Italy’s World War II Battleships Were Lovely, But Not Exactly the Best

War is Boring ^ | February 12, 2017 | Robert Farley

[C19fan]

Italy’s Regia Marina was one of the busiest navies of the interwar period. Four old battleships were rebuilt so completely that they barely resembled their original configuration. This helped Italy achieve what was really, by the late 1930s, significant ship-to-ship superiority over the French Navy.

[C19fan]

Who can blame for Italians doing what they do best...producing beautiful things. Who cares about the actual function.

[FreedomPoster]

Didn’t they mostly get sunk at Taranto by Fairy Swordfish?

[SkyPilot]

Kind of like some of their cars.

[C19fan]

Littorio was knocked out for 4 months. Two older battleships for much longer.

[FreedomPoster]

One sunk, two heavily damaged, along with many other Italian losses.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Taranto

And it’s *Fairey* Swordfish.

[Sasparilla]

The battleship, Roma, as pictured, looks worse than a rusty tramp steamer. That the Italian Navy achieved superiority over the French Navy isn’t saying much. Much like saying their air force had superiority over that of Vatican City’s.

[alfa6]

The Italian Navy was mainly designed to fight in the Med so some of the parameters would be different than for an ocean sailing navy.

For a somewhat technical look at the Vittorio Veneto class of Italian BB’s see here...

http://www.combinedfleet.com/baddest.htm

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

They survived Taranto. They were turned over to the Allies when Italy agreed to an armistice in September, 1943. The Roma was sunk by the Germans using a Fritz X radio controlled glide bomb with the loss of 1200 men en route to surrender at Malta, her two sisters survived the war and were scrapped in the early 1950’s.

[oldvirginian]

“That the Italian Navy achieved superiority over the French Navy isn’t saying much.”

So the Italian navy had the same fighting spirit as the Italian army?
Still better than the French who will surrender at the drop of a hat and don’t mind dropping the hat themselves.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Nicknamed STRINGBAG

[PotatoHeadMick]

Wasn’t one of the main problems of the Italian navy that they had no radar which left them sitting ducks? At Cape Matapan the Royal Navy simply sailed up to the Italian fleet in the dark, simply switched on their searchlights and proceeded to blast them to bits

[yawningotter]

The French were not a problem, but the Royal Navy and Admiral Cunningham had the Italians afraid to risk their precious ships.

[Rockingham]

Nice jibe, but not entirely accurate as the article concludes that "Despite their drawbacks, Roma and her sisters were useful ships." This view is well-founded in that the WW II British Royal Navy had considerable trouble in the Med because Italy's modern fast battleships were a potent "force in being" that menaced, inhibited, and delayed Allied operations.

Italy's several modern battleships helped keep Italy in the war longer and secure better surrender terms from the Allies. Since Allied war strategy required that Italy be knocked out of the war before the invasion of France was attempted, Italy's belligerence also delayed the invasion and diminished the position of the US and Britain in dealings with the Soviet Union.

Italy's battleships thus should not be regarded as pretty but ineffective. They instead offer an object lesson in how capital ships can have a major impact in spite of design defects and limited combat operations.

[MGG]

The SMS. Metzo Metzo! It was.......okay....

[Tallguy]

Cunningham’s aggressive use of his Mediterranean Fleet doesn’t get the credit it deserves. He took a (on paper) superior Italian Fleet that benefitted from it’s central basing and pushed it around until he had an opportunity to strike at it’s fleet base. Nelson would have been proud.

[1rudeboy]

Roma’s main sorties involved transit from one base to another in an effort to avoid Allied air attacks. However, as a fleet-in-being the Regia Marina posed a significant threat to Allied naval activity, forcing Allied planners to account for the existence of several modern, effective battleships.

And yet, they affected planning and thus had an impact on the war.

[JimRed]

Q. Why does the new Italian Navy have glass-bottomed ships?

A. So they can see the old Italian Navy.

[PLMerite]

Italian Manned Torpedo:

Not as suicidal as it sounds at first. Did some damage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decima_Flottiglia_MAS

[rmlew]

Like the German Bismarck class, but unlike Allied battleships of the day, Roma did not carry a dual-purpose secondary armament, a measure that would have saved weight and improved her anti-aircraft capabilities.

Want to bet? The Vittorio Veneto class carried 12x 6 inch secondary guns fo anti-ship attack. However, they also had 12 90mm (3.5 inch) dual purpose (anti-aircraft, anti-ship) guns. The Bismark carried 12 6 inch guns and 16 4.1 inch dual purpose guns. Both also carried 37mm and 20mm dedicated anti-aircraft guns.

[rmlew]

So the Italian navy had the same fighting spirit as the Italian army? Still better than the French who will surrender at the drop of a hat and don’t mind dropping the hat themselves.
While the Nazis were destroying France in the north, Italy invaded France and lost territory. The French were not pushovers. They suffered half a million casualties in 1940.