Life

• 1929: Teseo Tesei had the idea of the manned torpedo, from the Italian device used to sink the Austrian Battleship Viribus Unitis
  SMS Viribus Unitis
  SMS Viribus Unitis was the first Austro-Hungarian dreadnought battleship of the . Its name, meaning "With United Forces", was the personal motto of Emperor Franz Joseph I.Viribus Unitis was ordered by the Austro-Hungarian navy in 1908...
  
   during World War I, and invented for the Italian Regia Marina
  Regia Marina
  The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
  
   what was later called the Maiale.
• 1931: He entered the Naval Academy
  Accademia Navale di Livorno
  The Italian Naval Academy is a coeducational military university in Leghorn , which is responsible for the technical training of military officers of the Italian Navy.-The Hospital of St. James:...
  
   of Livorno
  Livorno
  Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
  
  , where he showed his inventive capabilities. Together with Elios Toschi he designed a human torpedo
  Human torpedo
  Human torpedoes or manned torpedoes are a type of rideable submarine used as secret naval weapons in World War II. The basic design is still in use today; they are a type of diver propulsion vehicle....
  
   called Siluro a lenta corsa (SLC), later nicknamed the Maiale (Italian for "pig", because it proved to be difficult to steer).
• 1936: He improved the attack performance of his creation, the "Maiale", using an enhanced system (that he invented) to breathe under water for two hours. The SLC was extensively used in World War II by the Italian Navy, and obtained even the sinking http://www.regiamarina.net/xa_mas/alexandria/alexandria_us.htm of two British battleships in Alexandria
  Alexandria
  Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
  
  . The British developed another kind of manned torpedo, called "Chariot", from one of his "Maiali" captured.
• 1938: He was one of the officers with Prince Valerio Borghese who organized the Decima Flottiglia MAS
  Decima Flottiglia MAS
  The Decima Flottiglia MAS was an Italian commando frogman unit of the Regia Marina created during the Fascist regime.The acronym MAS also refers to various light torpedo boats used by the Regia Marina during World...
  
  .
• 21 August 1940: Tesei was the only survivor when the Italian submarine Iride was sunk (see Decima Flottiglia MAS#1940).
• 26 July 1941: Tesei died riding a manned torpedo attacking Malta
  Malta
  Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
  
   (see Decima Flottiglia MAS#1941). Teseo Tesei was posthumously awarded the Italian Gold Medal for Military Honor for this military action.