RSI Navy and Xa MAS

The RSI navy would have no effect in the remaining years of the war, and by German order, the only naval vessels allowed to carry the Italian flag were those dependent on the X Flottiglia Mas. Because of that, the Black Prince, Borghese, spent most of the war commanding the naval ground forces of the Barbarigo, Fulmine, Freccia, Sagittario, Lupo, and Valanga autonomous battalions. These battalions were very respected by both German and Allied forces, however, they still felt the sting of German occupancy. To garnish needed supplies, members of the X MAS would meet German authorities at a Beretta manufacturer, get them drunk and steal the needed weapons. In other situations they would trade pigs for German cannons, managing to assemble 4 batteries of 152's. On another occasion a Xa MAS Lt. was promoted for stealing 5,000 liters of fuel from under the nose of Germans!

Comando Supremo: Repubblica Sociale Italiana

 

MARINA NAZIONALE REPUBBLICANA

The bulk of the Italian Fleet attempted to "go south" and join the Allies, according to the orders given by the High Command (the surrender of the fleet was one of the Armistice conditions). Actualy, it is not very clear what Admiral Bergamini, the Fleet Commander, was trying to do. He ordered the fleet to move from La Spezia to the Bocche di Bonifacio, the strait between Sardinia and Corsica, and that was absolutely not the correct direction for Malta. Admiral Bergamini was deeply shocked by the order to surrender the fleet, and there is some thought that he was moving toward Spain to have the fleet interned and put under the custody of a neutral power, in this case Spain, until the end of the war. As Bergamini was killed in the sinking of the battleship Roma by the Germans, the real goal of the Admiral may never be known.

A few battered cruisers, destroyers and submarines remained in the ports, often sabotaged by their crews, and were taken over by the Germans, but they were never returned to the Republican Navy in operational conditions. A great number of smaller Torpedo Boats, patrol craft and other various auxiliary vessles and merchant craft were also taken over by the Germans after the Italian surrender.

The bulk of the Republican Navy was the "Divisione Decima", a huge organization born from the 10th MAS Flottilla, the very successful underwater raiding unit of the Italian Navy prior to the 1943 surrender. The morning after the Armistice, Prince Junio Valerio Borghese, a highly decorated and dashing submarine commander and commander of the 10th MAS Flottilla commandos, started gathering all the naval personel he could find in La Spezia inside the 10th MAS barracks. He then went to the local German command offering the services of his troops. The German were quite puzzled, but they accepted. In the following weeks, Borghese traveled all over Italy, recruiting hundereds of soldiers, until the 10th MAS was of divisional strenght. When the Italian Social Republic was formed, at attempt was made to disband the Decima (Decima = Tenth), but Borghese refused, threatening to shoot at sight anyone who dared come close to the Decima barracks. Thereafter, an arrangement was arrived at and the Decima officially became part of the Marina Nazionale Repubblicana (National Republican Navy). It remained out of the central command structure of the RSI - and out of the command structure of the Germans too. It was a truly independent force, fighting with the same reckless, devil-may-care attitude of a Renaissance "Condottiere" (commander of a "Condotta", i.e. = a merchenary unit)! The Decima fought as a ground unit against the US and British forces at the Anzio bridgehead, and then in North East Italy against Italian and Yugolsavian communist partisans.

At peak strenght the Divisione Fanteria di Marina "Decima" was organized as follows :

1st Combat Group


Fusiliers Bn "Barbarigo" (an ancient Venetian admiral - Anzio veterans)
Fusiliers Bn "Lupo" (wolf) (*)
Bn "Nuotatori-Paracadutisti" (2 coys of Assault Swimmers and 3 of Parachutists)
Artillery Bn "Colleoni" (a Renaissance Condottiere) (*)
1st Coy, Engineer Bn "Freccia" (arrow)

2nd Combat Group

Fusiliers Bn "Fulmine" (lightning - previously called "Maestrale" SW wind) (*)
Fusiliers Bn "Sagittario" (archer) (*)
Mountain Assault Engineer Bn " Valanga" (avalanche)
Recruits Bn "Castagnacci" (from the name of the first Decima KIA)
Artillery Bn "Da Giussano" (another Condottiere)(*)
Mountain Artillery Bn "San Giorgio" (the saint-patron of Genova)
Engineer Bn "Freccia" (2nd and 3rd coy)

Independent units:

Fusiliers Bn "Risoluti"
Fusiliers Bn "Giobbe" (10th MAS Flottilla hero KIA in a raid on Malta - previously "Ardimento" - courage)
Fusiliers Bn "Longobardo" (hero of the Italian Submarine forces)
Fusiliers Bn "Pegaso" (pegasus) (*)
Fusiliers Bn "San Giusto" (the saint-patron of Trieste)
Fusiliers Bn "Scire' " (the submarine of Borghese)
Fusiliers Bn "Serenissima" (the nickname of Venice)
Fusiliers Bn "Vega" (a star) (*)
Fusiliers Coy "Adriatica"
Fusiliers Coy "D'Annunzio" (famous poet and WWI hero)
Fusiliers Coy "Sauro" (a WWI naval hero)
"Operativa" Coy (no details about that)
Fusiliers Coy "Mai Morti" ("never dead")
Women Auxiliary Service

The translation of the names of the Bns is a litteral one. Several of them, indicated by an (*) were the names of ships of the Italian Royal Navy, whose crews formed the "core" of each Bn.

