The battleship Littorio, renamed Italy on July 30, 1943, was a ship of the Royal Navy in the class Littorio and represented the best of the Italian naval war of World War II.
War Activity
He went online on May 6, 1940, not yet fully operational at the outbreak of hostilities. Was framed in the Armored Division IX of the team which teaches the divisional command ship of Admiral Bergamini. In the so-called Night of Taranto between ’11 and 12 November 1940, was severely damaged by 3 torpedoes from British Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers but was recovered, resuming active service six months later, surprising the British, who claimed to have hurt so much more serious.
In 1942, he participated in the Second Battle of Sirte, with the command of ‘Admiral Angelo Iachino, hitting with a 152 mm projectile from the British cruiser HMS Cleopatra and heavily damaging the destroyer HMS Kingston and Havock with its guns of 381 mm. Subsequently, with the twin Vittorio Veneto, he took part in the battle of mid-June, during which he was hit in the bow as a weapon launched by a British airplane and smeared from a bomb dropped by a U.S. bomber.
On the night between 18 and 19 April 1943, the ship was slightly damaged by a bomb attack on La Spezia. In the course of the raid, the destroyer Alpino was sunk.
The subsequent bombing of La Spezia on the basis of June 5, in which Roma was damaged and Vittorio Veneto reduced the team to battle to the only Littorio. Mind the Vittorio Veneto was able to be repaired in our arsenal, returning to the team in just over a month, for the battleship Roma, struck again in a bombing on the night of June 24 was necessary to the entry into the pelvis and the transfer to Genoa, returning to the only team on August 13.
Italy
After the Grand Council of 25 July 1943, which saw the adoption of the ‘Agenda Grandi, July 30 was renamed Italy. The armistice affected a total of 46 combat missions, of which 9 were searching for the enemy and 3 for the protection of national traffic.
Armistice
On the day of ‘September 8, the ship was in La Spezia in the evening when the crew heard the news of the’ armistice and the relevant clauses related to the fleet, which included the immediate transfer of the Italian ships in the area that would be designated by the Commander in Chief ally, where they remained waiting to know their fate, and that during the transfer would lift, in surrender, brushes blacks on the yards and drew two circles on blacks told.
At 3 in the morning of September 9, the Italian ships under the command of ‘Admiral Bergamini sailed from La Spezia.
The training ship sailed without having hoisted the brushes on the yards, and blacks have drawn discs blacks on marquees as required by the terms of the armistice, but the battleship Roma with ‘teaches Admiral Bergamini had raised the Gran Pavese.
In the afternoon, off of the ‘island of the’ Asinara training was overflown at high altitudes from twenty-eight twin-engined Dornier Do 217 Luftwaffe parties from Istres, near Marseille, in three waves, the first of which flew just after 14.00, with aircraft that had the education to target only the battleships.
The fleet was sighted by aircraft after just over an hour’s flight. At 15.30, the first bomb was directed against ‘Eugene of Savoy, falling about 50 meters from the cruiser without causing any damage, while a second bomb fell close to the stern of the’ Italian immobilizzandone temporarily the helm, so the ship was governed with auxiliary rudder.
The bombs were of rocket-guided Ruhrstahl SD 1400, known by the Allies as the Fritz X. Subsequently fell to Rome; planes, for the first time, failed the shot, but the battleship was centered at 15.45 for the first time as a shot that apparently did not produce serious side effects. The second blow to 15.50 ship center forward, this time with devastating consequences.
The hull was split after a few minutes. The armored control tower was hit by such a blaze, which was even warped and bent by the heat, falling forward and disappearing, projected on the upper parts, in between two massive pillars of smoke: Admiral Bergamini and its state majeure, the master of the ship Adonis Del Cima and most of the crew were killed almost instantly.
The ship, at 16.11, turning on its side, capsized and sank in a few minutes, cracking in two. Then l ‘Italy was attacked again and this time hit by a bomb, but being a minimal payload, the battleship, although he had embarked about eight hundred tons of water, continued, albeit weighed down, to sail in formation. Destroyers and Gunner policemen immediately reversed course to recover the survivors of Rome, followed by ‘The Regulus cruiser and the destroyer Rifleman.
These units were added to the torpedo boats Pegasus, Ursa, and Impetuous. The castaways of Rome, recovered by naval units, were sent to their rescue six hundred twenty-two, of which five hundred and three recovered from three destroyers, seventeen from ‘Regulus, and the three hundred and two torpedo boats. The ships transported the survivors, many of them seriously injured, to the Balearic Islands.
To take command of the fleet to Malta after the sinking of the Roma was Admiral Oliva, the most senior admirals of training and commander of the Seventh Division with sign-on ‘Eugene of Savoy, who fulfilled one of the clauses armistice, to raise the black brush of mourning on the yards and the discs blacks drawn on the marquees.
While the seven ships had stopped to recover the dead and wounded of the flagship, the rest of the team went sailing, heading for Malta, a destination chosen by the Allies, where training would be reunited with the group from Taranto led by Admiral Da Zara and consisted of the Duilio, by cruisers Cadorna and Pompey the Great and the destroyer From Recco.
In Malta, the units were reached a few days after the battleship Giulio Cesare, from the Shipyard in Pula, which arrived on September 13 along with the seaplane carrier Giuseppe Miraglia under cover of a seaplane antisubmarine CANT Z.506, and days from the other units, such as torpedo boats, corvettes, MAS, torpedo boats and other smaller units. The command of all Italian units present in Malta was entrusted to Admiral Da Zara, who was Admiral older.
At first, the Allies, at the request of Churchill, had thought to use together with Vittorio Veneto in the war in the Pacific, but for technical reasons (the ships were designed for use in the Mediterranean) and political tramontane did the idea and had begun for the two units long internment in the Bitter Lakes, Egypt.
The Demolition
Returning to the base of the Bitter Lakes Augusta on February 9, 1947, the Littorio, under the terms of the peace treaty, would have to be surrendered to the United States. Still, we gave up, as did the British, giving up the Vittorio Veneto.
Prevented the delivery of the units, yet modern, the Italian authorities were unable, however, to avoid the injunction allied to demolish them, which they tried to delay by any means, but without success. Initially, under pressure from the ‘Soviet Union, there was limited to the cutting of the guns of the main armament.
Eventually, after several diplomatic battles to be able to keep in line (it was also suggested to swap the two ships with the older Doria), the Littorio was demolished between 1948 and 1955, together with Vittorio Veneto.