Attracted by military life, in 1922, he was admitted to the courses of the Royal Naval Academy, from which he emerged in 1928 with the rank of ensign, but still had to wait almost a year to get his first boarding on ‘cruiser Trento. In 1930, he was promoted to lieutenant and served aboard a torpedo boat operating in the Adriatic the following year, he attended the upper reaches of the Naval Academy and, in 1932, was transferred to submarines.

After attending the course in underwater weapons, in 1933, promoted to lieutenant and was first embarked on Colombo and then the Titan. Although he had in the meantime obtained patents diver normal and of great depth, it was only in 1935 that he received his first assignment as a submariner, participating in the war in Ethiopia, first embarked on board the submarine Walrus and subsequently of the Finzi.

The Spanish Civil War

In 1937, he finally took the first command with the submarine “Iris” and took part in the Spanish Civil War. On August 30, a destroyer was attacked, wrongly identified with a fleet of Republican class Barzcaitegui Sanchez. In fact, it was the British destroyer Havock.

The wake of the torpedo, however, was noted by the board, and the British destroyer had time to maneuver to avoid being hit. Soon after began the hunt for the submarine, which provoked a minor international crisis with the Royal Navy's accusations of “piracy.” Nevertheless, the Royal Navy, after informing Italy to be aware of the nationality of the submarine and threatening reactions most far-reaching in the case of repeated attack, dropped the matter.

Following the submarine, “Iris” was officially incorporated into the fleet of nationalist Spanish, and its name was changed from Iride Gonzalez Lopez to L.3.

Following the experience of the Spanish Civil War, it was decorated on ‘April 8, 1939, with the bronze medal for Military Valour.

The Second World War

Subsequently, he transferred to the base of Leros in the Dodecanese. He remained there until the entry into the war on June 10, 1940, when he was commander of the submarine Vector Pisani and took part in the Battle of Calabriaon July 9. However, the “Vector Pisani” proved extremely outdated and was never used in war actions.

In August, he was sent to Memel, then in German territory, in a course to the Atlantic, where he trained submariners aboard a U-boat. Here, you probably knew the German Admiral Karl Doenitz.

Commander of the Scirè

Promoted to lieutenant commander in 1940, he was appointed to the department commandos of the 1st Flotilla MAS, where he became commander of the submarine Scire.

The attacks in Gibraltar

On September 24, 1940, Borghese began its first operation against the fortress of Gibraltar (BG1), carrying the Torpedoes Slow Run with their teams. Reaching its destination on September 29, the whole process was canceled because the British team had, in the meantime, left the port, and there was nothing left to do but to return to La Spezia.

On October 21, the information had a presence in Gibraltar of the battleship HMS Barham and another unidentified; he tried again (BG2) with the same team, SLC. During the approach maneuvers, arrived in the Strait of Gibraltar, a British destroyer intercepted the Scirè was forced to dive to escape the hunting. In joint position, Borghese had the submarine lay on the bottom, but the strong currents dragged away by pushing the medium to emerge and re-cross the strait.

Riposizionatosi, the “Shire,” was again dragged by the currents. Borghese then headed to the Bay of Algeciras in Spanish territorial waters, where the SLC was dropped. The mission began to appear compromised by the fact that the divers of the Gamma Group, countered by solid currents, would not be able to come into place.

Borghese began to think it was better to cancel it. Still, Gino Birindelli noted the movement of algae, including that the currents would drag the submarine and, thus, the SLC to a position close to the Bay of Gibraltar. Informed by Birindelli, Borghese assigned objectives - Gino Birindelli would undermine the first battleship, Teseo Tesei the second, and Luigi Durand de la Penne was folded on a large unit of his choice, then started the mission Scaricardo stormtroopers after informing the Italian command made ​​his way to La Spezia.

The mission failed targets due to equipment failures, and Birindelli was taken prisoner while the other raiders managed to gain the Spanish coast and then return home, but for the first time, he had managed to force the armed naval base at Gibraltar. For this action, on January 2, 1941, he was decorated with the Gold Medal for Military Valour.

