Continuing the theme of the Italian-French confrontation in the Mediterranean Sea, we will analyze the next series of Italian light cruisers. "Condottieri B".
It is clear that, having burned themselves on the "A" series, the Italians realized that the first pizza came out not just lumpy, but something terrible. And you have to do something. And preferably inexpensively and urgently.
This is how the project "correcting mistakes" with "Condottieri A" appeared. That is, series B.
We've worked hard on the project. Increased hull strength, reduced the upper weight of the ship by removing the seaplane hangar. This both lightened the ship and lowered the height of the superstructure, which had a positive effect on stability. The catapult was moved from the forecastle to the stern.
The cruisers, in addition, received new 152-mm main guns of the 1929 model in more spacious turrets.
According to the 1929-1930 program. was built two cruisers "Condottieri" series B, the pleasure came out not very cheap.
The cruisers were named after the Italian marshals of the First World War: "Luigi Cadorna" and "Armando Diaz".
We will not go into historical details, as in the previous article, how talented and successful these seniors were, but since they were not named after them bunkering, perhaps they were worth something.
And the ships, as always, turned out to be very beautiful.
The cruisers of the B series, you see, had a very fast silhouette. If only it would improve the combat characteristics even a little …
The technical characteristics of the ships were as follows.
Displacement: 5,323 tons standard, 7,113 tons full.
Length: 169.3 m.
Width: 15.5 m.
Draft: 5.2 m.
Reservation:
- belt - 24 mm;
- deck and traverse - 20 mm;
- deckhouse - 70 mm.
Engines: 6 Yarrow-Ansaldo boilers, 2 Parsons turbines, 95,000 hp
Travel speed: 37 knots.
Cruising range: 2,930 nautical miles at 18 knots.
Like the ships of the first series, these cruisers also held a bit of a record. On tests "Cadorna" - 38, 1 knot (power is estimated at 112 930 hp), and "Diaz" - as many as 39, 7 knots (power 121 407 hp). But in normal service, ships rarely went beyond 30-31 knots.
Crew: 507-544 people.
Armament:
Main caliber: 4 × 2 -152 mm guns.
Anti-aircraft artillery 3 × 2 - 100-mm universal guns, 4 × 2 - 37-mm anti-aircraft guns, 4 × 2 - 13, 2-mm machine guns.
Mine-torpedo armament: 2 x 2 torpedo tubes with a caliber of 533 mm, mines up to 96 pcs.
Aviation group: 2 x CANT 25 or IMAM Ro.43, 1 catapult.
Since 37-mm assault rifles were not manufactured, 2 x 40-mm Vickers assault rifles were installed on the ships similarly to the Condottieri A. In 1938, the Vickers were replaced with 4 x 2 20 mm Breda machine guns.
In 1943, the catapult was dismantled on the Luigi Cadorna, and the 13.2 mm machine guns were replaced with 4 x 1 20 mm machine guns. In 1944, the torpedo tubes were removed from the ship.
Despite the reinforcement of the hull in the power set, the protection of the cruisers was left at the level of the A series. That is, in fact, it was not there. The armor weight was only 8% of the displacement and, in fact, consisted only of an armored belt with a thickness of 18 to 24 mm.
There was an anti-fragmentation bulkhead behind the belt, which was located at a distance of 1, 8-3, 5 m from the belt. The deck was 20 mm thick, 25 and 173 frames were armored with 20 mm traverse sheets.
The conning tower had 70 mm frontal armor, 25 mm side armor, and 20 mm roof and deck armor. The turrets of the main caliber had frontal armor of 30 mm, side armor, roofs and barbets - 22 mm.
Italian engineers believed that such armor would be able to withstand the impact of 120-130 mm shells. That is, the leaders and destroyers of the enemy. And cruisers will be able to escape from a stronger enemy due to their speed. In fact, practice has shown that 127-mm shells pierced the "reservation" easily, but shells were not the nightmare for the Italian cruisers.
About the main caliber. In general, to say that the tools were new is to sin a little against the truth. In general, these were all the same guns from Ansaldo, but modernized by OTO. Actually, all the upgrades affected the loading mechanism, which made it possible to speed up reloading. If for the Ansaldo guns it was 14 seconds, then for the modernized ones it was 9 seconds. The rate of fire was 7 rounds per minute. The practical combat rate of fire was 4-5 rounds per minute.
Ammunition of the main caliber in peacetime amounted to 210 high-explosive and armor-piercing shells per gun. During the war, the ammunition was increased.
In the central artillery post (DAC) there was a central automatic gun firing control. On the Cadorna the DAC of the Galileo system, on the Diaz - the San Giorgio. These DACs were supplied by two KDP, and on the wings of the bridge there were special posts for controlling fire at night.
