For many definitions concerning Italy, the word “seems to be” fits very well. It seems to be a sea power at the beginning of the 20th century. It seems to have had a navy, army and air force. It seems to have participated in both world wars. It seems that one of them was among the winners. It seems to have built ships, and it seems that they are not bad. Yes, all of the above took place. The question is how. And this is where the debate begins.
I would like to draw the reader's attention to the main indicator of the technical condition of the fleet of those years - on battleships. When, at the beginning of the 20th century (in 1905), the British acquired the "Dreadnought", the roof on this topic blew away from everyone. And every country with sufficient technical potential considered it necessary to acquire these expensive but dear toys. USA, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France … Italians were no exception, since they had Vittorio Quinberti, who became the founder of the construction of dreadnoughts in Italy. And so, in 1907, Italy joined the race for the production of super ships.
"Julius Caesar" Genoa autumn 1913
In 1910, Julius Caesar, Prince Cavour and Leonardo da Vinci were laid down, and in 1912 Andrea Doria and Cayo Duilio. Due to small differences, the first three were referred to as the type "Julius Caesar" (YTs), and the other two as the type "Cayo Duilio" (CD).
Battleships had the following stats:
The total displacement is 24,500 tons (the average deviation for each of the ships was up to +/- 200 tons).
Power plant power: 31,000 l / s (YTs), 32,000 l / s (CD).
Speed: 22 knots (YTs), 21, 5 (CD).
Armament:
Julius Caesar class
305 mm - 13
120 mm - 18
76 mm - 14
450 mm TA - 3
type "Cayo Duilio":
305 mm - 13
152 mm - 16
76 mm - 19
450 mm TA - 3
Crew - 1000 people.
In addition, the CD type carried stronger armor, which affected its speed.
Accordingly, in 1911 and 1913 they were all launched.
The ships turned out, most likely, not bad. At least they were superior (theoretically) to their fellow tribesmen from Austria and France. They lost to American and British ships without having time to enter service in terms of artillery power, since they were already carrying 343 and 356 mm cannons. But for action in the Mediterranean, what was there was enough.
The ships entered service almost simultaneously with the outbreak of the First World War. In fact, the Italian battleships did not participate in it, limiting themselves to shooting, demonstration of force and the like. The fleet management did not want to risk expensive toys. A familiar picture for those years, isn't it?
On the slipway, November 11, 1910
For three and a half years of hostilities, the battleships not only did not fire a single shot at the enemy, but did not even see him. "Julius Caesar" conducted two military campaigns, with a total length of 31 (!!!) hours. There should be no comments.
Sports observers (forgive me for this analogy) say that if you don't attack, they attack you. And, on August 2, 1916, at 23-00, an explosion thundered on the Leonardo da Vinci stationed in Taranto. It seems to be not strong, the majority of the team did not even feel it. Smoke started … The ship's commander, who arrived at the scene of the emergency, announced a military alarm and ordered to flood the aft cellars, as there was clearly a fire. And at 23-22 he jumped out like an adult. And, at 23-40 the battleship began to submerge, and at 23-45 turned upside down with the keel and drowned.
All responsibility was assigned to the military intelligence of Austria-Hungary and Captain 1st Rank Mayer. In 1917, documents were obtained that made it possible to defeat the intelligence network of Austria-Hungary in Italy and prevent subsequent outrages.
For thirty months, the Italians raised the drowned man. And at the end of August 1919, they still raised it. And they established the reason for such a rapid flooding: open all, without exception, watertight doors. This is by the way about the harmfulness of long standing at the pier and the eternal Italian indifference. Attempts to restore the battleship were unsuccessful, and by Royal Decree No. 656 of March 26, 1923, the Leonardo da Vinci was expelled from the fleet and sold for scrap. A curtain.
War is over. During the time that remained until World War II, the remaining battleships did not show themselves in anything special, with the exception of the capture of the island of Corfu in August 1923, when a detachment of 4 battleships and 13 destroyers was sent to capture the island with a garrison of 250 people.
On April 8, 1925, it was Duilio's turn. During the firing practice in the upper elevator of tower No. 3, it exploded so that the ship was out of order until 1928.
In May 1928, "Julius Caesar" became an artillery training ship, and "Conti de Cavour" was taken to the reserve for modernization. "Dante Alighieri" was no longer lucky: on November 1, 1928, she was withdrawn from the fleet and sold for scrap …
In 1932, "Doria" and "Duilio" were also withdrawn to the reserve. But in the same year, an event occurred that made the leadership of the Italian fleet tense up pretty much. France laid the foundations for the battleship Dunkirk, which, with a speed of 30 knots and 8 new 330 mm guns, could have knotted a couple of Italian veterans with a naval knot alone. A decision was made on capital modernization.
