Junio Valerio Borghese

Prince Junio Valerio Scipione Borghese (6 June 1906 - 26 August 1974) was an Italian naval commander and controversial political figure.

Related Topics:
6 June - 1906 - 26 August - 1974

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Junio Valerio Borghese was born in Rome into the wealthy Borghese noble family, and educated in London and from 1923 at the Royal Italian Navy Academy (Accademia Navale) in Livorno.

Related Topics:
Rome - Borghese - London - Livorno

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In 1929 his naval career began, and by 1933 he was a submarine commander. He took part in the Ethiopian War and during the Spanish Civil War was in command of the Iride.

Related Topics:
Spanish Civil War - ''Iride''

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At the start of the Second World War he took command of submarine Vittor Pisani, and in August 1940 was in command of submarine Sciré, which was modified to carry the new secret Italian weapon, the human torpedo. Known as SLC (siluri a lenta corsa - slow speed torpedoes), and nicknamed maiali (pigs), these were small underwater assault vehicles with a crew of two. In September 1941, Borghese managed to enter Gibraltar harbour to launch the human torpedoes on a raid which damaged three ships. On 18 December 1941, he reached Alexandria and launched three SLC that damaged the Royal Navy battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth, and the tanker Sagona.

Related Topics:
Second World War - ''Vittor Pisani'' - ''Sciré'' - Human torpedo - Gibraltar - Alexandria - Royal Navy - HMS Valiant - HMS Queen Elizabeth

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In 1942 J. Valerio Borghese took command of the elite naval sabotage unit of the Italian Navy, which included surface assault craft, human torpedoes, midget submarines and SCUBA assault swimmers. This unit, known as the Decima Flottiglia MAS, or X-MAS, saw active service in the Mediterranean and pioneered new techniques of commando assault warfare, commanding the admiration of Italians and the respect of the Royal Navy.

Related Topics:
SCUBA - Decima Flottiglia MAS

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Following the surrender of Italy on 8 September 1943, Decima Flottiglia was disbanded, and some of its sailors joined the Allied cause to fight against Germany. Borghese chose to ally himself with the fascist Italian Social Republic and continue fighting alongside the German armed forces, and on 12 September 1943 he signed a treaty of alliance with the German Navy. Many of his colleagues volunteered to serve with him, and the Decima Flottiglia was revived, headquartered in the Palazzo Fantoni in Salo. By the end of the war it had over 18,000 members. Much of the fighting of the Decima Mass haveing been done in North Eastern Italy. The Decima Mass gained a gruding respect from the Allies as hard fighters and in their pitched battles with the communist partisans & Titoites much appreciation from the Friulan population.

Related Topics:
8 September - 1943 - Fascist - Italian Social Republic - Salo

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At the end of the war Borghese was arrested by partisans, but rescued by OSS officer James Angleton, who dressed him up in an American uniform and drove him to Rome for interrogation by the Allies. Borghese was tried and convicted of war crimes, sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, but released from jail by the Italian Supreme Court in 1949.

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With his record as a war hero and his support of fascism, he became a figurehead for pro-fascist, anti-communist groups in the immediate post-war period, acquiring the nickname Black Prince. He was associated with the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), the neo-Fascist party formed in the post-World War II period by supporters of the executed dictator Benito Mussolini, and later, advocating an harder line which the MSI was not able or willing to uphold he broke from it to form an even stauncher neofascist formation, known as the Fronte Nazionale.

Related Topics:
Movimento Sociale Italiano - Benito Mussolini - Fronte Nazionale

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Borghese's name is also linked with plots by the CIA to promote fascism in post-war Italy as a means of combating communism.

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Following an aborted 'coup d'etat' plot which fizzled out in the night of December the 8th 1970 (a religious festivity in Italy, known as the 'Immaculate Conception'), referred to as the Golpe Borghese he was forced to cross the border to avoid arrest and interrogation.

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Latterly regarded as a political outcast, Junio Valerio Borghese died in Cadiz in 1974.

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He wrote a popular memoir of his wartime exploits, published as "Sea Devils" in 1954.

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