Eight decades have now passed since the dramatic events of the Second World War and it is now up to historians to tackle the story of those years. It is up to experts to try to put things in order, not with the idea of finding a definitive and shared truth on such complex events that will necessarily always give rise to discussions, comparisons, new approaches and second thoughts. Rather, we must be animated by the awareness that knowing is always better than removing and that stories must be told, especially if they are uncomfortable. In this way, we can also achieve, at least sometimes, a noble goal: to restore balance to the scales of historical justice.
This is what the journalist and writer Alfio Caruso does in his recent essay Incursori del re (Neri Pozza, 2025, pp. 240, also e-book) in which he reconstructs the history of the X MAS, the unit of the Italian Navy specialized in torpedo attacks. These were divers who, astride their devices (called “maiali”), penetrated the ports where enemy ships were anchored, often hitting them inexorably.
It was a unit of brave men, ready for the ultimate sacrifice. A unit stained, however, by a shame impossible to forget. After September 8, 1943, the X MAS, under the command of Prince Junio Valerio Borghese, sided with the Social Republic and the Nazis and was responsible for horrendous crimes , which stained its name forever, and caused everything that had happened before the tragic day of the armistice to fall into oblivion . There is, in fact, a before and an after, in the history of the X MAS Flotilla of the Royal Italian Navy. The after, as we have said, was marked by the wicked choice of Borghese and those who decided to follow him on the road to infamy. The X, in fact, dedicated itself with particular cruelty to the fight against the partisans . There is a before in which the history of the unit is very different: it is a story of loyalty and courage, of patriotism, discipline and heroism. On board the famous “pigs”, a few hundred men, all volunteers, chosen after a very tough selection, held high the honor of the Italian Navy during the Second World War, despite the enormous disproportion of forces: the divers of the X MAS succeeded several times, with their raids, in placing explosive devices under enemy ships, causing enormous damage. The most famous of these enterprises is undoubtedly that of Alexandria, Egypt, where on December 19, 1941 Luigi Durand De la Penne, Emilio Bianchi, Vincenzo Martellotta, Mario Marino, Antonio Marceglia and Spartaco Schergat managed to sink two English battleships , earning the esteem even of Winston Churchill.
As Caruso writes in his book: «During the thirty-nine months of war (June 1940-September 1943) the X Mas assault vessels sank or seriously damaged military vessels for about 76 thousand tons of displacement (38% of the 200 thousand tons that constituted the booty of the Italian fleet). While for merchant vessels the count rises to 148 thousand tons of gross tonnage (15% of the overall count of one million tons). In the 38 actions, a total of 238 men were engaged. It is almost unbelievable that they made the Royal Navy tremble».
Of those 238 men, only four, including Commander Borghese, were avowed fascists. The others were Italian soldiers animated by an extraordinary love of country and capable of an astonishing series of heroisms. It is no coincidence that the X MAS Flotilla of the Royal Italian Navy is the most decorated unit of the Italian army: 31 gold medals out of 238 members. It is worth discovering their story in the pages of Alfio Caruso.