Airship Italia - Rescue Effort

Rescue Effort

An international rescue effort followed, but was bedeviled by official apathy and political interference on the part of the Italians. The bravery on the part of Norwegian, Russian, Swedish, and Finnish pilots searching for the lost men – as well as that of the survivors themselves – contrasted sharply with the woeful response of the Italian Fascist government.

Romagna, the commander of the base ship, seemed to be paralysed with indecision when the Italia went missing. Lengthy telegrams asking for instructions were sent to Rome, but there was no effort to move the ship closer to the presumed crash site or otherwise begin a search. The Citta di Milano was admittedly old and unsuited to the Arctic, but considering the season could easily have taken up station further north and west of Kings Bay without any danger to itself. No attempt was made to keep a radio watch, and it is notable that Guglielmo Marconi, who monitored the messages from the base ship later said:

"No wonder that on the Citta di Milano the SOS of the survivors could not be picked up by radio operators. They simply were not paying attention to her signals.".

Pedretti, the alternate radio operator left behind by the Italia; and Amedeo Nobile, Umberto's brother were the most concerned about the radio silence from the airship. Amedeo Nobile was the first to visit the Norwegian ship Hobby to try to get Norwegian help for a search. Word also reached Amundsen in Oslo, who immediately volunteered to start on a search mission. However when the Norwegian government officially approached the Italian government proposing Amundsen as expedition leader, they were rebuffed and Lieutenant Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen was appointed instead. Almost every arctic explorer of note offered assistance or money for the search, including the American Lincoln Ellsworth.

In Italy, Arturo Mercanti, former air force chief and friend of Nobile requested that air force planes be sent to the Arctic to begin a search. Repeatedly frustrated by official inaction he attempted to hire private aircraft himself and threatened to publicise the government's inaction in the international press. As a result two sea planes were sent from Italy, a Dornier Wal piloted by Luigi Penzo and a state of the art Savoia-Marchetti S.55 piloted by Ten. Col. Umberto Maddalena who was the first rescuer to spot the "Red Tent" survivors on 20 June. Mercanti himself went to Kings Bay where his frustration continued.

Cpt. Gennaro Sora (of the Italian Army Alpini ski detachment) did run a heroic over-ice sled attempt from the Città di Milano support ship, while Matteoda and Albertini of the SUCAI (the University Section of the Italian Alpine Club) did the same from the Italian-hired ship Braganza. Both attempts were made in the face of opposition (some sources state direct orders) from the base-ship commander, Romagna.

The lack of co-ordination meant that it took more than 49 days before all the crash survivors (and stranded would-be rescuers) were retrieved. Roald Amundsen was lost, presumed dead, flying to Spitsbergen in a French Latham sea plane piloted by René Guilbaud to take part in the operation. In contrast to the sometimes hostile response they had been shown in Norway and Germany, two hundred thousand cheering Italians met Nobile and his crew on arrival in Rome on 31 July. This show of popularity was unexpected by Nobile's detractors, who had allegedly been seeding the foreign and domestic press with sensational accusations against him.

Chronology of the rescue operations:

• 25 May 1928 - The Italia crashes on the ice. Radio operator Biagi salvages radio, constructs a radio mast and begins transmitting SOS.
• 31 May - Survivors unable to establish radio contact because of weather conditions and negligence by base ship Città di Milano who fail to maintain radio watch and instead continue to send routine traffic. Malmgren, with Commanders Mariano and Zappi, begin a trek toward land.
• 3 June - A Russian amateur radio operator Nikolai Schmidt in Vokhma village hears the Italia SOS signals.
• 5 June - A Norwegian pilot makes the first flight in search of the Italia. In the ensuing weeks, pilots from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Italy make search and rescue flights.
• 8 June - Radio contact established between the ice floe and the Città di Milano. Search operations continue.
• June 15/16 - Malmgren collapses from exposure on the ice and asks to be left behind. His body is never found.
• 18 June - Roald Amundsen and five others disappear on a flight to Spitsbergen to aid in rescue operations. Captain Sora of the Italian Alpine troops defies orders and sets off by sled with Arctic explorers Ludvig Varming and Sjef van Dongen to try to reach the crash zone.
• 20 June - Italian pilot Maddalena spots the survivors and drops supplies, many of which are smashed or useless.
• 22 June - Italian and Swedish pilots drop more supplies, this time successfully.
• 23 June - Swedish pilot Lundborg forcibly removes Nobile from the ice floe but crashes his plane on the return for more survivors and is trapped with the others. Rescue operations suspended pending arrival of suitable light aircraft capable of landing on the ice.
• 6 July Lundborg is picked up from the ice floe by his Swedish co-pilot Birger Schyberg in a light Moth ski-biplane. Schyberg promises also to rescue the other five persons, but changes his mind after bringing Lundborg to safety.
• 12 July - The Russian icebreaker Krasin rescues Mariano and Zappi, who were located from Krasin's large aircraft the previous day. The five remaining Italia survivors are rescued by the ice-breaker later the same day.. Russian pilot Boris Chukhnovsky and his four crew also rescued by "Krasin" on its way back to Kings Bay. It had made an unsuccessful safety landing after seeing Zappi and Mariano.
• 14 July - Rescuers Sora and Van Dongen rescued from Foyn Island by Finnish and Swedish aircraft.