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Research dossier · General Reference

Raid on Souda Bay

boat assault on Royal Navy ships in Crete

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ1953194 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Raid on Souda Bay was an attack by the Decima MAS (X-MAS), a specialist unit of the Regia Marina that used unconventional weapons. Decima MAS used explosive boats (MTM) against British ships lying in Souda Bay, Crete, during the early hours of 26 March 1941. The MTM explosive boats had been ferried from Astypalaia by the destroyers Francesco Crispi and Quintino Sella and launched at the approaches to the bay. After crossing the three boom defences, the MTM attacked the British heavy cruiser HMS York and the Norwegian tanker Pericles (8,324 GRT).

Two MTM hit York, which took on a list and was towed by the destroyer HMS Hasty and beached; Pericles sank in the shallows. Most of its oil was recovered and the ship eventually was refloated, only to founder on tow to Alexandria, breaking up and being sunk by gunfire. The six MTM pilots, Luigi Faggioni, Alessio de Vito, Emilio Barberi, Angelo Cabrini, Tullio Tedeschi and Lino Beccati were taken prisoner and were later awarded the Italian Gold Medal of Military Valor (Medaglia d'oro al valor militare). A MTM was recovered undamaged by the British and studied.

Background

Decima MAS

The interest of the Regia Marina in small boat warfare lay dormant between 1918 and the diplomatic crisis with Britain over the Second Italo-Ethiopian War 1935–1936. In 1935 and early 1936, Captain Teseo Tesei and Captain Elios Toschi tested a human torpedo in La Spezia on the Tyrrhenian Sea and resumed testing in May.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Raid on Souda Bay” is boat assault on Royal Navy ships in Crete. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Raid, Souda and boat, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1941, 1918, 1935, 1936—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Raid, Souda and boat is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “boat assault on Royal Navy ships in Crete” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1953194. Authority coordinates are 35.483, 24.138. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 1918, 1935 and 1936.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Raid on Souda Bay”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Raid on Souda Bay primary sources, Raid on Souda Bay archive and Raid research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Raid on Souda Bay”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Raid on Souda Bay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.