After the initial failures of the entire department raiding, the command was entrusted to the captain of a frigate, Vittorio Moccagatta, and on 15 March 1941, the X ª MAS Flotilla with a central authority and two assault troops, one formed by means of surface entrusted Giorgio Job entrusted to Borghese and the other consists of the submarines: even with his contributions were planned and implemented in all projects for forcing the bay of Gibraltar, Alexandria and unrealized forcing the port New York.

On April 15, 1941, Borghese, driving Scirè, left for a new mission in Gibraltar (BG3). This time, the operators were transferred by plane to Cadiz and no longer on board the submarine. The “Shire” arrived in the port of Cadiz on May 25, having accumulated much delay due to adverse sea currents.

In Spanish port, it was supplied at the Italian tanker “Fulgor,” which had been interned and secretly acted as a support ship. In the meantime, however, the British fleet had left the port for a mission, and it was decided to change objectives before going to the ships in the harbor. She was chosen in particular, a tanker that, in the eyes of the raiders, appeared to be an oil tanker but was once again betrayed by the equipment, and the operation jumped. The British did not realize they were under attack.

In the night between 25 and 26 July 1941 came the attack on the British base of Malta, which ended in disaster. The raiders were all intercepted, and Vittorio Moccagatta and Giorgio Job, who were on board a boat that reached with the support of the British fighters, were shot and killed. The X ª MAS suddenly found himself without a commander, a position he was temporarily assigned to Borghese until the appointment of Ernesto Force.

On September 10, 1941, Borghese, driving Scirè, left for the fourth mission in Gibraltar (BG4), following the same pattern as the previous one. So on September 19, the “Shire” came into Cadiz, collected the Raiders, and dumped them on the same evening at the Bay of Gibraltar.

The objectives assigned by Borghese concerned a class battleship, Nelson for the team, and Antonio Amedeo Vesco Zozzoli. A freighter for Joseph Catalano and Giannoni, and Decius, and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal for Licio Visintini and John Magro. The top two teams were unable to force the port and fell back on two ships at anchor and finally reached the Spanish coast by swimming. Skinny Visintini instead managed to get inside, but reaching the aircraft carrier proved too tricky, and turned back to a tanker.

The ships were sunk tankers Fiona Shell and Denbydale while armed Durham severely damaged the vessel. The six were awarded for this operation the Silver Medal for Military Valour.

The enterprise of Alexandria

Borghese, after the attack on Gibraltar, began to study a new episode, this time against the naval base at Alexandria, Egypt. Also, this time, the raiders chosen for the mission were transferred by air to the island of Leros, where Borghese then picked them up and arrived with the “Shire.” They arrived in the harbor of Alexandria in the evening between 18 and 19 December 1941, where the men were released. Two were boarded as a reserve. Then Borghese returned to Leros.

The attack led to severe damage to the British battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant). Borghese, at the end of the mission, was made ​​a Knight of the ‘Military Order of Savoy.

The planned attack on New York City

After the success of ‘Enterprise of Alexandria, Borghese had to leave the command of the submarine “Scire” to dedicate himself entirely to the department of the X ª underwater.

In 1942, he traveled to Europe to gather information that would help perform other acts of war. In Paris, he met Karl Doenitz, with whom he intended a plan of operations.

Later, he met the men of the X ª MAS in Algeciras.

In the summer, he returned to Paris, where he had a new interview with Doenitz but got no results, so he decided that any action would be completed only by means of Italian. He began to consider the idea of an attack on New York, not so much for a possible military success as a moral victory.

In July 1942, Borghese studied a very ambitious project, an attack on the X ª MAS Flotilla at the port of New York. He chose the submarine Atlantic “Leonardo da Vinci”) of the base BETASOM of Bordeaux as a means avvicinatore. The submarine was to carry to the mouth of the ‘Hudson, a small midget submarine type CA (he was sent by train to Bordeaux for the operation, AC 2) into a “well” in place of the proceeds bow cannon. Lieutenant Eugene Massano was also sent to Bordeaux by the commander of the X ª MAS Flotilla Borghese would have had to drive the small class CA on board with some “men range” (divers assault) and 28 explosive charges from 20 to 100 kg; we would be inclined to undermine the ships in the harbor.

