Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Italian Decima Mas 1943-45 Volume 1: Origins, Organisation, and the Early Campaigns of Borghese's Forces in the Italian Social Republic

Italian Decima Mas 1943-45 Volume 1: Origins, Organisation, and the Early Campaigns of Borghese's Forces in the Italian Social Republic

Afiero, Massimiliano

Paperback

Series: Europe@war

Italian HistoryNaval HistoryWorld War II

Publisher Price: $29.95

PREORDER - Expected ship date October 31, 2026

ISBN10: 180451960X
ISBN13: 9781804519608
Publisher: Helion & Company
Published: Oct 31 2026
Pages: 104
Language: English
A detailed military history traces the evolution of a specialized Italian flotilla into a mixed naval and land force under Borghese after the 1943 armistice, highlighting reorganizations, volunteers, and early land operations.

The Italian Decima MAS is remembered both for its daring naval exploits and for the deep controversies surrounding its role in the bitter final years of the Second World War. In this first of two volumes, noted historian Massimiliano Afiero charts the evolution of the unit from its celebrated underwater and surface raiding successes of 1940-43 into a very different force after the September 1943 armistice.

When Italy switched sides, Prince Junio Valerio Borghese refused to disband his men, instead negotiating a special agreement with the German navy that allowed him to retain command and autonomy. What had been a small, highly specialised assault flotilla was rapidly re-formed as a mixed naval and land force of the Italian Social Republic, drawing in volunteers from across Italy. For these men, joining Borghese was a matter of honour, a way to continue fighting under the Italian flag despite the collapse of the state.

Afiero carefully reconstructs these turbulent months, tracing how the Decima adapted from raiding to conventional warfare. He examines the influx of volunteers, the creation of new battalions, the relocation of the headquarters to La Spezia, and the difficult balance Borghese attempted to maintain between collaboration with the Germans and preservation of Italian independence. The narrative follows the unit's first land operations, its attempts to avoid involvement in a full civil war, and the mounting pressures that eventually dragged it into anti-partisan campaigns.

Based on archival documentation and the testimonies of participants, this study presents a detailed and balanced military history of the Decima MAS at the moment of its rebirth, setting the stage for the larger-scale campaigns covered in the second volume.

Also from

Afiero, Massimiliano

View All

Also in

World War II

View All