In the end, Dante Aligheri, started at Castellammare di Stabia in 1909, served the Regia Marina from 1913, up to 1922 where the Washington treaty put her very existence to question. -AA with 6 dual purpose 102mm and 12 37mm turrets, plus 12 dual 13mm Breda heavy machine gun mounts. It would have dwarved any other contemporary battleship and even put to shame those of WW2, with only perhaps the Yamato as a contender. Progetto G was also supposed to carry sixteen 380 mm guns in four triple turrets and superfiring, quite a radical upgrade compared to the Carracciolo. They were all placed on deck level, even if this meant to be forced to reduce the overall armour thickness in order to cover a larger area, and to solve secondary armament barbettes placements, eight guns were in twin turrets, long before anyone else. RMN Roma - Corazzata classe Littorio - Entrata in servizio 14 giugno 1942 - Dislocamento 44 050 t Stazza lorda 46 215 t tsl Lunghezza 240,7 m Larghezza 32,9 m Pescaggio 10,5 m Propulsione vapore: … However for the Italians, the minds were set on a triple artillery solution early on, and having these massive turrets in superimposing position, as attractive the idea was, seemed far fetched. In 1932, however, Italy and Japan no longer felt bound to the clauses of the treaty and embarked in the study of a new battleship. The surrender of the Italian fleet was a prominent condition of this agreement. In 1949 she was given to the Soviet navy in repaired renamed Novorrosiysk. In August 1941, the two vessels met together and operated on the 22nd without meeting the convoy. RN Litorrio on her part was completed on the 15 of May, reaching Tarentum. Their engine apparatus was completely modified, their artillery realized and provided with a greater range. Umberto Class. But the Regia Marina tried to maintain more than a parity with its Transalpine rival in the Mediterranean, its WW1 capital ships were completely modernized in a way few fleets did while its projected battleships were quite impressive, such as the Carracciolo and pre-treaty postwar projects that would have dwarved anything in the Mediterranean. On November 11, 1940, both ships were attacked by a night raid by British Fairey Swordfish and RN Cavour was put out of action for months in Taranto. On the 26th of March he set sail to attack the convoys to Greece under German pressure. As it was recoignised the current project for a new battleship was nowhere near by that time, Rotundi proposed to the admiralty a stopgap, or interim solution, modernizing the first two Cavour class battleships. 30.5 cm/45 K10. These specifications were really a basis for the development of the Littorio. Armored Deck 120 mm+ 50 mm 1 deck above. It was an extreme case designed to trigger discussion around the optimal battleship design. Topic. It was adopted by the Germans with the Scharnhorst class, Japan with the Yamato class, and of course the United States with three classes. It is believed the … This was a postwar project which need a radical hull improvement, with only 50 mm of deck armor and no AA. -Two new masts, new gangway superstructure, new bridge, new rangefinders and optical instruments, radio and Wireless TF. This class was inspired by others such as the French Strasbourg, themselves answering the German Deustchland. 381 mm/50 Model 1934. 12"/46 Model 1909. What-if late 1930s modernization of the Dante Aligheri. Procione, Orsa-class TB – Italian navy photo via Wikipedia. Construction restarted, albeit still slowly, and the first was launched in … The new design has an island superstructure. That was one of the amazing results of this raid by antiquated biplanes. Of couse, Italy signed the treaty of Washington, which put an end to this speculation. 1/1800 IT CV Sparviero [1943] $ 11.61 by Tiny ... 1/3000 WW2 Italian Aircraft Carriers $ 29.57 by Tiny Thingamajigs. Armament:10 x 320mm (2×2, 2×3),12 x 120mm (6×2), 4x100mm AA, 12x13mm Breda AA. BY DECADE. Italian navy commanders in addition delayed the adoption of a policy for the interwar Regia Marina, between the traditional surface and decisive battle fleet camp, and a fleet composed of aircraft carriers, torpedo boats and submarines. Secondary artillery was no longer in barbettes, but in turrets, in all sixteen, and of 170 mm guns (7 in) and no longer 6 in. All work as suspended in March 1916, after it went on slowly for almost a year. Maestrale-Class Frigate, 1/1250 $ 8.00 by Amatuer Wargame Figures. The Caio Duilio class differed from the Conte di Cavour class on many points. All three were prepared by Guiseppe Tavola, chief engineer at Ansaldo in 1908. 