Italian WW2 Manufacturing Company Monogram ID

[Dronic69]

Morning All,

Does anyone recognise the following Italian WW2 manufacturing monogram:



It is stamped on an Italian Naval torpedo exploder.

I'm assuming it may be from one of the following three manufacturing facilities specialized in the construction of torpedoes:

• Silurificio Whitehead of Fiume, the oldest factory in the world, founded in 1860.
• Silurificio Italiano in Baia, near Naples, operating since 1915.
• Silurificio Motofides built near Livorno in 1937 as a secondary facility of the plant in Fiume.

Perhaps the Silurificio Motofides facility which may correspond to the "M" in the monogram?

Any hints would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Cheers
Drew

 

[Dreamk]

The Silurificio Italianio had 3 facilities during ww2 : Baia , Fusaro and S. Martino - so the M can also refer to this last facility.
(See Roberta Lucidi: "Un'industria bellica del mezzogiorno: Il Silurificio Italiano dal 1922 al 1945", in Società di Storia Militare - Quaderno 1995, Roma, pp. 161-199)

 

[Dronic69]

Thank you Dreamk - very interesting reading......
In summary, it appears that Silurificio Italianio decided to "de-centralise" all torpedo production from one site (i.e. Baia) to two other sites - Fusaro & San Martino. Production of key parts and assembly was still performed at Baia; other specific torpedo parts /sections were built at either Fusaro or S.Martino, which enabled increase in production output. So it is quite possible that the San Martino produced the pistol exploder mechanisms.
The 3 x separate sites aligned with war time policy in case one site is bombed etc, thereby (hoping?) torpedo production could still continue with the remaining sites.
Interesting, the Fusaro site was only 3km away from the Baia site.

 

[Dronic69]

@Dreamk - here's another one referencing Silurificio Baia:

Il Silurificio di Baia dalla nascita alle riconversioni postbelliche. Una storia di industria e spionaggio militare
Maurizio Erto pp. 175-212

BACOLI
1919-2019
Cento anni di storia
VOLUME COMMEMORATIVO DEL CENTENARIO
DELL’AUTONOMIA AMMINISTRATIVA
DEL COMUNE DI BACOLI
a cura di Maurizio Erto
D’Amico Editore2019

Unfortunately, I can only download pp.175-176 ????

 

[Dreamk]

Indeed it is a preview of the chapter in this book and only the first 2 pages may be down;loaded.
However, browsing through the titles of the author's publications, he seems to be more inetreted by political and economical aspects than by technical ones.

 

[Dronic69]

Interesting, it has been suggested that the factory monogram is the initials of "MotoFides Orlando" {Giuseppe Orlando} - who was the 1st President who took over the Fiume factory to create the Silurificio Whitehead Fiume in 1924.
Giuspeppe Orlando died in 1926, however his eldest son Luigi Orlando succeeded him to be the company's 2nd President.

In 1934, the Board of Directors of the Silurificio Whitehead di Fiume, negotiated a licence agreement with the german producers of the “Zundapp” motorcycles. A factory for the production of these motorcycles was open in Livorno (Tuscany). The intention was to manufacture that motorbike, in which Germany had gained an excellent reputation, mainly for the needs of the Italian Army. The new company was named “Moto Fides”.

The managing director of Moto Fides was Paolo Orlando - the youngest son of Giuseppe Orlando. So the "O" in the monogram could be a reference to the Orlando surname, not specifically to the father.

Footnote: The Motofides factory never produced a single motorcycle (expectations were far too optimistic) and the plant was instead used at first to produce torpedo components. Later, after receiving the Navy clearance, a manufacturer of complete torpedoes.

 

[Dreamk]

This is of course a possibility - hough I have never seen any document designing Moto Fides by "Moto Fides Orlando" - what appear are the designation "Whitehead Moto Fides" , "Moto Fides Livorno" , "Silurificio MotoFides SA"
see this quite detailed document on the development of torpedo production by Whitehead and Moto Fides :

https://protorpedo-rijeka.hr/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/22.pdf

To solve the issue, It may be worth getting in contact with the Archivio Storico Whitehead Moto Fides – WASS in Livorno at info.archiviowass@leonardo.com
And if someone passes through Livorno....the address is Via di Levante 48 .
"L’Archivio si compone di documenti cartacei, materiale fotografico, audiovisivo e di un gran numero di disegni tecnici. È costituito da 486 unità archivistiche numerate in cifre arabe progressive di cui: 476 contenenti fascicoli di documenti e un totale di 10 pezzi suddivisi in album, registri e cartelle fuori formato. La documentazione è organizzata in 22 serie parzialmente descritte in un inventario e attualmente in fase di revisione, riguardanti gli aspetti commerciali e produttivi dell’azienda. Il Fondo fotografico ha una consistenza di circa 9.480 pezzi, per totale di 12,60 metri lineari, mentre la documentazione filmica consiste in 5 buste contenenti VHS e 5 pellicole. I Disegni tecnici fino ad ora censiti sono oltre 22.500."