Naval Units:

"Comandante Todaro" Raiding Crafts School (both surface and underwater)
Underwater Diver School
Underwater Operations Group
"Gamma" Group (assault swimmers)
"Comandante Moccagatta" Surface Crafts Units.

Both Commander Todaro and Commander Moccagatta were heroes of the 10th MAS Flottilla, both of them KIA).

Besides the almost-independent "Decima" units, the Marina da Guerra Nazionale Repubblicana also had the following units:

Minesweepers Flottilla at Venice.
Submarine base at Bordeaux, France, defended by "Divisione Atlantica Fucilieri di Marina" (3 Naval Fusiliers Coys + 1 Arty Bty)
An Anti-submarine Flottilla with some light sub-chasers.
Midget submarine Flottilla "Longobardo" with 22 boats.
Others various minor naval units...

 

I am unfamillier(SP)? with this topic or heading...All in all the Italian navy in the Med, got and received a poorhistorical place or page in history during WW2. Numerous accounts for this was headed by the Germans as being the scape-goat for supplies sunk en-route to north africa. It is ironic, that the top Italian naval codes where never broken by bletchley park, albeit the Germans where convinced they had, and resupplies where sent and informed as to routes, arrival time, and ports to german and Italian dock and landing parties. These where simply deceifered, a spotter plane kept the secret of enigma, and cunningham was sent upon sinking these convoys...In all this, Erwin Rommel at the end of the North Africa campaign, and one of the last support convoys to try and thwart the tide of battle, after all ships sending re-inforcements, fuel, supplies, etc where sunk, he still had enough humour to send an enigma code to Rundstedt, thanking him for the few barrels which washed ashore....

In Len Deightons book....Blood, tears & Folly, he speaks at Italian naval battle messages not being deciphered and sent to Cunningham, but because the Italian fleet sent 2 messages a day to Luftwaffe units using Enigma codes at to Naval movements, direction, and along which routes, in their sailing to....an example of this cloak and dagger fighting of the Royal Navy provided a clue such as this..."the mighty Vittorio Veneto from Naples, three cruisers from Messian, three cruisers- Fiume, Pola and Zara-from Taranto and two cruisers from Brindisi, were to coordinate sweeps along the coast of crete."

In the light of the enigma message, british convoys were directed away from the danger area. This had to be done with discretion incase the Italian navy realized their plans whjere known. it goes into more detail as to how Cunningham was able to do this, and how Enigma helped to swing Naval victories towards the Royal Navy, and leave a legacy of poor Naval action upon the Italian Fleet, and Admirals...quite interesting actually...

Had both side not had the hindsight of clues, or reading each others mail, Italian fleet might just have sealed up the Med, causing a giant defeat upon the British army, and resulting in what Raeder said all along, the bombing of London won't bring Great Britian to her knee's , but a majotr defeat, the removal of Churchill for this, and the light of perhaps a treaty would be signed as Hitler had hoped all along with Britian might be achieved...

bf109 Emil

 

If anyone wants a good book on the black prince, i would highly recomend the black prince and the sea devils, by jack greene and alessandro massignani

 

The History of X MAS from 1943 to 1945 (also know as "la Decima di Borghese") is controversial. Althought the valor of this units was recognized both from allied than germans, its actions against partisans and its partecipation at SS retaliations (with lots of civilian casualities) not allow "Decima" to be remembered as worthy.

An important action of Decima hidden by its bad reputation is the one against jugoslav partisans in order to stop Tito's invasion of eastern Italy. Millions of Italians live in Italy thanks to Decima sacrifice.

The first action against Allied forces took place during Anzio's landing, expecially in Nettuno, where Barbadrigo battalion fought together 175th German infantry division while MAS naval units sunk 2 minor vessels.

However, it's much better remember X Flottiglia MAS action during 1940-1943 expecially the raid against HMS Queen Elizabeth

 

War against Jugoslav partisans: Operation Aquila (Eagle)
At the end of 1944, battalions “Sagittario”, “Barbarigo”, “Lupo”, artillery groups “San Giorgio” and “Alberico da Giussano” together with elitè battalion "Nuotatori paracadutisti" (Airborne navy commando) were involved in a great operation with the goal to destroy Jugoslavian IX Corpus. After heavy fight (battalion "Fulmine" sent as reinforcement was almost annihilated at Tarnova della Selva, but in the end it managed to defeat jugoslavians) all the Tito's force retreat and the Venezia Giulia (the oriental region of italy) was save. Decima together with RSI army and german units manage to keep the front until 8th may 1945 (the war in italy against Allied force end on 25th april...). Almost all RSI fighter were slaughtered in the Foibe by comunist partisans

 

Thanks for the additional info .

 

Strange how the Valor of these units were "reconized" by both sides yet the Italians over the decades have been derided as "cowards" and ineffective and otherwise bad soldiers.

 

Actually, RSI veterans are not celebrated in Italy. Mostly because of the massive communist influence in the later decades, headed by men like Arrigo Boldrini.

Today, they gather at very small and discrete reunions; looks like Italy wants them to go without much noise... Sad.

There's a little article on last year's ANR reunion, it only gathered 7 veterans, even that a friend of mine there said it was "a good year":

Sala de Guerra: Evento: Reunião 2008 da ANR

 

Yes it is sad. But I did not say they were or have been celebrated but that Italians as a whole in addition to those who served on both sides were derided as "cowards" and ineffective and otherwise bad soldiers regardless of their recogonized acts of bravery and effectiveness.