Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Nettuno 2009 - Promo Video’

Fiorenzo Capriotti was seiously wounded, and captured by the British, and held as a POW for five years, in England, Scotland, Missouri and Hawaii.
In March, 1946, he returned to Italy.

Fiorenzo Capriotti was approached by a man from the SIS, the Italian secret service
Fiorenzo Capriotti cites: "“He told me, ‘there is a little job for you… something you know how to do very wel!”
“The idea was to send to Israel two operators of assault craft. One of them, for submarine craft, was the naval vessel sub-lieutenant, Nicola Conte, who had worked with the British, and another one for the surface work, who would be me.”

 

 

Acrum Shavit cites: "In the summer of 1948 we received several special “explosive boats” from Italy and with them came the expert, Fiorenzo Capriott."
Fiorenzo Capriotti assumed the identity of Mr. Katz, a Romanian refugee on his way to Palestine, and went to Milano to meet Ephraim Ilin., who had acquiredt six MTM craft, which were tested out by Capriotti at Milano’s artificial lake; they were then packaged and sent to Israel.
Fiorenzo Capriotti was sent to Israel a few months later, where he mentored Yochai Fishmann Bin-Nun and Yosef Dror, and trained Israelis in the Lake Kinneret, who destroyed Emir Farouk, anchored in the port of Gaza and sank it, using the techniques that Capriotti’s comrades had used seven years before.
Fiorenzo Capriotti was not allowed to take part in the operation.

Fiorenzo Capriotti returned to Italy, reported to the Italian secret service, and moved to Lugano where he worked for four years exporting arms to Israel.

Admiral Ami Ayalon, Commander in Chief of the Israeli Navy, presented him with a parchment: “Fiorenzo Capriotti, who fought in the glorious vanguard unit “Decima Flottiglia MAS” of the Italian Navy during the Second World War; who was of such great help to us in founding and training the Commando unit of our navy, during the War of Independence, totally identifying himself with it, with devotion and spirit of sacrifice, at his own risk and peril. In acknowledgement of this contribution to the rebirth of the state of Israel, we offer him in homage the title of: Commander ad honorem of the Thirteenth Fleet“.