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The Decima Flottiglia MAS (Decima Flottiglia Mezzi d'Assalto) known as La Decima or Xª MAS, the Italian 10th Assault Vehicle Flotilla was an elite naval unit active in World War from 1940-1945. This elite brigade of frogmen, sailors, and naval commandos most renowned service came between 1941-1943 when they undertook an ultimately failed but rather costly campaign against Allied military vessels and commerce shipping in the Mediterranean. Artist Depiction of Italian  Regia Marina  Frogmen, c.1941 When examining the impact that the Italian 10th MAS had during its years of service for Benito Mussolini’s (b.1883-1945) government from 1940-1943, one must understand the diverse composition of the brigade itself. Essentially four different branches comprised the unit during its fight against the British Royal Navy and Allied shipping, the Gamma frogmen, manned torpedo craft, midget submarines, and assault motorboat craft. Early Development of the Italian Assault Flotillas, 1917-1940...

On this day in history 1940, during the early years of World War II, Il Duce Benito Mussolini’s (b.1883-1945) government declared war on Greece, starting the Italo-Greek War. This conflict would become the earliest front in the Greek campaign of the greater Mediterranean-North African campaign between by fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Allies, principally Britain and her Commonwealth allies. Il Duce Benito Mussolini Using a massive invasion force of eight divisions, well over 200,000 men with full compliments of artillery, armor, and the warplanes of the Regia Aeronautica, which were launched from Albania , the Italians made an unexpected move towards war against the greater strategic aims of the Axis powers in October 1940. Most certainly Mussolini and his upper-echelon military generals realized that they must act alone in large scale military operation without the aid of Nazi Germany, so that their Axis allies and the enemies of Italy took them as a serious threat in the comin...

Condor Legion in Spain, Part I Further military intervention in the Spanish Civil War involving the  Condor Legion began in January of 1937 with the Imker-Drohne (Armor) and Imker-Ausbilder (Infantry) landing in Spain. Very soon they would they take a prominent role in training the fascist Spaniards cadres of officers and enlisted men. They would  participate actively in the ground campaign as well while preparing for the eventual drive into the heart of Spain led by Franco's rebels and the battle hungry Italians . This runs contrary to the belief that German involvement in Spain was solely for the testing and experimentation of tactics and equipment, especially armor and aviation technologies which though developed intensively before in the inter-war were untested in any large scale combat operations. Condor Legion banner/marching standard Tank commanders in the Wehrmacht simply learned the tactics as they went along by trial and error, with their collective experiences in...

Following their defeat in Ethiopia expansionist & imperialist sentiment was very quiet while Italy recovered in the wake of unrest that rocked most of the free world in the late 1890's and 1900's. Italy would play a major role nevertheless in the inter-state conflicts that preceded the Great War in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans, leading inevitably into buildup of nationalist sentiments that stoked the fires of a great conflict in 1914-1915. Captain Piazza’s Blériot XI during the campaign in Libya 1911 The Italian desire for expansion in North Africa, a more natural region geographically speaking to conquer, or acquire diplomatically than Ethiopia would have been, led the Italians to seek war with Turkey ( and the Ottoman Empire) over control of Libya, known then by the regional states of Tripolitania, Fezzan, & Cyrenaica. The Italians used gunboat diplomacy  successfully  where the German Empire had failed in the Moroccan crisis w...