My vote would be for an Italian MAS (Motobarca Armata Svan o Silurante) from the First World War, particularly the MAS 3 to 22 series. With a prototype length of ~50 ft., 1/35 is a perfect scale for the MAS boats
There is an obvious connection between the Italian Navy and Italeri, but more importantly, last June was the 90th anniversary of the sinking of the Austro-Hungarian dreadnought Szent Istvan by Captain Luigi Rizzo in MAS 15.
Seven months earlier, Captain Rizzo had commanded a two boat MAS flotilla (MAS 9, MAS 11) which sank the pre-dreadnought Wien.
MAS boats mounted attacks on at least five battleships during the war, sinking 2 and only losing one boat to hostile action, MAS 16.
As sexy as the E-boats and PT-boats were, there were no battleship killers, nor, as far as I know, any hits on a battleship... granted, defensive tactics and fire control had greatly improved between 1918 and 1939. But the fact remains, the E and PT boats owed much of their existence to the success of the MAS.
As a postscript, Captain Rizzo was a lecturer after the war on torpedo boat design.
While we are at it, I'd vote for these actions for inclusion in the top 10 wish list for a movie.