Survivors of one of the most daring blows against the Royal Navy during World War II were reunited on the ship whose name honours the man who led the attack.

Dreadnought HMS Valiant was put out of action for six months by Italian human torpedoes or ‘chariots’ which penetrated the defences of Alexandria Harbour in December 1941.

More than 60 years on, Capt Barrie Kent, Lt Cdr Tom Hunt and Adrian Holloway – in 1941 a midshipman, lieutenant and midshipman respectively – gathered on the deck of ITS Luigi Durand de la Penne, named after the officer who led the raid on Alexandria.

The Italian destroyer had just been put through a typically strenuous ‘Thursday War’ test by Flag Officer Sea Training staff at Devonport before hosting the Valiant veterans.

But despite the hectic activities of just 24 hours previously, the ship welcomed the British veterans for a tour and a lunch.

With the ‘war’ – the culmination of a demanding training package in which all aspects of the ship and her company’s capabilities are examined under simulated battle conditions – completed, sailors had a chance to show the Valiant men around the destroyer with a former member of the Italian special forces, who was also a friend of de la Penne, Professor Berlingieri.

Mr Holloway actually met de la Penne on the night of the attack. The Italian submariner had had the chance to escape, but had assisted a struggling comrade, and as a consequence been taken prisoner.

“I did not feel any animosity towards him – just curiosity, and a hope that he had nothing else up his sleeve,” he recalled.

“He was clad like our submariners in dark blue naval uniform and roll-neck pullover.”

A man of honour, de la Penne refused to tell his captors in Valiant where he had placed the explosive charges on her hull, but with minutes to go before the timed detonation, he urged the battleship’s commanding officer to save as many of the ship’s company as possible.

As men clambered towards the upper decks, the charge went off, ripping a 1,800 sq ft hole near the warship’s A turret.

The reunion at Devonport was arranged through Lt James Edmondson, who was recently ‘on loan’ to the Italian Navy, and who wrote for Navy News about de la Penne’s exploits – an article which inspired survivors of the attack to come forward.

A trip to Taranto, the Italian Fleet’s chief port, was ruled out as being too difficult to organise, but fortunately ITS De La Penne was scheduled for some Operational Sea Training out of Devonport over the summer.

“I don’t think these gentlemen ever expected to be standing on a modern Italian warship in Devonport named after a man who tried to blow them all to kingdom come 60 years previously,” said Lt Edmondson.

“I felt immensely proud to be in the company of these men, recounting their memories of the attack by the courageous and honourable Luigi Durand de la Penne, without a hint of animosity.”

The raid on Alexandria – the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth was even more severely damaged than Valiant – wiped out the Royal Navy’s capital ships in the Eastern Mediterranean at a stroke. HMS Barham had been disastrously lost the previous month to a U-boat attack.

“We’re having shock after shock out here,” Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Admiral Andrew Cunningham warned First Sea Lord Sir Dudley Pound at the time. “The damage to the battleships at this time is a disaster.”

De la Penne’s expertise was subsequently put to good use by the Allies after the Italian surrender in September 1943, when the midget submarines were called upon to attack the Italian port of La Spezia, by then in German hands.