Carlo Fecia di Cossato

He was Skipper of the submarine TAZZOLI, and he was quickly aware of the technical inferiority of the Italian means compared to the German ones. So he tried hard to study the procedures and techniques of the U-Bootwaffe to make up for these shortcomings. TAZZOLI and her Skipper, di Cossato, quickly became a thorn in the side of the Allied merchant traffic. He sank eighteen ships totaling more than 100,000 tons. His mind was on his sailors and all the Italian sailors who perished in the war.

On 27 August 1944, di Cossato wrote a letter to his mother, saying: “I have been thinking for months about my sailors who rest under the ocean and I believe my place is with them.”

And with that, he shot himself.

Teseo Tesei

Before departing on his last mission, Tesei wrote: “I wish, if my corpse will be found, that it would be carried with no military or civil ceremony at all, and with no funeral, to the Marina di Campo Cemetery and there it would be buried in a common grave.”

This was the last testament left by Tesei to his relatives before departing on his final patrol, a raid on the harbor at Malta. He died there.

He was a Naval Engineering Corps officer of the Flottiglia Mas and was one of the authors, together with Elios Toschi, of the improvement to the ‘Maiali’ (the torpedoes driven by two men with the explosive head on a timer fuse), and the techniques of ‘Gamma-Men’ (the Scuba diving commandoes with timed explosives). He spent his short life developing the techniques of harbor assaulting, but he was very unlucky when accomplishing the missions. However, the successes of other Italian commandoes like Durand de La Penne’s are most due to Tesei’s silent and constant work. The British could never feel secure in their Mediterranean ports because of the X Flottiglia Mas and his men. Today the ComSubLant of the Italian Navy is named after Tesei in his honor.

Junio Valerio Borghese

It is not easy to talk about Borghese in Italy today. After the armistice of 8 September 1943, Borghese was among those Italians who decided to continue the war, side by side with the Germans against the Allies. This of course, had a negative effect on his image after the war, but it did not change the gallantry and skill he continuously demonstrated during the whole conflict. He was especially outstanding in his stealthy navigation into enemy waters. He was Skipper of the legendary submarine SCIRE which carried the men of the Alexandria mission as well as other dangerous ones, then he was promoted to commander of the X Flottiglia Mas. He guided this flotilla reconstruction in the Mussolini Repubblica Sociale Italiana, and he had a major role in fighting the Northern Italy Resistance. For this reason, the name X-Mas is incorrectly associated with fascist forces today.

Francesco Mimbelli

Captain of the torpedo boat LUPO (Wolf), he and his crew twice went beyond the call of duty. On 22 May 1941, LUPO was escorting a convoy from Italy to Libya when the ships were spotted by a British task force of three cruisers and four destroyers. This was a very unequal match, but Mimbelli threw his tiny torpedo boat at the vastly superior British force, attacking them with torpedoes and giving the cargo ships time to escape. LUPO, firing all her small guns, penetrated the British formation and caused confusion. The British then gave chase, but Mimbelli brought his badly damaged torpedo boat back to base.

Again on 24 November 1941, Mimbelli and LUPO were again doing escort duty in company with another Italian torpedo boat, the CASSIOPEA, covering two cargo ships. They were jumped by two British cruisers and two destroyers (HMS AURORA, HMS PENELOPE, HMS LANCE & HMS LIVELY). Mimbelli ordered CASSIOPEA to lay down smoke for the cargo ships to escape, and he again attacked the Royal Navy. The outcome was not so good for the Italian convoy this time, as LUPO was badly hit and the two cargo ships were sunk. Badly damaged, LUPO and CASSIOPEA were able to withdraw to their ports.

Not forgotten by their nation, Mimbelli is the name of a new super destroyer and LUPO is a class of frigates in today’s Italian Navy.

Salvatore Pelosi

He was Skipper of the Italian submarine TORRICELLI and he accomplished one of the most courageous feats of the war, in the Red Sea. Pelosi engaged in a very uneven combat with a superior British force of three destroyers and one gunship. TORRICELLI had been previously damaged by an attack of Royal Air Force aircraft and could not remain submerged for any length of time. So Pelosi was forced to bring TORRICELLI to the surface and fight it out with this superior force using his deck guns and the few remaining torpedoes. During this fierce combat, TORRICELLI was hit many times but sank the destroyer HMS KARTHOUM and damaged the gunship HMS SHOREHAM.

His submarine too badly damaged to continue, Pelosi ordered his crew to scuttle the submarine and the survivors of his crew were taken prisoner by the British.

Pelosi was awarded the Italian Gold Medal for his bravery.