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Decima Flottiglia MAS

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The Decima Flottiglia MAS (Decima Flottiglia Mezzi d'Assalto, also known as La Decima or Xª MAS) (Italian for "10th Assault Vehicle Flotilla") was an Italian commando frogman unit created during the Fascist government.

The acronym MAS had arisen previously in Italian naval history: during the First World War Italy had torpedo boats named "MAS" followed by a number, where "MAS" was Motorbarca Armata SVAN (Armed Motorboat SVAN) and SVAN stood for Società Veneziana Automobili Navali (Naval Automobiles Society of Venice). Ref. [1].

In 1943, when Italy, after ousting Benito Mussolini, switched alliances to the Allies, those Xª MAS men who were in the German-occupied north of Italy defected to the Italian Social Republic (the puppet state set up by Nazi Germany in northern Italy) and became an anti-partisan force operating on land. See Italian commando frogmen for the COMSUBIN frogman corp currently serving for the Italian Republic, and for their postwar actions.

Historical Background

In World War I, on November 1, 1918, Raffaele Paolucci and Raffaele Rossetti rode a torpedo-like craft (nicknamed Mignatta, which means, "leech") into Pula's harbour, where they sank the Austrian battleship SMS Viribus Unitis and the freighter Wien using limpet mines. They had no breathing sets, and had to keep their heads above water to breathe, and thus they were discovered and taken prisoners.

In the twenties, sport spearfishing without breathing apparatus developed on the Mediterranean coast of France and Italy. This spurred the development of modern swimfins, diving masks and snorkels.

In the thirties, an unknown Italian swam underwater with an industrial or submarine-escape oxygen rebreather, probably to make his sport of spearfishing easier. Other Italian sport spearfishers imitated, and that was the start of scuba diving in Italy.

Origins

File:StemmaXMAS.jpg
Badge of the Xª MAS

In 1938 the 1ª Flottiglia Mezzi d'Assalto ("First Flotilla of Assault Vehicles") was formed as a result of the research and development efforts of two men, Major Teseo Tesei and Major Elios Toschi of the Regia Marina. The two resurrected Paolucci and Rossetti's idea.

In 1940, Commander Moccagatta of the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) reorganised the First Flotilla into the Decima Flottiglia MAS, under the command of Ernesto Forza. It secretly made manned torpedoes or SLC (siluri a lenta corsa or "slow-running torpedos") and trained military frogmen (called nuotatori, Italian for "swimmers"). In the process, he created the scuba diving school at the small San Leopoldo port of the Italian Naval Academy in Livorno.

All personnel in Italy's Armed Forces of the time that were to operate oxygen rebreathers and similar equipment were dispatched to the school, but only a selected few were chosen as operators of the newly-designed manned torpedoes. The nascent Xª MAS contained two units, one specialised in operations where the frogman swam to their attack site, one in the use of manned torpedoes. Teseo Tesei developed a number of specialist vehicles for them.

Engagements as an Italian Corp

The Decima Flottiglia MAS saw action from June 10, 1940 when Fascist Italy joined in World War II. In more than three years of war, the Decima Flottiglia MAS destroyed some 72,190 tons of Allied warships and 130,572 tons of Allied merchant ships. They sank the Royal Navy battleships HMS Valiant, HMS Queen Elizabeth, and the heavy cruiser HMS York, the destroyers HMS Jervis and HMS Eridge, and 20 merchant ships including supply ships and tankers. During the course of the war, the unit has been awarded the Golden Medal of Military Valor and individual members have been awarded 29 Golden Medals of Military Valor, 104 Silver Medals of Military Valor and 33 Bronze Medals of Military Valor.

Chronicle of Operations

1940

The Gondar sinking.

