Naval Charioteers - Francis Russell Flint, RSW, ROI, 1955

It includes the story of the manned torpedoes used in Operation Title in 1942, that were inspired by a daring attack of the previous year on Alexandria harbour by Italian naval commandos of the Decima Flottiglia MAS. The Italian attack resulted in the sinking of an 8,000-ton tanker and caused severe damage to the battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth. An enraged Winston Churchill demanded to know what was being done to emulate such daring. The answer was the development of British 'chariots' which were regarded as stop-gaps until X-craft or midget submarines could be deployed.

Francis Russell Murray Flint, RSW, ROI, RSMA (1915-1977) was the son the Royal Academician Sir William Russell Flint, and nephew of the naval aviation pioneer Rear-Admiral Sir Murray Sueter CB, MP. He was educated at Cheltenham College and the merchant service cadet training ship HMS Conway. He afterwards studied at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art, the Royal Academy Schools and later in Paris. Specializing in in maritime and coastal scenes, his work appeared in the Illustrated London News, The Sketch and Tatler. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1938, and, was later an accredited as an official War Artist in Far East. He exhibited at the RA, the Royal Society of Marine Artists, Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water-Colours, Imperial War Museum and the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours, where he was also Vice-President. In the 1950s he was commissioned by the writer, photographer and film producer, William MacQuitty (1905-2004) to produce illustrations of the making of ‘Above Us the Waves’ and the Titanic movie ‘A Night to Remember’.