There was such an interesting innovation as a pneumatic mail, which connected the main control posts of the ship, the conning tower with the post of the chief power engineer or with the post of damage control. Naturally, nobody canceled the internal telephone and intercom pipes.
Even in the rank of new products, it was possible to add three steering drives: hydraulic, electric and manual. That is, it was very difficult to disable the control of the ship.
The universal artillery consisted of six 100-mm guns in the installations of the same Minisini system. Ammunition 560 high-explosive fragmentation, 560 anti-aircraft and 240 lighting shells. During the war, the ammunition was increased to 2,000 rounds. The fire control system consisted of two KDP on the sides of the superstructure. The firing data was generated in a separate artillery post.
With anti-aircraft artillery, everything was very sad. The same problems as the A-series ships: there were no medium-range assault rifles. The B-series cruisers were planned to be armed with four twin 37-mm machine guns of the "Breda" company and four coaxial 13.2-mm machine guns.
And now "Brad", to put it mildly, framed the fleet. I had to get out when it turned out that the production of 37-mm assault rifles would not be possible. Therefore, 2 single-barreled 40-mm machine guns of the Vickers-Terni system of the 1915 model were temporarily installed …
Yes, the firm "Terni" carried out modernization in 1930, but the assault rifle did not really satisfy the fleet in its characteristics: due to its low initial speed - a small effective firing range, low practical rate of fire, inconvenience of reloading - changing a box with a belt weighing under 100 kg in battle resulted in an intractable problem and required the efforts of 4-5 people.
So two ancient machine guns instead of eight - the air defense estimate is clearly unsatisfactory.
In 1938, the "Pom-Poms" were removed and in exchange they installed 4 installations of paired automatic rifles "Breda" with a caliber of 20 mm. It already looked like something. Ammunition 20-mm machine guns consisted of 3000 shells.
In 1943, machine guns, which were useless at that time, were removed from Luigi Cadorna. Instead of machine guns, two more coaxial 20-mm Breda assault rifles and 4 single-barreled 20-mm assault rifles manufactured by the Izotta Fraccini plant, model 1939, were installed.
With such weapons, it was possible to try to fight off the planes that attacked the ship.
The mine-torpedo armament was comparable to type A and consisted of two torpedo tubes located on the deck near the first chimney. Ammunition consisted of 8 torpedoes, spare torpedoes were stored in containers next to the vehicles.
There was a very decent anti-submarine weaponry. 32 depth charges model 1934 weighing 128 kg and an explosive mass of 100 kg, capable of puzzling any submarine.
The depth of the explosion could be set at 20, 40, 70 and 100 m. The bombs could be dropped from two type 432/302 bomb release devices of the 1934 model. These were pneumatic bomb throwers operating on high-pressure compressed air. The bombs were placed on the poop along the sides.
During the war, the number of depth charges increased to 72, but these were lighter bombs, model 1936, mark 50T. The weight of this depth charge was 64 kg, the weight of the explosive was 50 kg.
Naturally, like all light cruisers of the Italian fleet, Type B ships were equipped with rails for laying mines. Depending on the type, it was possible to load from 84 to 138 minutes on board.
Mine countermeasures consisted of three paravans, which provided a safe 100-m lane, 9 m deep. In the stowed position, they were on the superstructure near tower number 2 on the sides and one on the bow wall.
With electronic means it was about the same as with air defense, if not sadder. Despite the fact that Italian scientists are famous for a number of discoveries in the field of radio and sonar, the production of such important devices in Italy was not possible. Therefore, in addition to the radio station, only a hydroacoustic station of passive reception was installed on the cruisers.
Combat service of cruisers.
Luigi Cadorna
Laid down on September 19, 1930, launched on September 30, 1931. On August 11, 1933, work on the ship was completed and tests began. On April 22, 1934, the ceremony of presenting the "Battle Banner" to the ship took place at the roadstead of Venice.
"Luigi Cadorna" received the "Battle Banner" from the women of the city of Pallazza - the hometown of General Luigi Cadorna. The following text was embroidered on the banner in gold:
“The ship is named Cadorna in memory of the great man. The flag of this ship will fly over the waves. The whole world will see him, and all the time his fate will be connected with the Italian fleet."
In general, it almost worked out.
The cruiser's service actually began on August 4, 1934 with large naval maneuvers, which were watched by B. Mussolini. And then the routine began in the Mediterranean. The ship roamed all over the water area, it was difficult to find a port where he had not been.
