A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some European countries, police work. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver, combatant diver, or combat swimmer. The word frogman first arose in the stage name the "Fearless Frogman" of Paul Boyton in the 1870s and later was claimed by John Spence, an enlisted member of the U.S. Navy and member of the OSS Maritime Unit, to have been applied to him while he was training in a green waterproof suit.
Junio Valerio Scipione Ghezzo Marcantonio Maria Borghese, nicknamed The Black Prince, was an Italian Navy commander during the regime of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party and a prominent hardline neo-fascist politician in post-war Italy. In 1970, he took part in the planning of a neo-fascist coup, dubbed the Golpe Borghese, that was called off after the press discovered it; he subsequently fled to Spain and spent the last years of his life there.
Human torpedoes or manned torpedoes are a type of diver propulsion vehicle on which the diver rides, generally in a seated position behind a fairing. They were used as secret naval weapons in World War II. The basic concept is still in use.
The Regia Marina (RM) or Royal Italian Navy was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic, the Regia Marina changed its name to Marina Militare.
The Decima Flottiglia MAS was an Italian flotilla, with marines and commando frogman unit, of the Regia Marina created during the Fascist regime.
Italian submarine Scirè was an Adua-class submarine, built in the 1930s which served during World War II in the Regia Marina. It was named after a northern region of Ethiopia, at the time part of Italian East Africa.
Britain's commando frogman force is now the Special Boat Service (SBS), whose members are drawn largely from the Royal Marines. They perform various operations on land as well as in the water. Until the late 1990s, all members of the Special Air Service (SAS) Boat Troop were trained as commando frogmen.
Bolzano was a unique heavy cruiser, sometimes considered to be a member of the Trento class, built for the Italian Regia Marina in the early 1930s, the last vessel of the type to be built by Italy. A modified version of the earlier Trento class, she had a heavier displacement, slightly shorter length, a newer model of 203 mm (8 in) gun, and a more powerful propulsion system, among other differences influenced by the Zara class that had followed the Trentos. Bolzano was built by the Gio. Ansaldo & C. between her keel laying in June 1930 and her commissioning in August 1933.
Teseo Tesei was an Italian naval officer, who invented the human torpedo used by the Regia Marina during World War II.
The Raid on Alexandria was carried out on 19 December 1941 by Italian Navy divers of the Decima Flottiglia MAS, who attacked and sank two Royal Navy battleships at their moorings and damaged an oil tanker and a destroyer in the harbour of Alexandria, Egypt, using manned torpedoes.
The Raid on Souda Bay was an assault by Italian Royal Navy explosive boats on Souda Bay, Crete, during the first hours of 26 March 1941. The motor boats were launched by the destroyers Francesco Crispi and Quintino Sella on the approaches to the bay. After negotiating the boom defences, the small craft attacked the Royal Navy heavy cruiser HMS York and the Norwegian tanker Pericles. The Allied vessels were both sunk in shallow waters by the explosive charges and eventually lost.
The Perla-class submarines were the third sub-class of the 600 Series of coastal submarines built for the Royal Italian Navy during the 1930s and named after gemstones. Of the ten boats built of this class, only three survived World War II.
The auxiliary ship Olterra was a 5,000 ton Italian tanker scuttled by her own crew at Algeciras in the Bay of Gibraltar on 10 June 1940, after the entry of Italy in World War II. She was recovered in 1942 by a special unit of the Decima Flottiglia MAS to be used as an undercover base for manned torpedoes in order to attack Allied shipping at Gibraltar.
The Chariot was a British manned torpedo used in World War II. The Chariot was inspired by the operations of Italian naval commandos, in particular the raid on 19 December 1941 by members of the Decima Flottiglia MAS who rode "Maiali" manned torpedoes into the port of Alexandria and there placed limpet mines on or near the battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth as well as an 8,000-ton tanker, causing serious damage which put both battleships out of operational use until 1943.
The explosive motorboat MT also known as barchino, was a series of small explosive motor boats developed by the Italian Royal Navy, which was based on its predecessors, the prototype boat MA and the MAT, an airborne prototype. Explosive motorboats were designed to make a silent approach to a moored warship, set a collision course and run into full gear until the last 200 or 100 yards to the target, when the pilot would eject after blocking the rudder. At impact, the hull would be broken amidships by a small explosive charge, sinking the boat and the warhead, which was fitted with a water-pressure fuse set to go off at a depth of one metre.
Mario Elbano Masciulli Manelli, Baron Miglianico was a prominent military engineer of the Italian Regia Marina, Major of Genio Navale and belonging to the recognized Decima Flottiglia MAS as director of the Office of Submarine Secret Weapons during Second World War. He was awarded the Silver Medal of Military Valor.
Gino Birindelli was an Italian admiral and chief of the fleet of the Italian Navy. After his retirement from the Navy he was elected as a member of the lower house of Parliament for the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement.
Mario Arillo was an Italian naval officer during World War II.
Italian submarine Ambra was a Perla-class submarine built for the Royal Italian Navy during the 1930s. She was named after the gemstone amber.
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Morgan Morgan-Giles 