Taurinorum@noblogo.org

The Ursa Major is the most illustrious constellation in our hemisphere, known to anyone also with the name of Great Dipper. Immortalized by the verses of great poets (such as Leopardi) and paintings by great painters (such as Van Gogh), the Big Dipper has dominated our skies and our imagination for thousands of years. Since the ancient Greece and even more back in the past of others previous civilization the Ursa Major was one of the most visible constellation up in the sky, is not yet clear why it’s being named in this way but it is curious that the native Indians of America used to called it at the same way. Typical of boreal skies it's even brightest stars, grouped in the famous Big Dipper asterism are visible year-round in the Northern Hemisphere and never set north of 41°N ( the latitude of Naples, Madrid and New York ) The Ursa Major it’s made up of seven stars, seven in the numerological symbologies it’s a spiritual number for excellence given from the addiction of 4 and 3. For instance, Seven soon after six who repeated three times its the number of the beast, the Devil , Seven are the days of the week, seven the sacred planets, seven are the virtues and deadly sins, seven are the sacraments, seven are the years of misfortune in the Italian folk belief if you break a mirror. Seven, the frequency bands into which the rainbow its divided in chromatic terms, seven are the musical notes, seven are the seals that will announce the end of the world, followed by the sound of seven trumpets by seven angels led by seven portents (John, Apocalypse) seven are the sacraments of Roman Catholicism, Seven is the number of the assault squad of men of the Italian royal navy of the X Flottiglia MAS who joined a secret mission during the world war two, I would say a real mission Impossible considering that times. Chosen and trained to lead submarine attacks to the enemies armed navy and others military sites in those ports close at hand for the Royal Italian Navy. “The Seven of The Major Bear’ it’s a 1953 war film directed by Dulio Coletti, inspired by the exploits of Luigi Durand de la Penne ( gold medal for Military Valor ) and his companions, today we knows about special military unit of any army, the U.S. have the Navy Seals, the British the SAS, the Russian Specnaz too, but the first special military unit are born in Italy precisely during the first world war or rather the 'Arditi', who used to be sent in front line on frontal and direct attack and in particular launched with parachutes behind enemy lines assaulting the enemy with hand bomb grenades and long knife, their sacrifice was huge of course but their bravery and reckless attitude make of them a living legend among the regular troops and a good propaganda instruments too. The operation on the ground wasn’t their only exclusive skill soon with navy forces alongside with the technological development of the military industry, new weapons or system of attacks arrived. The so called M.A.S. which stands for motorboat armed with torpedoes , memorable during the first world war is the sinking of the Austro-Hungarian war battleship Saint-Stephan of which we have a footage of the sinking itself, the Austro-Hungarian was so proud of their extraordinary battleship that decided to host a journalist who in their intentions had the role of taking direct documentation with a camera useful to create then war propaganda in particular to scare the opponents and to reassure the public opinion regarding the military expansive armaments, you can check on you tube those filmic dramatic images. Another invention of the Italian industry was the ‘Maiale’ – 'Pig' which was a mini submarine for two operators who used to lead an high concentrate of explosive bomb to be placed under the enemies battleship, the men who accepted to join a never tried before mission were aware of the possibility of failure which meant, to be certainly dead or to be captured by the enemy in any case an highly risky mission. The first successful mission in Gibraltar three British ships undermined but a diver member of the squad and a female secret agent who supports them from the land lose their lives, mission accomplished it has been proven that the ‘Pigs’ can be a decisive weapon to attack the enemy, in particular was the Royal British Navy that in Gibraltar and also in Alexandria of Egypt used to have the main important bases on the Mediterranean sea. At the present time we are accustomed to see films as the Ian Fleming saga of 007 or the American one of ‘Mission Impossible’ but back in the days of 1940s no one really had such a special unit or rather a network of secret agents related to the actions of a special squad that use to operate underwater with the technologies of that times of course that have nothing to do with the modern stuff the technologic evolution have had in the military field. The attack at the port of Alexandria of Egypt was a real Mission Impossible and there are two films whom are reporting the story of it, the Italian one mentioned before which refers the name itself of the Secret Operation in code and the British film which it’s more on the style of an American classic film, with