Italian Navy
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                                   The Italian Navy       
                                                       
                                                             

At June, 10th, 1940 (at the very beginning of war) the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) was composed by

6 battleships, two of them of modern 35,000 ton.. type (Littorio type)
7 cruisers of 10,000 ton..
12 light cruisers between 5.000 and 8.000 ton..
12 flotilla leader destroyers
28 modern destroyers
19 old model destroyers
69 torpedo boats
117 submarines of varied type and tonnage

The British were slightly numerically inferior and were based in Alexandria (Mediterranean Fleet) and Gibraltar (Force H), two of the advantages the British had, were the availability of aircraft carriers and tactics based on the use of aircraft in reconnaissance and strike roles. Italians lacked totally from this point of view, all their airplanes were controlled by th Air Force which imposed to not build any carrier. Mussolini thought that all Italian peninsula was a huge aircraft carrier: this though will be tragically wrong.During the tragedy of Second World War 33.000 Italian Seamen lost their lives and were lost 270.000 tons of warships. 412.000 tons of enemy warships were sunk (with the ones sunk by Air Force and by German U Boats) .The Italian merchant Navy lost 2.513 ships (522.120 tons).Finally the latest battleship, Roma, was ready to combat but the Italian lack of fuel grew more and more. The British took advantage of this and organized a massive series of convoys the Italians could not intercept with their heavy units because of fuel lack. Malta once again had offensive capability, and failure in taking Malta was now heavily felt. Sending anything in Africa was almost a suicide in that situation, the Italian Navy managed anyway to send in Africa 86% of material and 92% of men.Between the end of 1942 and the beginning of 1943, were sunk destroyer Folgore, Aviere, Pancaldo, Lampo, Malocello, Ascari, Corsaro, Bombardiere, Saetta; same fate for torpedo boats Animoso, Perseo, Climene, Ciclone, Cigno, Uragano and Procellaria. While Italian torpedo boats sunk British submarine Sahib and Thunderbolt.

Ships of the Italian Navy:

Battleships:

Andrea Doria class battleship, 2 were built

Caio Duilio and Andrea Doria were built as 21 knot dreadnoughts, with powerful armament but very little protection. They were completely rebuilt 1937-40 with a huge increase in top speeds, and removal fo one 13 inch triple turret . These ships were comparable to the United States' Arkansas class in power but were noticeably faster after their reconstruction.

Littorio class battleship, 4 were built

Built as a direct reply to the French Dunkerque fast battleships. These ships outclassed them by miles. A notable feature was the raised height of the aft main turret, which was designed to avoid blast damage to the two aircraft carried on the poop deck.  By far the best Italian battleships ever built and first after WWI.

Cruisers:

Zara class cruiser, 4 were built

Reduced in length compared to the earlier Trento's. The result was a more compact machinery arrangement and better protection. They still exceeded 35 knots on trials. The best Italian cruiser design of the war, and one of the best treaty cruiser classes. Three were sunk by RN battleships at the disastrous Battle Of Cape Matapan.

Condottieri class cruiser,3 were built

These ships respresent the ultimate expansion of the original Condottieri design.
They were armed with a newer more powerful 6 inch main gun and both ships served well into the later part of the 20 century..

Capitani Romani class cruiser, 12 were built

Most of these ships were not completed by the end of WWII and some were captured incomplete by the German's during the war. This class was a substantial undertaking for the Italian Navy with 12 ships being laid down within a matter of a few months.

Destroyers:

Soldati class destroyer, 19 were built

These ships were born for hunt down the surface torpedo boats, but replaced them in their assignment of escort of other units and antisubmarine defense. Their main weapon was the torpedo, even if they were armed of small-calibre artilleries (around 120 millimeter), and they had high speed and maneuverability.

Corvettes:

Gabbiano class corvette

40 units of this class were completed they were equipped with depth charges , torpedo's and guns.They were pretty succesful against merchant shipping.

Torpedo boats:

Spica class torpedo boat

The Regia Marina, within the limits set by these agreements, laid down the torpedo boats of the Spica class with a standard displacement of 630 tons. Later on, it was recognized that ships of this type had to have a greater fuel capacity so to remain for a longer time at sea . Construction began of 4 escorts of the Pegaso class.

Submarines:

Brin class submarine:

During the period between 1925 and 1940, the Regia Marina dedicated large resources to the strengthening of its submarine forces, which resulted in the deployment of 50 large, 89 medium, 2 cargo and 50 small units. At the beginning of the hostilities, Italy had a total of 117 units of which only 7 could be categorized as obsolete.

 More to come!

This page couldn't  have been possible without the help of  Arnaldo Borsa and his fantastic italian navy site.