The work was carried out in August 1942 and September, testing the release of CA 2 from Da Vinci under the supervision of Lieutenant Eugene Massano. The evidence obtained good results during which the “Da Vinci,” about 12 feet underwater, could release the small AC and recover it. In fact, the recovery was very remote, and the hypothesis had already predicted that the members of the Gamma Group would have to destroy the middle at the end of the operation before reaching the mainland.

The mission was postponed due to the loss of the Da Vinci on 23 May 1943 and then canceled after the armistice two months later. (which should have followed similar raids against Cape Town and Freetown).

Commander of the X ª MAS

On 1 May 1943, he was promoted to Commander Borghese and assumed command of the X ª MAS Flotilla. One of the first assignments that he gave was to send Lieutenant Luigi Ferraro on a mission to Alexandretta, where, in June and July, he got excellent results from being able to sink only three Allied ships.

The fall of Mussolini on July 25, 1943, stopped most of the operations.

In total, they were sunk or severely damaged by the assault craft Italian actions carried out in the Mediterranean Sea from 10 June 1940 to ‘September 8, 1943, 77,380 tons of ships of war and 187,412 tons of merchant shipping, for a total of 264,792 tons.

The Italian Social Republic

Immediately after the armistice of September 8th, Marines Many of the X ª Flotilla Mas returned home or took refuge in the hills waiting for the events, while the command stationed in the barracks of La Spezia not disbanded and put into Alarm expected orders disciplined while avoiding destroying the small vessels at anchor outside the barracks part of which then temporarily fell into German hands.

The same evening, Borghese reached the ‘Admiral Aimone of Aosta and tried unsuccessfully to contact Rome for confirmation of the armistice and receiving orders. However, the following day, Aimone received orders to move to the south with the King.

The X ª MAS, continuing to remain free of charges, activity remained unchanged in the barracks and was the Italian flag on the flagpole. Borghese also ordered to open fire on account of anyone who tried to attack the barracks failing to reject some German attempts to disarm the marines.

On September 9, the officers met to decide the way to go, and Borghese reaffirmed the loyalty of German allies. On September 11, the sailors gathered instead of La Spezia, explaining the situation and giving permission to take leave to those who felt they were open. The majority dismissed.

During this period, the Tenth was endowed with regulations that are unique in the history of the Italian military - included full equality between officers and troops (the same for all clothes of his coat, everyday meals), Promotions earned only on the field, the death penalty for Marines guilty of theft, looting, desertion or cowardice in the face of the enemy. The Tenth also adopted their greeting - “Tenth, commander,” to which it responded, “Tenth, sailors.”

On September 14, agreed with the Korvettenkapitän Max Berninghaus, naval commander of the forces of the Third Reich in Liguria, with which the X ª MAS Flotilla was recognized as a combat unit with full autonomy in logistics, organic, justice, disciplinary, and administrative and flying the Italian flag.

After the agreement, many marines who had previously stragglers returned to the barracks, and about three hundred who had remained after the armistice became three thousand in a few days. On September 18, the first critical nucleus from Pula to about three hundred and fifty men led by Umberto Bardelli reached the Spice.

After the birth of the Italian Social Republic, Admiral Antonio Legnani, new Secretary to the Navy, inserted the Decima Mas Marina on the staff of the Republican National. In fact, it was acting autonomously. Contrasts instead were born in November 1943 with Captain Ferruccio Ferrini's successor, Legnani, who has since died in an automobile accident. In comparison with the military and political leaders of the Social Republic (conflicts that led to his arrest on charges of being the leader of a conspiracy aimed at overthrowing Mussolini), his forces were engaged on all fronts, most importantly, from that of Anzio and, Nettuno.

The soldiers of the Tenth were all volunteers (who thought to escape the shame of what they had seen as a betrayal towards the ally Germanic), coming from different arms of the Armed Forces Republican.

Do not you ever recorded a decline in the number of volunteers in fact, they constituted numerous bodies of “marines,” all also because Borghese was receiving popularity among the masses, as opposed to the GNR to increase the number of men was forced to forced recruitment as a result of conscription of skilled actions.

