Naval War College Review Volume 68 Article 8 Number 3 Summer 2015 Frogmen against a Fleet: The tI alian Attack on Alexandria 18/19 December 1941 Vincent P. O’Hara Enrico Cernuschi Follow this and additional works at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review Recommended Citation O’Hara, Vincent P. and Cernuschi, Enrico (2015) "Frogmen against a Fleet: The tI alian Attack on Alexandria 18/19 December 1941," Naval War College Review: Vol. 68 : No. 3 , Article 8. Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol68/iss3/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. O’Hara and Cernuschi: Frogmen against a Fleet: The Italian Attack on Alexandria 18/19 D FROGMEN AGAINST A FLEET The Italian Attack on Alexandria 18/19 December 1941 Vincent P. O’Hara and Enrico Cernuschi n March 1939 Italy’s Regia Marina established a specialized and secret naval warfare unit called Decima Flottiglia MAS (Motoscafo Anti Sommergibili), Igenerally known as the 10th Light Flotilla or X MAS� This unit was innovative, in that it employed selected, highly trained personnel using special weapons and delivery systems to conduct sneak attacks� On the night of 18 December 1941, six members of this unit penetrated the main British naval base in the eastern Mediterranean at Alexandria, Egypt, and disabled the Mediterranean Fleet’s two battleships, a tanker, and a destroyer� In few military endeavors has so little been risked to achieve so much� This article examines Vincent P.