January 1, 1937 "Luigi Cadorna" arrives in Tangier. The civil war that began in Spain and the subsequent assistance of Italy to General Franco demanded the protection of convoys with weapons and equipment going to Spain.
A very funny page in the history of the cruiser began: at first, the ship guarded convoys from Tangier to Geuta, and then the most interesting thing began. Throughout the second half of 1937, the cruiser hunted for ships carrying military contraband to Spain and at the same time … carried it himself!
However, this is how many vessels from the countries participating in the Committee on Non-Interference “worked”. They helped General Franco with all their might and eventually led him to victory, defeating the Soviet Union, which helped the Republicans.
Meanwhile, the Second World War was approaching, but Italy began it somewhat earlier, in April 1939, with the occupation of Albania. "Luigi Cadorna" takes part in the operation to seize Albania.
In general, the Navy had already realized by that time that Type B did not differ much from Type A "Condottieri" for the better. And at the first opportunity that came across, the cruiser was written off to a training detachment. However, in 1940, the training ship became a warship again.
On June 10, Italy entered World War II. But for Cadorna, the war began a day earlier. The Italians' military trick was that on June 9, a very covertly small detachment of the cruisers Di Barbiano and Luigi Cadorna and the destroyers Corazzmeri and Lanzieri went into the Gulf of Sicily and deployed more than 400 mines there. Apparently, just in case.
July 7, 1940 "Cadorna" goes to sea again. Then, practically the entire combat-ready Italian fleet took part in the operation to cover the huge African convoy. It all poured out into disgrace, which some call the battle at Calabria, others the battle at Punto Stilo, but it is difficult to call the mess that reigned on the sea as a battle. The only one who was more or less involved in business then was the crew of the battleship "Worspite".
The Cadorna checked its guns and air defenses. No success was achieved, but the "greetings" from British bombers and torpedo bombers were also avoided.
In 1941, the cruiser again took up the convoy of supply vessels going to Africa.
In general, the Italian fleet in the Mediterranean operated so successfully that the position of the units in Africa became catastrophic in terms of supplies.
Who in the command of the fleet came up with the idea of using the "Condottieri" as transports, today it is difficult to say. But such an experiment was set up. Luigi Cadorna took on board 330 tons of fuel oil, 210 tons of gasoline and 360 boxes of ammunition. In addition, there are about 100 replenishment people and vacationers.
On November 22, 1941, with a single destroyer "Augusto Riboti" in escort, the cruiser sailed to Brindisi. On the way, the cruiser was attacked by a British submarine, which fired a torpedo at it, but dodged it safely.
On November 23, the ship arrived safely at Brindisi. 103 Italian, 106 German soldiers and 82 British prisoners of war took on board the cruiser. In the evening of the same day, the cruiser laid down on a return course and on November 25 returned to Taranto without incident.
In the first half of December, the cruiser repeated the raid, delivering 10,000 cans of gasoline, 100 tons of fuel oil, 450 boxes of ammunition to Benghazi and Argostoli.
The ground command highly appreciated the cargo delivered by the crew. But while Luigi Cadorna played the role of a supply transport, the fate of the fleet was decided at the headquarters of the fleet.
After the death of the cruisers Da Barbiano and Di Giussano on December 13, 1941, in the battle at Cape Bon, it was decided to use the cruiser as a training ship for training replenishment of sailors.
And from that moment until 1943, "Luigi Cadorna" performed work on training cadets of naval schools, performing campaigns, shooting and other tasks.
While the Cadorna was carrying out training tasks, the Italian fleet lost a large number of ships. At the end of May 1943, the fleet consisted of only 6 light cruisers. Therefore, it was decided to return the cruiser to the ranks of warships and at least somehow use it.
Happened. Having trained the crew, the cruiser delivered soldiers to Albania, but mainly laid mines. Until the surrender of Italy.
On September 9, the Italian squadron of Admiral Da Zara left the Taranto raid and headed for the base of the British fleet at La Valletta in Malta. Under the command of Da Zara were the battleships Andrea Doria, Cayo Duilio and the cruisers Luigi Cadorna, Magna Pompeo, and the destroyer Da Recco.
On September 10, the ships came to Malta and surrendered to the British. On September 16, the Italian squadron was transferred to Alexandria, where it awaited a decision on its fate.
On September 23, British Admiral Cunningham and Italian Naval Minister Admiral De Courten agreed on the use of Italian warships and merchant ships by the Allies.
Thus, "Luigi Cadorna" became a transport again. Unarmed, since, just in case, the ammunition load was naturally unloaded from the ship. Only he drove British soldiers not as prisoners of war, but vice versa. The ship transported equipment and personnel from North Africa to Taranto and Naples. There were 7 raids, after which the war ended for "Luigi Cadorna".
