...For educating me as to the origins of Israel's naval commandos.

I found a thread on MPnet..., and a poorly-written pdf... from a Hebrew divers' forum on the story of the 10^th Light Flotilla that makes a passing mention of Capriotti's role as S-13's first sensei, and also reminds of the war crimes committed by elements of the X^th MAS, which took part, on the ground, in the nazi repression of the Italian patriots in the North after the fall of Mussolini.

 

I can't find anything more, but since you have the book, you might want to summarize some of it here in English for us to enjoy...  

Shirrus,

 

thank you for having found  a trace of confirmation on this, even if a confused one. At least I know now that the story is not fantasy.  

I am writing a book on the COMSUBIN, and I came across this thing by digging on its ancestors the X MAS.

It is relieving that some local sources "even if poorly written" confirm what I've found. With that, I have three sources - two primary  and one local unclassified - Enough to report the story as probably real. Thank you very much, I couldn't have read Hebrew.
 

I was quoting the aforementioned *.pdf as allegating that in some instances, the X MAS commandos fighting for the nazi-installed "republic" of Northern Italy were "worse than the Waffen SS".

In any case, we have a poster here, who once served in Unsere Yiddishe Navy, and there's a chance he wasn't asleep during the Mora"Q ("combat tradition" = corps history) classes he underwent in basic training. I hope he will take this thread on, since he's such a party animal and we all love his prose, don't we?

Hey, Battar, see whaddamean?

I do like these stories about the 1948 Independence War, but I've never read anything on how the PalYa"m boy-scouts became the Navy, and I must say that here in Israel, the naval component is the poor parent of the IDF, and, owing to its very modest size, its rather unimpressive (to be polite and considerate) combat record and its obsessive secrecy, does not usually get the media attention and the popularity that, say, the Paratroopers of the Air Force know very well how to claim for themselves.

 

Good you mentioned that Ami Ayalon remembered Capriotti and honored him when he was the Navy's CIC. Ayalon has not exactly been a success of late in politics, and this is a pity since he's one of the few good guys around the Knesset. 

You gotta be a right douchebag and a vogging lawyer to make it in politics these days it seems, and menschen never get anywhere but the back seats. Nice-Guy Ayalon was defeated by Autistic-Bully Barak for the job of General Secretary of the Labor Party, after they had so elegantly ousted Amir Peretz...

 

That said, I am certain that our national security could be markedly improved by beefing up our naval component a bit, and a cost effective way to do that would be to get some help from the experienced Italian Navy on how to be a strategic arm and not just an efficient and reliable Coast Guard that happens to own a couple of submarines.  

Battar, are you sure the 76 mm turrets we saw on the recent news footage, such as of this Saar 4.5 making scary noises along the Gaza beach two years ago, or during the war with Lebanon, were not recently manufactured Oto Melara... products?

Also, where is this lavishly expended 3" ammo coming from? Not from Italy? Germany... maybe?

The Israeli Navy has been using the 76mm gun since the '70s and the age of Disco and wide-bottom trousers.

Last year an unfortunate incident occured inside one of these turrets when residual propellant from a shell whose casing had jammed in the mechanism exploded, seriously injuring one of my erstwhile colleagues from the Navy.

They will probably be replaced in the next decade with electro-optically sighted guns.

Yes but you still haven't answered my question. I asked about who, not when!

Also, it is rather unlikely that the ammo was purchased in the Age of Disco.

Also, what's the problem coupling these guns with an electro-optical director available now, instead of buying an entirely new outfit after a couple of decades of expensive R&D?

There is mightly little "recently purchased" anything in the Israeli Navy missile boats.  The guns are original - they are long lasting.

There would be mighty R&D effort neccessary to upgrade the guns fire control system. It would include partly reverse engineering the control systems, interfacing new technology computers with old technology electro-mechanical systems, and writing the fire control software from scratch. Installing new guns with designed-in computer control is easier. The ammo is cheaper as well (smaller calibre).

Israel is simply not rich enough to be a naval power. Nor is it dependant enough on the sea. It is to bad in a way. To my  anglo-saxon mind navies are associated with adventure, technology, travel, pioneering and making the seas bloom(so to speak), and aesthetically pleasing warships while armies have a distasteful association with unchecked autocracy or even barracks-states. Not to mention, navies fight nature as well as man which European style armies usually are not made to do. Nevertheless not everyone can be a naval power. Russia cannot be, and Germany could not be. And Israel cannot be and need not be. Historically Israel's naval history was as an arm of the secret service rather then as a military component. That is for such things as smuggling refugees or weapons. Or countering same. Or carrying out covert ops. The most interesting thing about Israel's navy is being involved in the first surface-to-surface missile battles. And the main purpose of todays Israeli navy is(besides boomers) allowing the interception of smugglers without actually sinking them.

In other words Israel's navy cannot be a "strategic arm". Or more precisely it cannot be an operational arm. Israel is simply not likely to be in a war in which sea power would be decisive. Nor does it have the resources to build a navy.

One possible use for the Israeli navy, would be to remodel it as an amphibious force. The ability to land brigade strength or more forces on an enemy coast would be a powerful addition. Remember Inchon.

As for using the Italian Navy as advisors, there is no particular reason why Italians would know more then Israelis. The same strategy textbooks are open to all and the Italian navy had mixed performance in the last major naval war. The only powers who have used seapower as a strategic arm recently are US, Britain, and Russia, and Russia is a sea-denying navy. Italy can tell how to administer a navy though. But US can do that too.

To put it bluntly, don't have Kaiser Bill fantasies. Israel is not a naval power and trying to be would require to much investment.