Italian battleship Roma (1940)

Coordinates: 41°9′28″N 8°17′35″E / 41.15778°N 8.29306°E / 41.15778; 8.29306
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History
Kingdom of Italy
NameRoma
NamesakeRome
Ordered1937
BuilderCantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico
Laid down18 September 1938
Launched9 June 1940
Commissioned14 June 1942
In service21 August 1942
FateSunk 9 September 1943 by German aircraft
General characteristics
Class and typeLittorio-class battleship
Displacement
Full load: 45,485 long tons (46,215 t
)
Length240.68 m (789 ft 8 in) loa
Beam32.82 m (107 ft 8 in)
Draft9.6 m (31 ft 6 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement1,830–1,950
Armament
Armor
Aircraft carried3 × aircraft (
Reggiane Re.2000
)
Aviation facilities1 ×
catapult

Roma, named after

two previous ships and the city of Rome,[N 1] was the third Littorio-class battleship of Italy's Regia Marina (Royal Navy). The construction of both Roma and her sister ship Impero was due to rising tensions around the world and the navy's fear that only two Littorios, even in company with older pre-First World War battleships, would not be enough to counter the British and French Mediterranean Fleets. As Roma was laid down almost four years after the first two ships of the class, some small improvements were made to the design, including additional freeboard
added to the bow.

Roma was

8 September 1943 armistice with the Allies led to the operation being cancelled. The Italian fleet was instead ordered to sail to La Maddalena (Sardinia) and subsequently to Malta
to surrender to the Allies.

While the force was in the

capsized
and broke in two, carrying 1,393 men—including Bergamini—down with her.

Background

The Italian dictator

named Roma and Impero ("Empire").[2][3]

Laid down nearly four years after Vittorio Veneto and Littorio, Roma was able to incorporate a few design improvements. Her

bow was noticeably redesigned to give Roma additional freeboard; partway into construction, it was modified on the basis of experience with Vittorio Veneto so that it had had a finer end at the waterline. She was also equipped with thirty-two rather than twenty-four 20 mm (0.79 in)/65 caliber Breda guns.[4][5][N 2]

Description

Drawing of the Littorio-class battleships

Roma was 240.68 m (789 ft 8 in)

Reggiane Re.2000 fighters.[9]

Roma's main armament consisted of nine

20 mm (0.79 in) /65 guns in eight twin mounts.[10]

The ship was protected by a main

armor belt that was 280 mm (11 in) with a second layer of steel that was 70 mm (2.8 in) thick. The main deck was 162 mm (6.4 in) thick in the central area of the ship and reduced to 45 mm (1.8 in) in less critical areas. The main battery turrets were 350 mm (13.8 in) thick and the lower turret structure was housed in barbettes that were also 350 mm thick. The secondary turrets had 280 mm thick faces and the conning tower had 260 mm (10.2 in) thick sides.[8]

Service history

Roma being launched, June 9, 1940

Roma's

fitting-out, the new battleship was commissioned into the Regia Marina on 14 June 1942. She arrived in the major naval base of Taranto on 21 August, and was assigned to the Ninth Naval Division.[3] Although Roma took part in training exercises and was moved to various bases including Taranto, Naples, and La Spezia, in the next year, she did not go on any combat missions as the Italian Navy was desperately short of fuel. In fact, by the end of 1942, the only combat-ready battleships in the navy were the three Littorios because the fuel shortage had caused the four modernized battleships to be removed from service. When combined with a lack of capable vessels to escort the capital ships, the combat potential of the Italian Navy was virtually non-existent.[11][12]

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

armor-piercing bombs damaged the stationary battleships with two bombs each. Roma suffered from two near hits on either side of her bow. The starboard-side bomb hit the ship but passed through the side of the hull before exploding. The ship began taking on water through leaks from frames 221 to 226—an area covering about 32 square feet (3.0 m2)—and through flooding from the bow to frame 212. The second bomb missed but exploded in the water near the hull. Leaks were discovered over a 30 sq ft (2.8 m2) area ranging from frames 198 and 207. Approximately 2,350 long tons (2,390 t) of water entered the ship.[15]

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

Roma underway

Along with many of the principal units of the Italian fleet—including Vittorio Veneto and Italia (the ex-Littorio)

Attilio Regolo.[12][17]

On that same day, the fleet had been scheduled to sail towards

Bône. The fleet then changed course, but when Germany learned that the Italian fleet was sailing towards an Allied base, the Luftwaffe sent Dornier Do 217s from Kampfgeschwader 100 armed with Fritz X radio-controlled bombs to attack the ships. These aircraft caught up with the force when it was in the Strait of Bonifacio.[12][17][18][19]

A grey missile sitting on a light-colored floor
A Fritz X radio-controlled bomb

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

capsized and broke in two. According to the official inquest conducted after the sinking, the ship had a crew of 1,849 when she sailed; 596 survived with 1,253 men going down with Roma.[21] According to naval historian Francesco Mattesini, who cites the research of Pier Paolo Bergamini, the son of Admiral Bergamini, around two hundred men from Bergamini's staff were aboard Roma, and were mistakenly not included in the official inquiry. These men increased the total number aboard to 2,021 and the total fatalities to 1,393. Rear Admiral Stanislao Caraciotti was also killed.[22][23] In her 15-month service life, Roma made 20 sorties, mostly in transfers between bases (none were to go into combat), covering 2,492 mi (4,010 km) and using 3,320 tonnes (3,270 long tons; 3,660 short tons) of fuel oil in 133 hours of sailing.[24]

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

  1. Second Italo-Abyssinian War.[1]
  2. ^ Whitley states that Roma was completed with 28 20 mm guns and the other two were originally equipped with 16, but Garzke & Dulin give 32 and 24.[5][6]
  3. fall of Mussolini and the Fascist Party.[16]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Whitley, p. 171
  2. ^ Knox, p. 20
  3. ^ a b c Garzke & Dulin, p. 404
  4. ^ Garzke & Dulin, pp. 418–419, 426, 428
  5. ^ a b Whitley, pp. 171–172
  6. ^ Garzke & Dulin, pp. 418–419
  7. ^ Garzke & Dulin, p. 435
  8. ^ a b Gardiner & Chesneau, p. 289
  9. ^ Bagnasco & de Toro, p. 48
  10. ^ Gardiner & Chesneau, pp. 289–290
  11. ^ a b Garzke & Dulin, pp. 392, 404
  12. ^ a b c d Whitley, p. 178
  13. ^ Rohwer, p. 212
  14. ^ Rohwer, p. 217
  15. ^ Garzke & Dulin, pp. 392, 403–404
  16. ^ Garzke & Dulin, p. 403
  17. ^ a b Garzke & Dulin, p. 405
  18. ^ a b c Fioravanzo, pp. 8–34
  19. ^ Wade, p. 225
  20. ^ a b Garzke & Dulin, p. 407
  21. ^ Bagnasco & De Toro, pp. 273, 344
  22. ^ Mattesini, pp. 529–530
  23. ^ "Corazzata Roma: nel giorno del ricordo, la Marina commemora i marinai scomparsi in mare". marina.difesa.it. 9 September 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  24. ^ Garzke & Dulin, p. 410
  25. ^ Squires, Nick (13 September 2012) "Massive Luftwaffe plane wreck 'found off Sardinian coast'". The Telegraph.

References

External links

  • Roma Marina Militare website

41°9′28″N 8°17′35″E / 41.15778°N 8.29306°E / 41.15778; 8.29306