1941

  • March 25, 1941: The destroyers Crispi and Sella left Leros harbour at night, each carrying 3 MTMs (Motoscafo da turismo modificato), small motor assault boats (2 tons), each with its foc'sle laden with a 300 Kg charge of TNT. These one pilot crafts (commanded by Captain Faggioni) were transported and directed by the destroyers some 10 miles off Suda Bay, Crete. There were lying at anchor several Royal Navy units and auxiliary ships. The MTMs or barchini, were specially fitted to remove obstacles and fences; then the pilot aimed the assault craft at his motionless victim and launched it in a collision course against the selected ship, and ejected from his boat before ramming the target. After the impact, the warhead exploded at contact. Once inside the Bay, the 6 boats pinpointed their targets, the heavy cruiser York, a large tanker, the Norwegian Pericles (8300 tons), and another cargo ship. Two MTMs hit the York amidships, flooding her aft boilers and magazines. Two British sailors lost their lives in this action. The Pericles was also hit and broken in two. The other barchini apparently missed their intended targets, one of them finishing stranded in the beach. The daring Italian sailors were taken prisoners. The disabled York was finally scuttled by her crew before the fall of Crete in German hands. The Pericles sank while taken in tow by RN destroyers trying to make Alexandria in May.
File:Suda5.jpg
Image depicting the beached HMS York inspected in 1942 by a boarding party from the Italian escort destroyer Sirio.
  • May 25, 1941: The Sciré left La Spezia carrying three manned torpedoes. At Cadiz, in Spain it secretly loaded six crew for them. At Gibraltar, they found no warships because the Renown, Ark Royal and Sheffield had been ordered to the Atlantic for convoy protection against the German battleship Bismarck, which was sunk on May 27. The manned torpedoes tried, unsuccessfully, to sink a ship. Their six crew returned to Italy via Spain.
  • July 26, 1941: Two manned torpedoes (SLC) and ten MTMs speedboats carrying explosives left Italy to attack Valletta, Malta. They sank no ships. In Valletta, they came under heavy gunfire from land and aircraft attacks: 15 of their crew died, and 18 were captured.
  • July 27, 1941: at dawn, Major Tesei was killed in action off the waters of Malta. 6 MTMs, 2 SLCs, and two MAS boats were lost. The disaster forced the Decima to make a huge reassessment.
  • September 10, 1941: The Sciré left La Spezia carrying three manned torpedoes. At Cadiz in Spain, it secretly loaded six crew for them. At Gibraltar, its manned torpedoes sank three ships; two tankers, Denbydale and Fiona Shell, and a cargo ship, the Durham. Their crews swam to Spain and returned to Italy, except two (Lt.Visintini and Petty Officer Magro) who were probably killed by depth charges. Their bodies were recovered, and their swimfins were taken and used by two of Gibraltar's British guard divers (who dived with Davis Escape Sets and (up to here) breast stroke swimming and no fins) (Sydney Knowles and Commander Lionel Crabb).
  • December 3, 1941: The Sciré left La Spezia carrying three manned torpedoes. At the island of Leros in the Aegean Sea, it secretly loaded six crew for them (among was the famous Luigi Durand De La Penne). On December 19 it reached Alexandria in Egypt and released its manned torpedoes 10 miles from Alexandria harbor. Lieutenant de Penne rode the lead chariot. They entered the harbour when the British opened the harbor's guard net to let three destroyers pass. After placing his explosive with many difficulties, de Penne and his fellow-rider had to surface and were captured. Questioned, they refused to speak. De Penne noted that he was locked up in a compartment of the HMS Valiant above where the bomb was. Fifteen minutes before the explosion, he asked to speak to the British captain, informed him of the imminent explosion, but refused to give other information. He was brought back in the hold. He was not killed by the explosion. All six torpedo-riders were captured. They sank a tanker and two British battleships, Valiant and Queen Elizabeth.

1942

  • April 29, 1942: The Italian submarine Ambra left La Spezia carrying three manned torpedoes. At Leros island, it secretly loaded six crew for them. On May 14 it reached Alexandria in Egypt to sink a British floating dock, but the Ambra was spotted and could not sink anything. All six torpedo-riders were captured.
  • July 1942: Italian frogmen set up in a secret base in the Italian cargo ship Olterra which was interned in Algeciras near Gibraltar. All materials had to be moved secretly through Spain and this limited operations.
  • July 13, 1942: Twelve Italian frogmen swam from the Olterra into Gibraltar harbor and set explosives, and then returned safely. They sank four ships.
  • August 29, 1942: El Daba, Egypt. The Hunt class destroyer HMS Eridge is torpedoed at close range by a MTSM, a torpedo-carrying version of the MTM. 6 of her crew were lost. The Eridge was towed to Alexandria, but soon after was declared a CTL (Constructive Total Loss), and in 1946 was scrapped[2].
  • December 4, 1942: The Ambra left La Spezia to attack Algiers, carrying frogmen and two manned torpedoes. Ten frogmen carrying limpet mines swam with the manned torpedoes, but because of the distance they did not reach the harbor, but attacked ships outside it, sank two and damaged two others.
  • December 17, 1942: Six Italians on three torpedoes left the Olterra to attack the three British warships HMS Nelson, HMS Formidable, and HMS Furious in Gibraltar. A British patrol boat killed one torpedo's crew with a depth charge. Another British patrol boat spotted another torpedo, and chased and shot at it and captured its two crewmen. The remaining torpedo returned to the Olterra without its rear rider.

