Junio ​​Valerio Borghese

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Junio ​​Valerio Borghese (around 1944/1945 in the uniform of the Xª Flottiglia MAS of the RSI with the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st class)

Prince Junio Valerio Scipione Borghese (* 6. June 1906 in Rome ; † 26. August 1974 in Cadiz , Spain ) was an Italian naval - officer and fascist politicians . He was also named the Black Prince (Italian Il principe nero ).

Childhood and youth

Junio ​​Valerio Borghese came from one of the most respected Roman noble families, the Borghese . Because his father was a diplomat , he spent much of his childhood and youth abroad, including in China , Egypt , Spain , France and the UK . In 1922 he was accepted at the Naval Academy in Livorno and left in 1928 as a lieutenant at sea . In the following years he served on various warships of the Regia Marina (Royal Navy), from 1932 on on submarines .

Second World War

When the war broke out, Borghese was in command of the R.Smg submarine . Vettor Pisani , with whom he took part in the sea ​​battle at Punta Stilo and in operations against Gibraltar . In 1941 he took over the submarine Scirè as Corvette Captain (Capitano di Corvetta) , with which he was assigned to the Xª Flottiglia MAS , a special unit of the Italian Navy. With this boat he supported a famous operation of Italian combat swimmers (among them Luigi Durand de la Penne ) with manned torpedoes against the British naval base in the port of Alexandria , whereby the British battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth were sunk. Both ships could, however, be lifted after a short time and then repaired. From May 1943 he commanded the entire special unit, which experienced a traumatic split because of the armistice of September 8, 1943 ( Armistice of Cassibile ). After an agreement with German naval agencies in Liguria, Borghese continued to fight on the part of the Germans as part of the fascist Repubblica Sociale Italiana (Italian Social Republic). The association, which - although now only deployed on land - continued to act as Xª Flottiglia MAS , was subsequently expanded considerably and (in addition to brief missions against Allied troops, for example to repel the American-British landing at Anzio-Nettuno ) especially in the The framework of the anti-partisan fight (see Resistancea ) used, where he was noticeable for his extremely ruthless approach, which was based on the practice of the fascist squadrismo of the early 20s. Borghese thereby secured recognition and protection from the German authorities, which enabled his unit to act almost autonomously and protected him from repeated interventions by the Italian authorities - in January 1944, Mussolini even had Borghese arrested, but had to dismiss him under German pressure. He also received German awards for his assignments, including the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st class. The Xª Flottiglia MAS was dissolved on April 26, 1945 in Milan .

Post-war period and attempted coup

Borghese initially went into Allied captivity. On February 17, 1949, he was sentenced to twelve years in prison, but thanks to the protection of the American secret service OSS , he was immediately released. In the following years, Borghese worked in the neo-fascist party Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), of which he became honorary chairman in 1951. He later left the party , which he considered too weak, and joined the extra-parliamentary extreme right . In 1968 he founded his own party called Fronte Nazionale . Together with members of this party and numerous high officials and officers , he is said to have attempted a coup d'état on the night of December 7th, 1970 . The secret services such as SISMI and some important politicians, including Giulio Andreotti , are said to have known at least about the plans and preparations for this coup, in which, according to research by Mauro De Mauro , the mafia was also involved .

After the ominous coup attempt , which he himself is said to have broken off at the last moment, Borghese retired to Francoist Spain, where he died in 1974.

family

Junio ​​Valerio was a son of Livio Borghese (* 1874 in Frascati , † 1939 in Athens ) and his wife Valeria, b. Keun (* 1880 in Smyrna , † 1956 in Catania ).

He was married to Daria Wassiljewna Olsufjewa (* 1909 in Moscow , † 1963 in Rome) and had four children.

See also

documentary

Individual evidence

  1. Jack Greene e Alessandro Massignani: Il principe nero, Junio ​​Valerio Borghese e la Xª MAS , Oscar Mondadori, 2008
  2. ^ DIED: Charles A. Lindbergh . In: Der Spiegel . No. 36 , 1974 ( online - 2 September 1974 ).
  3. "La formazione del principe Borghese si distinse per aver restaurato in pieno gli atteggiamenti e la brutalità del fascismo squadristico." Secchia, Pietro, Frassati, Filippo, Storia delle Resistenza. La guerra di liberazione in Italia 1943-1945, Rome 1965, Volume 1, p. 264.
  4. See O'Reilly, Charles T., Forgotten Battles. Italy's War of Liberation 1943-1945, Lanham-Oxford 2001, pp. 276f. as well as Secchia, Frasati, Resistenza, Volume 1, p. 266. See also the work by Bordogna, Mario, Junio ​​Valerio Borghese e la Xª Flottiglia Mas, which is not very subtle in glorifying Borghese. Dall'8 September 1943 al 26 April 1945, Milan 1995.
  5. Report in The Independent

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