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Lesser Known Facts About World War II

Khalid Elhassan November 4, 2019 28 min

Operation Jericho - de Havilland Mosquito — Mosquitoes during Operation Jericho. Swa Fine Art

11. The Italian Frogmen in Alexandria

During WWII, the Italian military did not exactly cover itself in glory. Indeed, the Italians came out of the conflict with a pretty poor reputation for all things martial, much of it well-earned. However, there were some Italian units that performed quite well during the conflict. None more so than the elite outfit of specially trained frogmen known as the Decima Flottiglia MAS, or “10^th Assault Vehicle Flottila” – a force of underwater commandos who worked with battery-powered 22-foot-long manned torpedoes.

Their torpedoes had a speed of 2.5 miles and a range of 10 miles, were submersible to a depth of about 100 feet and carried a detachable 660-pound explosive charge. On December 3^rd, 1941, an Italian submarine left La Spezia, Italy, carrying three manned torpedoes. It stopped at the island of Leros in the Aegean, where it picked up three crews of two men each to man the torpedoes. Submarine and frogmen then set course for the harbor of Alexandria, Egypt – the British Royal Navy’s Mediterranean headquarters and main base – to conduct one of WWII’s most daring attacks, carried out with great skill and courage.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.