Sea Devils: Italian Navy Commandos in World War II (Classics of Naval Literature) [Hardcover]

J. Valerio Borghese (Author), Jack Sweetman (Editor), Paolo E. Coletta (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Classics of Naval Literature | Publication Date: August 1995

A fascinating memoir of service with the "human torpedoes" of the Italian Navy's Tenth Light Flotilla.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian

Product Details

• Hardcover: 262 pages
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press; Reprint edition (August 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155750072X
• ISBN-13: 978-1557500724
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,510,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Historical facts about the war finally revealed, March 21, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Sea Devils: Italian Navy Commandos in World War II (Classics of Naval Literature) (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating account detailing one of WWII's fiercest
but often neglected units by English speaking Historians.

We learn about the commando units successes, failures and challenges it faced in the theatre of WWII.

From the detailed insights given into this formidable Italian fighting unit as well as first hand accountss into the political and logistical challenges that the Italian commandos faced during it's involvement in the war, the reader can finally learn about the many episodes of Italian victories which never made it into English print.

And has been until now for homefront propanganda purposes
intentionally kept out of English /American history books.

Those who belittled Italian military contributions during WWII should read this book it goes a long way into exploding mistruths/misconceptions which many not privy to war texts in other languages may have had regarding the Italian Military.

For those interested in a deeper understanding of Italian fighting units/commandos and Italian acts of War valour this book finally redresses many inaccuracies found in far too many poorly researched stereotypically biased essays released in the English language that replaced and omitted important historical facts due to an agenda of propaganda.

This volume should be required reading for all historian and student alike - a brilliant work overall that vindicates Italy's poorly equipped but heroic WWII commando unit.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars only the Italians can do this!!!, February 19, 2006

By 

Rodolfo Sganga (Quantico, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sea Devils: Italian Navy Commandos in World War II (Classics of Naval Literature) (Hardcover)

This is a great part of the Italian history which is still unknown to many US historians. Very good book to counter the idea concerning the failure of the Italians to innovate in the interwars period. It is definitely worthy to be read!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sport or war?, October 7, 2004

By 

Ignacio Recalde Canals (Mallorca, Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sea Devils: Italian Navy Commandos in World War II (Classics of Naval Literature) (Hardcover)

The amazing stories in this book are worth reading even if one is a pacifist. This looks more like a team of people training for winning a cross country race than for a war. Their actions seem to be motivated by the pride of showing to the enemy how brave the italians were and the astonishing things that could be done with a short budget, courage and ingenuity more than scoring essential points in a war. They did not choose targets strategically, but anyway if their actions had a strategical result the High command did not take advantage. It is a delightful reading, not a boring and impersonal account of war campaigns.