Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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!

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.

It is historically correct and witten by one of the protagonist, but this book deserve a special attention because it tells a lot about the character of the italian people, in a war they found themselves totally unprepared, in spite to the decision to engage it. Nevertheless the spirit of inventive, fantasy and individuality made out some remarkable points in light of the extremely scarce resources.