In the last months of the conflict, in order to defend Italian Istria, Borghese started contacts with the Navy in the South (Admiral De Courten) to encourage a landing Italo-ally in Istria and save the eastern lands by the advance of the forces Yugoslavia.

The landing studied by the Italian navy in the South would have used the support of the fascist formations and the Tenth, with or without the intervention of Ally. The English opposition thwarted this plan, not being able to oppress Stalin after the Yalta agreement and thus promoting the advance of the Yugoslavs, who had, however, also the active support of the British Royal Navy.

The activity of the X ª MAS was not limited to naval raids against enemy forces. Still, it was extended to the establishment of departments of land that took over after the war the size of a natural light infantry division.

However, due to German opposition (which saw mal reconstitution of large Italian units), the Tenth Division (consisting of two groups of combat) was never able to get into the action as an organic unity.

Still, it was divided into battalions used by the German commanders on the front Gothic Line and then the Senio. A part of the Division (the second group) was ready to move on the eastern border to defend Trieste and Fiume by the advance of Yugoslavia. Still, it was blocked by the Germans, and then the breakthrough was represented by the Liberation in April 1945.

Starting in 1944, the Tenth was also used in anti-partisan activities and roundups of civilians in areas where the partisans were acting on the side of the Germans; in these actions were recorded reprisals, looting, torture, and summary executions. In the last months of 1944, the actions of some of the groups belonging to the body in the same authorities also created concern about CSR - the prefect of Milan, Mario Bassi, complained to the Duce for “theft, robbery and serious provocations, detentions, searches, demeanors incorrect in public “committed by members of the Tenth, noting that these were causing concern among the public, even for the apparent impunity that characterized them, asking that the training were moved away from the city.

The demobilization of the X ª Mas and the saving of Borghese

On 25 April 1945, the X ª MAS with Borghese was quartered in the barracks of the Square River in Milan. Place in the meantime feverish negotiations between Captain Gennaro Riccio, commander of the “Milano Detachment” of the X ª MAS, and more excellent representation in the General Raffaele Cadorna posing as “Mario Angleton.” Under the agreements, then also signed by Cadorna, he organized the transition with the new city authorities represented by the Volunteer Corps of Liberty.

The ceremony in the forecourt River ended April 26, 1945, at 17.00, with the formal dissolution of the X ª MAS in Milan. Borghese gave to all the Marines five months’ salary, and when everyone had left the barracks, it was taken over by the police partisan.

On May 9, he was approached by an agent of the secret services and the agent of the Italian Carlo Resio ‘OSS James Angleton, who informed him that Admiral Raffaele de Courten intended to meet him in Rome.

Later, on 11 May, with the help of U.S. intelligence and escorted by Resio Angleton, he was transferred to Rome, where he spent a short period before being officially arrested by the U.S. authorities on May 19 to be moved to the field of concentration of Cinecittà. According to Renzo De Felice: “The Americans were interested in the X ª Mas because they thought to use its famous pigs for the war against the Japanese. The British did more: a ship (but perhaps were two vessels), which in combat operations over, carrying weapons from Yugoslavia for the Jews in Palestine, was blown up by the pigs of the X ª “.

The process

Released in October, he was again arrested by the Italian authorities and transferred from one place of detention to another, waiting for the beginning of the process. Thanks to the protection afforded by the U.S. Secret Service, with whom he had already been in contact for several months before the end of the war, Borghese got to be tried before a Court of Assizes anything but unfavorable to him, the Court of Supreme Court ordered the transfer of the trial to the court of Rome, presided over by Dr. Caccavale, former vice president of the ‘” Fascist Union for large families” and friend of Prince Gian Giacomo Borghese, the former fascist and former governor of Rome, a close relative of’ defendant. His lawyer had, in fact, forwarded Italo Formichella's instance for recusal of the Court of Assize of Milan for legitimate suspicion.

The Assize Court acquitted him already under examination by the prosecution of war crimes and, on February 17, 1949, held him guilty of collaborating with the Germans. It was sentenced to two life sentences for having run his men's “continuous and ferocious actions roundup» against supporters that usually ended with “the catch, the ruthless torture, deportation, and murder of detainees” in order to make the quiet rear of the invading army, and for the shooting of eight partisans in Valmozzola.

