Salvatore Todaro

Salvatore Bruno Todaro (16 September 1908 – 14 December 1942) was an Italian naval officer and submariner during World War II. He is best known for his participation in the battle of the Atlantic and the two instances in which he towed to safety the lifeboats carrying the survivors of ships he had sunk.

Biography Early life and career

Todaro was born in Messina, Sicily, but grew up in Chioggia. He entered the Naval Academy of Livorno on October 18, 1923, and graduated with the rank of ensign in 1927. On the following year he was promoted to lieutenant and sent to Taranto to attend the aerial observation course. He was then assigned to the headquarters of the Ionian and Southern Adriatic Naval Department in Taranto in 1931, and on the heavy cruiser Trieste on the following year.

In 1933 he married in Livorno Rina Anichini, with whom he had two children, Gian Luigi (born in 1939) and Graziella Marina (born after his death in 1943). On April 27, 1933, Todaro was involved in a plane crash aboard a Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boat of the 187th Squadron, on which he was embarked as an observer; the floatplane crashed into the sea after dropping a torpedo, and Todaro suffered a spinal fracture that would force him to wear a corset for the rest of his life.

On 22 December 1940 Todaro sailed from Bordeaux for another patrol in command of Cappellini. On 5 January 1941, in the stretch of ocean between the Canary Islands and the African coast, Cappellini attacked the 5,029-ton British armed steamship Shakespear, sinking her after a prolonged gun duel in which an Italian gunner was killed. Afterwards, Todaro once again took a lifeboat with twenty-two survivors in tow, towing them to the Islands of Cape Verde where they safely landed. Cappellini then resumed its patrol and on 14 January it attacked the 7,472-ton British armed merchant Eumaeus off Freetown; after the unsuccessful launch of two torpedoes and a prolonged gun battle in which nine Italian gunners were wounded and Cappellini'''s executive officer, Lieutenant Danilo Stiepovich, was killed, Eumaeus was sunk. Soon afterwards, Cappellini was attacked and damaged by a Supermarine Walrus floatplane. The damage forced Todaro to seek refuge in Puerto de La Luz on Gran Canaria; after hasty repairs that lasted three days, Cappellini sailed again on 23 January 1941 and returned to Bordeaux. For this patrol, Todaro was awarded a Silver Medal of Military Valor.

Todaro later carried out two more Atlantic patrols with Cappellini, but scored no further success.

The events of the patrol are fictionalized in the 2023 Italian film Comandante, starring Pierfrancesco Favino as Todaro.

MAS service and death

In November 1941 Todaro was transferred at his own request to the MAS service, being assigned to the Quarta Flottiglia MAS, stationed in the Black Sea; he distinguished himself during the siege of Sevastopol, being awarded another Silver Medal of Military Valor.

He was then transferred to the Decima Flottiglia MAS, the special operations unit of the Royal Italian Navy, and tasked with planning and conducting assault craft attacks on Allied-controlled ports in French North Africa after Operation Torch. On 13 December 1942, while returning from one such operation, he was killed in his sleep when the armed trawler Cefalo'', used as mothership for assault craft, was strafed by a Supermarine Spitfire off La Galite. He was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor; a class of submarines of the postwar Italian Navy has been named after him.