{"product_id":"9780615978611","title":"Black Phoenix: History and Operations of the Marina Repubblicana 1943-1945","description":"Black Phoenix is the first in-depth English-language work to cover the operations, organization, and order of battle of the Marina Repubblicana -- the naval force of Benito Mussolini's fascist state that fought alongside Germany from September 1943 to May 1945. Not even in Italian has such a rich and detailed study of this subject ever been published. \u003cp\u003eBlack Phoenix tells of the navy created by Prince Junio Valerio Borghese from the kernel of the X MAS Flotilla special attack force. Borghese's navy used small and expendable units to wage asymmetrical warfare and in the process tied down a vastly superior foe. Black Phoenix is a book rich in lessons for today's troubled world and complicated naval environment where littoral warfare is a new center of focus and concern. Consisting of ten chapters and three appendices, the Black Phoenix opens with the history of the troubled German-Italian naval relations between 1940 and 1943 and the immediate effects of the 8 September 1943 armistice. It examines the hasty establishment of the Marina Repubblicana on a volunteer basis of hand-picked personnel and the force's operations off Anzio, the Provence, in the Ligurian Sea, and the Adriatic. A closing section assesses the Marina Repubblicana's impact in the greater conflict and its role in Germany's remarkable ability to prolong the Mediterranean campaign to the war's final days. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBlack Phoenix is based on primary sources in Italian, English, German, and French. It is profusely illustrated with fifty photographs, some never-published from the private collections of participants and colored period propaganda, along with artwork and maps created especially for this book.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Propeller Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50008096342256,"sku":"9780615978611","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780615978611_p0.jpg?v=1784239153","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780615978611","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}