Successor Units
Following the armistice of Italy on September 8, 1943, the Xª MAS was disbanded. The Badoglio government in the south of Italy under Allied occupation declared war on Germany and became a co-belligerent. Some Decima MAS sailors joined the Allied cause to fight against Nazi Germany and what remained of the Axis as part of the Italian Co-Belligerent Navy. A new unit was formed, led by Forza and joined by some of the pioneers such as de la Penne newly released from British POW camps. The new unit was named Marassalto, but continued to be an elite naval force mounting special operations at sea.
In the German-occupied north of Italy Mussolini set up the so-called Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana, or RSI) to continue the war as part of the Axis. Led by Borghese, Decima Flottiglia was revived, as part of the National Republican Navy (Marina Nazionale Repubblicana) of the RSI with its headquarters in Caserma del Muggiano, La Spezia. By the end of the war, it had over 18,000 members, and although Borghese conceived it as a purely naval unit, it gained a reputation as a savage pro-fascist, anti-communist, anti-resistance force in land campaigns alongside the German Army (Wehrmacht Heer), under the command of SS General Karl Wolff.
Read more about this topic: Decima Flottiglia MAS
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