis during World War I, and invented for the Italian Regia Marina what was later called the Maiale.
The modern Italian commando frogmen group COMSUBIN is named after him.