Italian battleship Roma (1940)
History | |
---|---|
Kingdom of Italy | |
Name | Roma |
Namesake | Rome |
Ordered | 1937 |
Builder | Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico |
Laid down | 18 September 1938 |
Launched | 9 June 1940 |
Commissioned | 14 June 1942 |
In service | 21 August 1942 |
Fate | Sunk 9 September 1943 by German aircraft |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Littorio-class battleship |
Displacement | ) |
Length | 240.68 m (789 ft 8 in) loa |
Beam | 32.82 m (107 ft 8 in) |
Draft | 9.6 m (31 ft 6 in) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph) |
Complement | 1,830–1,950 |
Armament |
|
Armor |
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Aircraft carried | 3 × aircraft ( Reggiane Re.2000 ) |
Aviation facilities | 1 × catapult |
Roma, named after
Roma was
While the force was in the
Background
The Italian dictator
Laid down nearly four years after Vittorio Veneto and Littorio, Roma was able to incorporate a few design improvements. Her
Description
Roma was 240.68 m (789 ft 8 in)
Roma's main armament consisted of nine
The ship was protected by a main
Service history
Roma's
Roma and her two sisters were moved from Taranto to Naples, on 12 November, in response to the Allied invasion of North Africa; while en route, the three battleships were attacked by the British submarine HMS Umbra, though no hits were made.[13] On 4 December, the United States launched a major air raid on Naples in an attempt to destroy the Italian fleet; one cruiser was destroyed and two others were damaged in the attack, as were four destroyers.[14] Two days later, Roma was transferred with Vittorio Veneto and Littorio to La Spezia, where she became the flagship of the Regia Marina. They remained here through the first half of 1943, without going on any operations.[11][12]
During this time, La Spezia was attacked many times by Allied
Roma was damaged again by two bombs in another raid on 23–24 June. One hit the ship aft and to starboard of the rear main battery turret and obliterated several staterooms, which were promptly flooded from broken piping. The second landed atop the rear turret itself, but little damage was suffered due to the heavy armor in that location. This attack did not seriously damage Roma or cause any flooding, but she nevertheless sailed to Genoa for repairs. Roma reached the city on 1 July, and returned to La Spezia, on 13 August, once repairs were complete.[3]
Loss
Along with many of the principal units of the Italian fleet—including Vittorio Veneto and Italia (the ex-Littorio)
On that same day, the fleet had been scheduled to sail towards
The Do 217s trailed the fleet for some time, but the Italian fleet did not open fire upon sighting them; they were trailing the fleet at such a distance that it was impossible to identify them as Allied or Axis, and Bergamini believed that they were the air cover promised to them by the Allies. However, an attack upon Italia and Roma at 15:37 spurred the fleet into action, as the anti-aircraft batteries onboard opened fire and all ships began evasive maneuvers. About fifteen minutes after this, Italia was hit on the starboard side underneath her fore main turrets, while Roma was hit on the same side somewhere between frames 100 and 108. This bomb passed through the ship and exploded beneath the keel, damaging the hull girder and allowing water to flood the after engine room and two boiler rooms. The flooding caused the inboard propellers to stop for want of power and started a large amount of arcing, which itself caused many electrical fires in the aft half of the ship.[20][18]
Losing power and speed, Roma began to fall out of the battle group. Around 16:02, another Fritz X slammed into the starboard side of Roma's deck, between frames 123 and 136. It most likely detonated in the forward engine room, sparking flames, and causing heavy flooding in the magazines of main battery turret number two and the fore port side secondary battery turret, and putting even more pressure upon the previously stressed hull girder. Seconds after the initial blast, the number two 15-inch turret was blown over the side by a massive explosion, this time from the detonation of that turret's magazines.[20][18]
This caused additional catastrophic flooding in the bow, and the battleship began to go down by the bow while listing more and more to starboard. The ship quickly
Wreck discovery
The sunken vessel was found in June 2012, by the underwater robot Pluto Palla, designed by Italian engineer Guido Gay. It was discovered about 30 km (19 mi) off the northern coast of Sardinia, at a depth of around 1,000 m (3,281 ft). On 10 September 2012, a memorial ceremony was held on an Italian frigate over the spot where Roma went down. Giampaolo Di Paola, himself a former naval officer and at the time defence minister, at the ceremony described the dead sailors as "unwitting heroes who found their place in history because they carried out their duty right until the end".[25]
See also
Notes
Footnotes
- ^ Whitley, p. 171
- ^ Knox, p. 20
- ^ a b c Garzke & Dulin, p. 404
- ^ Garzke & Dulin, pp. 418–419, 426, 428
- ^ a b Whitley, pp. 171–172
- ^ Garzke & Dulin, pp. 418–419
- ^ Garzke & Dulin, p. 435
- ^ a b Gardiner & Chesneau, p. 289
- ^ Bagnasco & de Toro, p. 48
- ^ Gardiner & Chesneau, pp. 289–290
- ^ a b Garzke & Dulin, pp. 392, 404
- ^ a b c d Whitley, p. 178
- ^ Rohwer, p. 212
- ^ Rohwer, p. 217
- ^ Garzke & Dulin, pp. 392, 403–404
- ^ Garzke & Dulin, p. 403
- ^ a b Garzke & Dulin, p. 405
- ^ a b c Fioravanzo, pp. 8–34
- ^ Wade, p. 225
- ^ a b Garzke & Dulin, p. 407
- ^ Bagnasco & De Toro, pp. 273, 344
- ^ Mattesini, pp. 529–530
- ^ "Corazzata Roma: nel giorno del ricordo, la Marina commemora i marinai scomparsi in mare". marina.difesa.it. 9 September 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
- ^ Garzke & Dulin, p. 410
- ^ Squires, Nick (13 September 2012) "Massive Luftwaffe plane wreck 'found off Sardinian coast'". The Telegraph.
References
- Bagnasco, Erminio & de Toro, Augusto (2011). The Littorio Class: Italy's Last and Largest Battleships 1937–1948. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-105-2.
- Fioravanzo, Giuseppe (1971). La Marina italiana nella seconda guerra mondiale – Volume XV – La Marina dall'8 settembre 1943 alla fine del conflitto [The Italian Navy in the Second World War – Volume XV – The Navy from 8 September 1943 to the End of the Conflict] (in Italian). Rome: Italian Navy Historical Branch.
- Garzke, William H. & Dulin, Robert O. (1985). Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships in World War II. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-101-0.
- Haworth, R.B. "Search results for "6114073" (Roma)" (Click on link for ship data). Miramar Ship Index. New Zealand Ship & Marine Society (Inc). Retrieved 21 November 2009.
- Knox, MacGregor (1982). Mussolini Unleashed, 1939-1941: Politics and Strategy in Fascist Italy's Last War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 7775314.
- Mattesini, Francesco (2002). La Marina e l'8 settembre. Roma: Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare. OCLC 61487486.
- ISBN 978-1-59114-119-8.
- Whitley, M.J. (1998). Battleships of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-184-4.
- Wade, Frank (2005) [1994]. A Midshipman's War: A Young Man in the Mediterranean Naval War 1941–1943. Victoria: Trafford. OCLC 64344050.
External links
- Roma Marina Militare website