1943

  • May 8, 1943: three Italian manned torpedoes left the Olterra to attack Gibraltar in bad weather and sank three British ships. All returned safely to the Olterra.
This drawing shows a Norwegian tanker broken in two by Olterra manned torpedoes, August 1943
  • July 25, 1943: Mussolini was replaced by Pietro Badoglio as the head of the Italian government.
  • July 1943: This site says that the Xª MAS sank or crippled the ship Kaituna (10000 tons) at Mersin in Turkey.
  • August 3, 1943: in the evening, three Italian manned torpedoes left the Olterra to attack Gibraltar and sank three ships and returned to the Olterra, but one of their men was captured.
  • August 1943: This site says that the Xª MAS sank or crippled the Norwegian cargo ship Fernplant (7000 tons) at Iskenderun in Turkey.
  • September 8, 1943: Italy signed an armistice with the Allies and changed sides. The Olterra was towed into Gibraltar, and the British found what had happened in it.
  • September 1943: During the long siege of Leningrad, a group of Russian commando frogmen entered a German naval base at Strelna near Leningrad and destroyed combat boats of the Decima Flottiglia MAS.
  • October 2, 1943: A bigger Italian frogman-carrier called Siluro San Bartolomeo or SSB was going to attack Gibraltar; it was 33 feet long and carried four frogmen;, but by now Italy had surrendered and the attack was called off.
  • October or November, 1943: British frogmen went to Brindisi in Italy, where they were combined with those Italian frogmen who were in the Allied-controlled areas and those Italian frogmen who had been prisoners in Britain, as a single organization.

After Italy surrendered

See British commando frogmen#1944 for a further underwater action that those Italian frogmen took part in.

Admiral Karl Dönitz and Junio Valerio Borghese planned to attack New York using midget submarines, but this attack never happened.

See Italian commando frogmen for Italian commando frogmen after 1945.

Continued Participation in the Axis

File:10thflotillauxillary.JPG
A Xª MAS female auxiliary recruitment poster, featuring a woman kissing the Italian Social Republic war flag

Some Xª-MAS men who were in German-occupied land remained part of the Axis forces, joining the Italian Social Republic under the command of prince Junio Valerio Borghese, also known as the "Black Prince". The Xª MAS negotiated with the German Armed Forces a deal that gave them ample autonomy, allowed them to fight under an Italian flag, under the command of the German Armed Forces. Borghese was recognized as the leader of the corp. [3]

Ideology

The main themes in the Xª MAS's ideology became honour in defending Italy from the betrayal of the armistice with the Allies, probably a real treason.

The corp had its own weekly magazine, L'orizzonte ("The Horizon"). The magazine had problems in its distribution, as it was thought that Borghese's popularity among the fascist hardliners might damage Mussolini's. [4]

Relation to the RSI

Relationships with the Italian Social Republic were not easy. On January 14, 1944 Mussolini tried to arrest Borghese while receiving him in Garniano, to gain direct control of the Xª MAS. Word of the arrest by chance reached the command of the Decima, whose local command evaluated the idea of marching on Salò. The German command had likely a role in resolving the situation, since they needed the equipment and expertise of the Xª MAS in the Adriatic sea, where the Germans had no marine equipment of their own. Ref. [5] (in Italian).

Assignments

Ferruccio Nazionale, a partisan, hanged by Xª MAS. The sign says "He attempted to hit with weapons the Decima"

After 1943, La Decima fought against partisan in this civil war:

When the war in Italy was nearing its end, the Xª MAS moved its headquarters to the Piedmont and tried to finance itself on the black market. On April 26, 1945 in what is now the Piazza della Repubblica in Milan, Borghese finally ordered the Xª MAS to be disbanded.

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