As a result, "Julius Caesar" and "Conte di Cavour" received 10 guns of caliber 320 mm, 12 - 120 mm, 8 anti-aircraft guns 100 mm, 12 automatic machines 37 mm, 12 machine guns 13, 2 mm. "Cayo Duilio" and "Andrea Doria" received 10 320 mm guns, 12 - 135 mm, 10 anti-aircraft guns 90 mm, 15 - 37 mm and 16 - 20 mm machine guns.
The power plants were also replaced, which led to an increase in speed to 26 knots.
In general, the veterans got a second life. The Italians, according to the British, brought their fleet to 4th place in the world. The battleships were not inferior to the British in firing range (albeit with a slightly smaller caliber), and even exceeded in speed.
The Second World War began.
After the surrender of France and the destruction of the French fleet by the British, the British fleet became the main enemy of Italy.
The first major clash between the British and Italian fleets, known in Italian sources as the battle at Punta Stilo, and in the British as an action at Calabria, occurred on July 9, 1940, off the southeastern tip of the Apennine Peninsula. By coincidence, the Italians and the British simultaneously conducted large convoys: the first - to Libya, the second - from Alexandria to Malta. To cover them, both sides brought the main forces of their fleets to sea: the Italians - the battleships Giulio Cesare (flag of Admiral Campioni) and Conte di Cavour, 6 heavy, 10 light cruisers, 32 destroyers; the British - the battleships "Worspite" (flag of Admiral Cunningham), "Malaya", "Royal Sovereign", the aircraft carrier "Eagle", 5 light cruisers and 16 destroyers.
The starting point of the battle can be considered the raid of the Suordfish torpedo bombers from the Igla, which took place at 13.30. At this time, the heavy cruisers were moving in a northerly direction behind the battleships in a wake column in the following order: Bolzano, Trento (flag of the 3rd division commander, Rear Admiral Cattaneo), Fiume, Gorizia, Zara (flag Rear Admiral Matteucci), "Paula" (flag of Vice Admiral Paladini). It was on them that the torpedo bombers hit, who mistook the cruiser for enemy battleships. The main targets of the attack were the medium ships of the convoy, but they all successfully evaded the dropped torpedoes, which encouraged the crews.
The Italians established visual contact with the enemy at 14.54. By that time, the Paladini cruisers overtook their battleships and went in the same column on their left - opposite to the enemy - traverse, so they could not participate in the shootout with the leading British cruisers. The approach of Worspite forced the Italian light cruisers ahead and to the right of the main force to set up a smokescreen and hastily withdraw from the battle. By 15.53, when the battle of the battleships began, both divisions of the heavy cruisers advanced to the head of the Italian fleet's battle formation and entered into fire contact with the British cruisers. According to Admiral Paladini's report, Trento opened fire at 15.55, Fiume at 15.58, Bolzano. "Zara" and "Paula" - at 16.00, and "Gorizia" - at 16.01. The distance was about 10 miles. “When our ships started firing,” the admiral wrote, “the enemy cruisers returned fire. Their firing was accurate, but mostly ineffective. Only the Bolzano was hit by three shrapnel at 16.05. "left to side." The ship described full circulation, continuing to fire. Then several close bursts astern released the rudders, and the cruiser again took its place in the ranks. " In fact, Bolzano received three direct hits from 152-mm shells (most likely from the Neptune cruiser), which damaged the steering, the barrel of one of the guns of the bow elevated turret and the torpedo tubes.
The decisive moment of the battle occurred at 4 pm, when the Cesare was hit by a 15-inch round from the Worspite in the middle. Three minutes later Campioni turned to the southwest, ordering Paladini to set up a smoke screen to cover the battleships' withdrawal from battle. In fact, the Italian cruisers already had to take care of their own safety, as at 16.09 the British flagship brought fire on them, to which the Malaya joined after a while. At 16:17 the destroyers set up a dense smoke-screen, forcing the British to stop firing, thanks to which the Paladini ships did not suffer from the extremely dangerous shells of the battleships, as well as from the next attack of torpedo bombers from the Igla, who chose the main target of the head Bolzano and announced their achievements. hits that weren't really there.
The artillery battle ended, but the tests for the Italian ships did not end there. The Italian Air Force sent 126 bombers to attack the British fleet. However, their pilots demonstrated a complete inability to distinguish their ships from the enemy. As a result, "Cesare", "Bolzano" and "Fiume" were attacked by their own aircraft - fortunately, everything was limited to close explosions, and the caliber of the bombs did not exceed 250 kg. The consequence was Campioni's order to apply red and white slanted stripes to the forecastle for identification from the air.