A Valmozzola March 12, 1944, partisans attacked a train, and two officers of the battalion Wolf of the X ª MAS Flotilla Gastone Carlotti and Domenico Pieropan, who were going on leave and picked up six other soldiers, including two policemen, were shot shortly after. The action caused a massive raid that led to the arrest of nine partisans, except one was fired in retaliation for the 17.

The part of the judgment, however, reduced the life sentences to 12 years imprisonment, of which 9 were immediately pardoned by virtue of the value of gestures made by Borghese - decorated with a gold medal and Knight’s Cross of the Military Order of Savoy - during the service with the Royal Navy, for the work done to the preservation of industries in the North from the destruction threatened by the Germans and the willingness to defend Venezia Giulia, as well as for the welfare work done in the fields of German deportation.

Taking into account also the amnesty issued by Togliatti, the Court ordered the immediate release of the offender, who had already served in full, under the preventive detention, the remaining sentence. The post-war period and the attempted coup

After the war, Borghese joined the Italian Social Movement, of which he was appointed honorary president in 1951, initially leaned Almirante, then left the party, which he considered too weak, went to the extra-parliamentary right and in September 1968, he founded the National Front in order - according to Secret Service - “to subvert state institutions with subversive designs.”

After the war, Borghese constituted illegal armed groups in close liaison with the New Order and the National Vanguard, two organizations of the extreme right.

Meanwhile, in 1963, his wife, Princess Daria Olsoufiev, had died in a car accident, and Borghese had got the job purely as honorary president of the Bank of Credit Commercial and Industrial, which Michele Sindona later acquired.

On the night between 7 and ’8 December 1970, a coup started and then stopped, with the collaboration of other leaders of the National Front, belonging to paramilitary formations of the’ extreme right-wing and several senior officers of the armed forces and ministry officials.

The circumstances of the failure of what was known as the “Golpe Borghese” (or “Coup of Forestry”) are still obscure and controversial. Borghese was in person to give the countermand but refused to explain why, even his closest associates. Judge Claudio Vitalone suggested that armed intervention would serve only as an introduction to authoritarian rule. Following the declassification of U.S. documents, it was revealed that at least the U.S. secret services were aware of the coup.

Did not fail, however, to defend Borghese for this dramatic historical episode. With regard to the dynamics of the coup was also expressed Admiral Gino Birindelli (his comrade and gold medal for military valor) stating that “Borghese was a person too intelligent and patriot to do this crap.” According to him, in fact, the idea of ​​the “coup” was only the result of the enthusiasm of the young supporters of Prince Borghese.

Following the failure of the coup, Borghese took refuge in Spain, where, not trusting that the Italian justice system in 1973 revoked the ‘order of arrest, he remained until his death in suspicious circumstances in Cadiz on August 26, 1974. The same year, Borghese had been in Chile with Stephen Chiaia to meet General Augusto Pinochet and the Chilean secret police chief, Jorge Carrasco. He is buried in the family chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

Family

He was born Junio ​​Valerio Scipione Ghezzo Marcantonio Borghese Maria principles (Rome) in one of the most influential families of the Roman nobility. Of ancient origins of Siena, with 4 cardinals, a pope, and the sister of Napoleon Bonaparte (Pauline) among his ancestors.

It is the second son of the Prince of Sulmona Livio Borghese (1874-1939), prince of Rossano, Prince of Vivaro Romano, Prince of Mount Compass, Duke of Palombara, Duke of Poggio Nativo and Castelchiodato, and her mother was Princess Valeria Maria Alessandra Keun (Smyrna, 1880-Catania, 1956), daughter of Alfred August Keun Amira and Virginia. His parents separated in Rome on May 31, 1911.

As a consequence of the fact that his father was a diplomat (with the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary), Junio ​​Valerio spent the first years of life on the road between the ‘Italian and major foreign capitals, staying in China, Egypt, Spain, France, and Great Britain.

In Italy, he spent his time mainly in Rome and nearby. He married in Florence, 30 September 1931, the Russian Countess Daria Wassilievna Olsoufiev Schouvalov (Moscow, 1909-Rome, 1963), by whom he had four children: