Costantino Borsini

When Nullo started to sink, Borsini ordered the crew to save themselves, and decided to go down with his ship while at his command post. His orderly, seaman Vincenzo Ciaravolo, went back on board the sinking ship to reach his commander, and both went down with the ship. Both posthumously were awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor. The attacking British destroyer Kimberley was hit by the Italian batteries and remained in repair until spring 1941.

In January 1940 he was embarked on the colonial ship Eritrea, stationed in the Eritrean Red Sea at Massawa, and in May of that year he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and was given command of the destroyer Francesco Nullo, operating in the Red Sea.

Of the 204 members of Nullo's crew, 190 survived and were rescued by personnel of the Harmil battery, while 12 perished in combat and two (Lieutenant Commander Borsini and his orderly Ciaravolo) voluntarily sank with the ship. The Italian Royal Navy, fearing that such attitude would cause the loss of too many experienced commanders (two more Italian navy commanders - Enrico Baroni of destroyer Espero and Lorenzo Bezzi of submarine Liuzzi - had already done so in the few months of war since Italy declared war to the Allies in June 1940), emitted on the next week an informal 'instruction' discouraging such actions (to little avail, as such episodes happened again several times during the war).

He was then transferred to the submarine branch until 1937, when he became executive officer on the destroyer Nembo, after which he was given command of the torpedo boat Clio.

In 1933 he joined the Italian Naval Detachment in Tianjin (China). At his return to Italy he attended the course in Taranto as "Aircraft Observer" (naval officer attached to Regia Aeronautica aircraft employed against shipping) and in 1935 he received his patent; he subsequently served for one year as member of the 153rd Seaplane Squadron.

Borsini was born in Milan in 1906. He was a top student at the Naval Academy of Livorno from March 15, 1922, to November 15, 1926. There he graduated as an Ensign, before embarking on the battleship Giulio Cesare. He was then transferred to the battleship Andrea Doria and later served in succession on the hydrographic ship Ammiraglio Magnaghi, the destroyer Augusto Riboty, the destroyer Giovanni Da Verrazzano (after promotion to Sub-Lieutenant on 1 January 1929) and again on Giulio Cesare, being promoted to Lieutenant in July 1932.

Costantino Borsini (April 7, 1906 – October 21, 1940 in the Eritrean Red Sea) was an Italian naval officer during World War II. He received the Gold Medal of Military Valor for his actions in command of the destroyer Francesco Nullo in the Attack on Convoy BN 7 in October 1940.