The heavy cruisers piloted by the Pola were on their way to Augusta, but shortly after midnight on July 10, they were ordered to move through the Strait of Messina to Naples, as Supermarina feared that ships in Sicilian ports could be attacked by British aircraft. The foresight was not superfluous: on the same day Augusta was raided by torpedo bombers from the Igla - they sunk the destroyer Leone Pankaldo …
It is difficult to draw any conclusions on the actions of the heavy cruisers in the battle at Punta Stilo. Their passive role in the initial stage of the battle was the result of errors in the deployment and formation of the fleet's battle formation. Then they had a chance to prove themselves, but in the ten-minute shootout, not a single hit was achieved. Since, under the same conditions, the British light cruisers achieved hits, we can say that the Italians received the first assessment of the quality of their artillery - an assessment, alas, negative.
At this, the participation of battleships in the war was suspended by the command of the fleet "Until the commissioning of new ships."
On 2 August, the two newest battleships Littorio and Vittorio Veneto were commissioned. But this did not affect the actions of the Italian fleet. Two unsuccessful sailings were all that the fleet could boast of.
In early November 1940, reinforcements were sent to Cunningham (Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet). Now he was ready to attack Taranto, where there were 6 battleships, including the newest Vittorio Veneto and Littorio. Several heavy cruisers were also based there. The plan of the operation called for a moonlight attack by two waves of Suordfish torpedo bombers. Illastries was used in the attack. The ships in the inner harbor were supposed to be attacked with bombs.
Reconnaissance aircraft from about. Malta has taken a series of excellent photographs of enemy anchorages. On November 11, these images were delivered to Illastries, so the torpedo crews knew exactly where their targets were. Admiral Cunningham decided to strike that very night.
Shortly before 21:00 the first wave of 12 Swordfish under the command of Lieutenant Commander K. Williamson took off from an aircraft carrier 170 miles from Taranto. A second wave of eight Swordfish, commanded by Lieutenant Commander JW Hale, took off an hour after the first. At about 23:00, illuminators and bombers completed their task and made room for the first torpedo bombers.
They descended to the very water and broke into flights of 3 aircraft in order to slip between the barrage balloons, although the enemy was on their guard, and the anti-aircraft fire was quite dense, the moon and flares provided excellent illumination. The Italian battleships were clearly visible. Cavour was hit by 1 torpedo and Littorio 2.
Then the second wave attacked. Its aircraft hit 1 with a Duilio torpedo, and 2 more went to the Littorio, although one of them did not explode.
Result: "Littorio", "Duilio" and "Cavour" were at the bottom.
The Littorio was raised in December 1941, the Duilio in January 1942, and the Cavour in July 1942.
Thus, the Italians lost half of their heavy ships. The British won a convincing victory at such a small cost that this case had to be carefully studied by all the belligerent countries. But only the Japanese made real conclusions …
"Cavour" after lifting was sent to Trieste, where until September 1943 it was slowly repaired. German troops, having occupied Trieste, did not pay much attention to the half-disassembled ship, which quietly rusted in the harbor until February 15, 1945, where it was sunk by the Allied aircraft during the next raid. The Cavour rolled over and sank, completely repeating the fate of the Leonardo.
The remaining "Duilio", "Caesar" and "Doria" in 1942 were engaged in escorting convoys to Africa, until at the end of 1942 they were withdrawn into the reserve, and "Caesar" was generally transferred to the naval school in Polje, where he became what something like a floating barracks with an air defense battery.
After the fall of the Mussolini regime and the conclusion of an armistice, the entire trio were sent to Malta, where they stood from September 1943 to June 1944, when they returned to their bases in Italy, and were not used for military purposes until the end of the war.
In 1948, "Caesar" was transferred to the Soviet Union as reparations, and "Duilio" and "Doria" after modernization served in the Italian fleet until 1953, then they were written off and dismantled for scrap.
The Caesar was renamed Novorossiysk and served as the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet until October 29, 1955, when it was damaged by an explosion, capsized and sank. After the rise, it was written off and cut into metal. But that's another, sadder story.
Five ships. Similar to each other not only externally, but also similar in fates. The meaning of destinies can be described in one word: uselessness. The annals of history do not store references to the hit of shells of the main caliber in any non-training target. Those who have not won a single victory over the enemy. Symbols of the past. Doomed by their command to a mediocre existence.