Further, the cruiser was put into reserve and stood until 1947. Further, "Luigi Cadorna" remained in the Italian fleet as, again, a training ship. And from 1947 to 1951, it again trained cadets for the Italian fleet.
In 1951, the ship was finally decommissioned and dismantled for metal.
Armando Diaz
The cruiser was laid down on July 28, 1930, launched on July 17, 1932, and handed over to the fleet on April 29, 1933. The ship entered service earlier than Luigi Cadorna, although the series was named after the Cadorna.
On April 22, 1934, the ceremony of presenting the "Battle Banner" took place on the roadstead of Naples. The banner storage box was engraved in gold: Valor. Victory at Veneto. Rome remembers. The enemy is defeated. " Pompous, but did not affect the fate in any way.
Further, the routine service for training and combat coordination of the crew began. An interesting nuance: the first commander of "Armando Diaz" was Captain 1st Rank Angelo Yakino, famous for the fact that ALL ships that he commanded until he became an admiral were subsequently killed.
In the first half of 1936, "Armando Diaz" was engaged in the convoy of ships going to Spain with cargo and replenishment for General Franco. And in the second half I was already looking for ships with "military contraband".
The second half of 1938 and the first half of 1939 passed for the cruiser in ordinary peacetime service. In December 1939, work was carried out to replace the anti-aircraft artillery.
The first operation of Armando Diaz in World War II was the exit on July 7, 1940, leading to the Battle of Punta Stilo.
On the way to the scene of the battle aboard the "Armando Diaz" there was an accident in the mechanisms. The squadron commander ordered him to go to base with the Luigi Cadorna. But the ships did not have time to leave, the battle began. On "Armando Diaz" they observed the hits of shells in the "Giulio Cesare" and even fired two salvoes with the main caliber at enemy destroyers. When returning to the "Luigi Cadorna", there was also an accident in the steering mechanism, but somehow two cruisers made their way to Messina.
After being renovated, "Armando Diaz" paired with "Di Giussano" took part in the Italian invasion of Greece, the planned seizure of the island of Corfu. Three times went on patrolling the Albanian coast.
In late 1940 - early 1941 he was included in the detachment of ships that were engaged in escorting supply convoys for units in North Africa.
On February 23 and 24, 3 convoys with supplies for the troops went to North Africa. On the morning of February 24, Bande Nere and Armando Diaz, plus the destroyers Avnery and Karazzieri, left as a cover formation at sea. The formation entered the escort of the convoy "Marburg" on February 25 shortly before midnight.
The escort ships followed the convoy: the cruiser had an anti-submarine zigzag, the destroyers carried security and hydroacoustic surveillance.
At 3 hours 43 minutes, "Armando Diaz" was rocked by explosions: two torpedoes hit the bow of the ship. At 03:49 the cruiser sank. After the explosion of torpedoes, the cellars of the bow towers of the main caliber and boilers No. 3 and No. 4 were detonated. The bow superstructure and foremast rose into the air and fell into the water.
The commander of the ship, Captain 1st Rank Francesco Mazzola, senior mate, senior artilleryman, almost all officers in the conning tower were killed. What happened behind the boards, in the boiler rooms and other rooms, one can guess, but the fact that there was hell is understandable.
The destroyer Askari saved 144 people, including 14 officers. In total, 464 people went to the bottom together with "Armando Diaz", including 13 officers, 62 petty officers, 3 air force servicemen, 7 army officers.
The Armando Diaz was sunk by the British submarine Upright, commanded by Lieutenant Norman. The attack was carried out flawlessly, plus the Italian destroyers helped, who frankly missed the submarine.
What can you say in the end?
Beautiful ships. Very beautiful. But it is not beauty that is at war, but fighting qualities. And here is complete sadness and longing. The combat value of the Condottieri B was minimal. The navy understood this, and that is why they tried, at the first opportunity, to dump them into training or reserve.
Yes, work on improvement was carried out, but the shortcomings that were so rich in "Condottieri" of the first series A, by and large, were not overcome in the work on the mistakes.
The cruisers remained "cardboard" and not very fast. The same British and French ships produced the same 30-32 knots, but had thicker armor and more barrels.
In general, the cruisers were not used in the Mediterranean. The convoys, which they were supposed to attack, were guarded by both heavy ships and aircraft, with which the Italian cruisers had nothing to fight.
Plus, the British possessed more advanced radar detection equipment, which the Italians could not oppose.
So the only thing that the cruisers were good for was for the role of minelayers, training ships and transports.
Agree, somehow it is even insulting for a cruiser.