10x 355mm (2×2, 2×3), 12 x135mm (4×3), 10 x90mm AA, 12x 37mm, 15x 20mm Breda AA. The list may also include several ships commissioned before World War II. Conte di Cavour and Andrea Doria (1915) Classes . Designs were were presented by Ansaldo Yard (engineer Nabor Soliani) and by Orlando Yard (engineer Orlando) but also the Odero Yard (engineer Scribanti). 320 mm/44 Model 1934. In August 1942, the Italian government requisitioned both ships, renamed Etna and Vesuvio. Learn how your comment data is processed. Thanks to a more advanced machinery rated for 130,000 hp and careful hydrodynamic studies, top speed was 30 knots (54 kph), much better than the rebuilt WW1 battleships of the Cesare/Doria class. Laid down in 1915, work stopped until 1918 and resumed afterwards, launched in 1920 but never completed, they were demolished because of tonnage limits. Given the links the Russian, and later Soviet navy maintained with Italian naval design, she was treated with respect. The Armor was better than the Littorio, with circa 300 mm on the main belt, but moreover 150 mm for the armour deck and a conning tower with 350 mm walls. After an active career during the First World War, the two buildings were taken over for a major overhaul in 1937 and 1940. These ships will replace the eight Maestrale class and four Lupo class frigates, the latter already phased out. Required fields are marked *. As new vessels were planned, Admiral Giovanni Sechi Sechi decided to reduce the number of older capital ships in service and the Francesco Caracciolo class was cancelled. At the time that Italy declared war, the Regia Marina consisted of six capital ships. They were part of the 1st Naval Division. This redesign incorporated the experience of the reconstruction of the previous battleships but also the studies undertaken for the construction of the battleships Rapids of the Litorrio class. Shortly after its entry into service, the Doria was struck by the torpedo of a swordfish in Taranto and immobilized for months. bulkheads and armed with 6×3 305mm, 16×1 120mm Casemated Guns. Naval ships of Italy captured by Germany during World War II, World War II mine warfare vessels of Italy, Naval ships captured by Italy during World War II, Naval ships of Italy captured by the United Kingdom during World War II, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:World_War_II_naval_ships_of_Italy&oldid=826727247, Military units and formations of Italy in World War II, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 20 February 2018, at 18:06. Veneto sailing out of Matapan, torpedoed. During the interwar years the Italian government set about modernizing the Regia Marina in a way that could enable it to reach dominance over the Mediterranean Sea. WW2 Italian battleships Italy (1915-42) – 8 Battleships Italian Battleships during WW2 were few in numbers, just as French ones, due to the treaty of Washington signed in 1920. The Leonardo Da Vinci, third in the class, was destroyed by an explosion in an ammunition bay in 1916 and scrapped in 1923. As the Italian industry would need to be ramped up and there was no time for this, requirements were lowered to an eight 381 mm guns battleship displacing a more reasonable 31,000 tons. After plans were accepted in 1932, the Conte di Cavour was the first taken in hands for a lenghty, and let’s say bluntly, way over budget reconstruction lasting until 1937, June and October for Cavour and Cesare, followed by Doria and Duilio in 1937-40. COUNTRIES. Only three weeks after the sinking of the World War II Italian cruiser, HMS Urge was destroyed with the loss of its entire crew. His repairs continued until the spring of 1942. Lupo-class FFG w/ Hanger, 1/1800 $ 6.93 by Amatuer Wargame Figures. Experiences on models were conducted in La Spezia, at Freude tank, to find what was the best hull shaped. Dante Aligheri in 1924 – Colorized by Irootoko Jr. More Italian colorization here. The initial