Editing Junio Valerio Borghese (section)

==World War II==
{{Quote|The elite World War II Italian naval unit Decima Flottiglia MAS is considered by many to be the first modern naval commando squad. Assembled by Prince Junio Valerio Borghese at the beginning of the war, these "frogmen" were trained to fight undercover and underwater with small submarines and assault boats armed with a variety of torpedoes—pioneering tactics that remain a standard for Special Forces around the world today.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.usni.org/store/item.asp?department_id=135&item_id=1752 |title=US Naval Institute |access-date=2010-02-11 |archive-date=2014-12-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222001414/http://www.usni.org/store/books/history/sea-devils-0 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

At the start of the [[Second World War]], Borghese took command of [[submarine]] [[Italian submarine Vettor Pisani|''Vettor Pisani'']], and in August 1940 was in command of submarine [[Italian submarine Sciré (1938)|''Sciré'']], which was modified to carry the new secret Italian weapon, the [[human torpedo]]. Known as "slow speed torpedoes" (''siluri a lenta corsa'', or SLC), and nicknamed "pigs" (''maiali'') for their poor maneuverability, these were small underwater assault vehicles with a crew of two.

These were part of the ''1ª Flottiglia Mezzi d'Assalto'' (MAS), the "First Assault Vehicle Flotilla" (later called ''[[Decima Flottiglia MAS]]''), an elite naval sabotage unit of the Royal Italian Navy (''[[Regia Marina]] Italiana'').

As commander of ''Sciré'' Borghese took part in several raids using SLC. The first of these, in September and October 1940, [[Military history of Gibraltar during World War II#Xª MAS: 1940–1943|were directed at Gibraltar]]. The September raid was abandoned when the harbour was found to be empty. In the October raid, Borghese took ''[[Italian submarine Scirè (1938)|Sciré]]'' deep into [[Bay of Gibraltar|Gibraltar Bay]], making a difficult submerged passage in order to release the SLC as close to the target as possible.{{sfn|Kemp|1997|p=36}} For this he received the [[Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Militare]] (MOVM), despite the mission's overall lack of success.

In May 1941 a further attempt ended in failure, but on 20 September 1941, a successful mission damaged three merchant ships in the harbour. After this last attack, he was promoted to ''Capitano di Fregata'', and named commander of the ''Decima MAS''' sub-surface unit.{{sfn|Kemp|1997|p=51}}

On 18 December 1941, he reached [[Alexandria]] in ''Sciré'' and launched [[Raid on Alexandria (1941)|the daring raid by three SLCs]] that heavily damaged the two [[Royal Navy]] [[battleship]]s {{HMS|Valiant|1914|6}} and {{HMS|Queen Elizabeth|1913|6}} and two other ships in the harbour. The six Italian Navy crew that attacked [[Alexandria]] harbour all received the ''Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Militare'', and Borghese was named ''[[Cavaliere dell'Ordine Militare di Savoia]]''.

In May 1943, Borghese took command of the ''[[Decima Flottiglia MAS]]''{{sfn|Kemp|1997|p=57}} ("10th Assault Vehicle Flotilla"), or ''Xª MAS'' with [[Roman numerals]], which continued active service in the Mediterranean and pioneered new techniques of [[commando]] assault warfare. The Roman numeral was in memory of Caesar's famous Decima Legio.

===8 September 1943: the Armistice===
[[Image:Borghese, Junio Valerio.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Borghese in 1944]]
After [[Armistice of Cassibile|Italy's surrender to the Allies on 8 September 1943]], the ''Xª MAS'' was disbanded. While some of its sailors joined the Allies, Borghese chose to continue fighting with the [[Italian Social Republic]] (RSI) alongside the German Armed Forces (''[[Wehrmacht]]'').

On 12 September 1943, he signed a treaty of alliance with Nazi Germany's ''[[Kriegsmarine]]''. Many of his colleagues volunteered to serve with him, and the Decima Flottiglia was revived, headquartered in ''Caserma del Muggiano'', [[La Spezia]]. By the end of the war, it had over 18,000 members, and Borghese conceived it as a purely military unit. The X Flottiglia gained a reputation for never firing a shot at any Italian military units fighting with the Allied forces.

In April 1945 when the [[United States|US]] command discovered that the British had granted permission to Marshal [[Josip Broz Tito]] of [[Yugoslavia]], and his Communist troops, to occupy northeastern Italy from Venice to the east, Borghese moved the bulk of the X Flottiglia from the Ligurian and Piedmontese area to the Veneto. The X Flottiglia built a line of defence on the Tagliamento river where they resisted until the arrival of the Allied troops.

In this action, the X Flottiglia lost over eighty per cent of the fighting sailors dispatched to the front against Tito's troops, and the Italian Communist Partisans allied with Tito.

At the end of the war, Borghese was rescued by [[Office of Strategic Services]] officer [[James Jesus Angleton|James Angleton]], who dressed him in an American uniform and drove him from [[Milan]] to [[Rome]] for interrogation by the Allies. Borghese was then tried and convicted of collaboration with the Nazi invaders, but not of [[war crime]]s, by the Italian Court. He was "sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, discounted to 3 years, due to his glorious expeditions during the war, his defence of northeast borders against Tito's ''[[9th Corps (Partisans)|IX Corps]]'' and his defence of [[Genoa]] harbour".<ref>Sergio Nesi, Italian Supreme Court report in ''Il processo'', in ''Junio Valerio Borghese. Un principe, un comandante, un italiano''. Bologna, Lo Scarabeo, 2004, pp. 555-556.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UAMZMoMuCEcC&pg=PR4 |title=The United States and the European Right, 1945-1955 |last=Kisatsky |first=Deborah |date=2005 |publisher=Ohio State University Press |isbn=9780814209981 |language=en}}</ref> He was released from jail after four years' imprisonment by the [[Court of Cassation (Italy)|Supreme Court of Cassation]] in 1949.