the title of ‘The Valiant’ of Rob Ward Baker 1962 nine years later the Italian production. While the Italian film it’s focused on all the military aspects of training and preparation of the attacks the British film it’s giving the perspective of the internal point of view of the military crew and above all of the Commander of the Valiant, the film plays a lot on the suspense created by the fact that two of the Italians member of the team were captured and interrogated, they didn’t cooperated with the British therefore were jailed in the area of the motor of the ship, they stay silent till few moments from the blast to prevent from certain death a higher number of victims of crew and to save themselves ife too , the main target wasn’t to kill the military crew rather to sink the warships, two bomb was placed indeed one on the ‘Valiant’ the other one on ‘The Queen Elizabeth’ who was badly damaged and out of the game for a long time, the British declared the opposite and to argue that the Queen Elizabeth was fine, the day after they organized parades in the hold certain of the flights of the Italian reunions To penetrate the port of Alexandria of Egypt was a really hard thing to do as the defenses lines adopted was huge of course due the proximity with the Italian territory but also expected after the bombing of the port of Taranto by the British Royal Air force. The enemy couldn’t expect to be hit in that way, the port was patrolled by several little ships unit, who used to launch bombs underwater to discourage any submarine presence, there was also a metallic web to protect any further intrusion of a submarine. Commander Valerio Juno Borghese Capitan of the ‘Scirè’ after the attack on Gibraltar began to study a new one, this time the naval base of Alexandria in Egypt, also in this occasion the raiders chosen for the mission were transferred by plane to the Island of Lero, from that Island Borghese collected them on the ‘Scirè’, in the evening between 18 and 19 December in the dead of winter time they arrived in the bay of Alexandria and the men were released there, two remained on board as reserve, the Scirè returned to the Island of Lero from there they knew of the successful of the mission, who led severe damage to the British battleships Valiant and the Queen Elizabeth too, Borghese at the end of the mission was made a Knight of the military order of Savo. Churchill himself appointed Borghese as a winner man, or rather the real winner of WW2 and the fact that the British Intelligence asked for his support against the communist threat during the cold war it was a sign of the esteem but at the same time of recognition of his military skills. The majority of Italians doesn't know anything about it, except the military fields, Borghese never surrender to the enemy and kept going on fighting alongside of the Germans joining the Italian Republic of Salò because of his being fidel to the fascism till the end it has been critically considered in the new Republic of Italy, accused of planning a coup d'etat that at last moment retired died in exile in Cadice Spain. In this country it should be a statue in his honor in every town a golden medal for Military Valor, deserved by the way. Italy lost a war but there are a lot of examples of valid military commanders and soldiers too , the superiority of the enemy was all in terms of better equipments and organizational too, Italy who was a mid power state cannot avoid that war and despite was proven by previous wars joined the second world war with all its limits. The educational system as the mainstream are all focused in the same narrative of the Empire of Good fighting against the Evil one. The intention to minimize the bravery of those men or even of accusing them of being a sort of criminals it's disgusting, the story of the sink of Valiant and Queen Elizabeth its proving the opposite but probably just because they don't fit with the narratives of the evil fascist expression of an extreme nationalist sentiment that mainstream and educational system prefer to avoid to concentrate instead on the civil war fought in the north in which Borghese took part by forming a on the ground unit of the X Flottiglia Mas in this case just X Mas accused of violent brutal repression of the partisan movement. I don't want to water that divide et impera politics that the allied did in order to overcome a war who wasn't just about military forces but political first of all, and watching the globalized world of today what it's emerging are all the contradictions of a world were Freedom of Speech it's always under attack and especially for what about the old continent with the actual EU that it's far away from what the Native People of Europe have been dreaming of especially in Italy where this membership didn't bring anything good and to the eyes of many Italians it's more close to a Soviet tyranny in many aspects indeed. To get back in control of our destiny seems something impossible, to get back to print our own value seems absolutely impossible as the mainstream pro EU propaganda bombed ad poisoned young people mind while the story of the 'Seven of the Major Bear_Ursa Major' it's here to prove the exact contrary.