project called for a 35,000 tons battleship capable of 28 knots, with fur triple turrets and twenty 152 mm guns in casemates. Their silhouette in particular was very different, but their armament, dimensions and tonnage were quite similar. Although the Axis had by then been cleared out of the Mediterranean, German forces having surrendered in Tunis that May, the ships played a significant part in the rest of the war. World War II (WWII), Italian Navy, Casualties. It was a bit of a phantasm, Build to the extreme limit of engineering, and completely outside concrete requirements of the Regia Marina, yards capabilities or budget constraints. The new government joined the Allies. During the attack on Taranto on November 12, 1940, the Littorio was struck with two torpedoes and put into action for repair until April 1941. Cassone’s large battlecruiser proposal, 1921, Italian Royal Navy’s battleship Vittorio Veneto, Littorio-class, outside Taranto in Summer 1941 [2048×1275], Courageous class aircraft carriers (1928), South Korea unveils initiative to promote eco-friendly ship technologies, Hybrid upgrades to give vessels more attractive environmental profiles, USCG’s 9th national security cutter sails away from shipyard, Taiwan launches improved ‘carrier killer’ corvette, commissions new minelayer, ¿Cuál fue la misión secreta del buque San Jacinto en Cabo Verde? src: shipspotting.com Her finl camouflage was dark grey on one side and light grey on the other, with the paint splitting her bridge too. -Design A (left) was a 23,000 tonnes standard, 176m x 28m x 8,15m, 21knots, armored with 203mm/102mm Upper belt, 102mm decks, 256 mm CT, 51 mm ASW longit. In the end it was chosen to convert her as a training ship, modernized. The bottom line is that Italian ships were effective daylight surface combatants, but poor night-fighters. Like most of the signatories to the Treaty of Washington in 1922, Italy was found unable to complete her latest battleships already venturing into the “super dreadnought” type contemplated in 1916-1918. The Veneto was also draped twice. In December, the Litorrio was engaged during the first battle of the Great Syrta. Both of these faction's navies would fight against each other until World War II ended in 1945. Cassone stressed indeed a superimposed layout for the engines, with the boilers placed above the turbines, in order to reduce the overall length to protect. Anything that could be modified was, leaving little but a part of the former subs-sytems intact. Configuration was eight twin turrets plus twenty four dual-purpose rapid-fire 102 mm guns, completed by many 40 mm AA guns. 13.5"/30. Repairs completed in June. Otherwise, in terms of gunnery performance (using optical guidance) they were theoretically a fair match. Italian Submarine Casualties in World War Two. Battle damage of the Litorrio at tarento, 11 November 1940. The Project G class battleship on paper was a 37,000 tonnes battleship, before treaty limitations. Displacement: 29,100 tonnes/29,600 tonnes FL Dimensions: 186.4 x 33.1 x 9.3m. The French had chosen a radical forward configuration but the Italians thought after much internal debate and several proposals, that three triple turrets, two forward and one aft, were the best compromise. 381 mm/40 Model 1914. Not only that, due to Italy’s limited resources at that time, it caused bottlenecks in provision of steel plates, which in turn caused long delays for building the Littorio class (eventually this cost the fourth one, RN Impero) which all could have been completed much earlier if the Naval staff limited itself to a simple modernization, of AA and fire control systems for example. BY CONFLICT. It was basically an enlarged version of Littorio class, but with 16-in guns (406 mm), twelve 152 mm in the same configuration of four triple turrets and the same 24 dual-purpose 90 mm guns in 12 twin turrets, plus an AA composed of 37 mm in twin mounts and 13.2 mm Breda in quadruple mounts, probably over 40. However soon, shortages of steel slowed down the construction to a crawl and after May 1915, the admiralty decided to concentrate instead on lighter ships, destroyers, submarines, and notably gunboats, less expensive and more useful. HOME. 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