Italian cruiser Guglielmo Pepe
Teruel (ex-Guglielmo Pepe)
| |
History | |
---|---|
Kingdom of Italy | |
Name | Guglielmo Pepe |
Namesake | Guglielmo Pepe (1783–1855), Italian general, patriot, and historian |
Operator | Regia Marina (Royal Navy) |
Builder | Gio. Ansaldo & C., Sestri Ponente, Kingdom of Italy |
Laid down | 2 July 1913 |
Launched | 17 September 1914 |
Commissioned | 20 August 1915 |
Reclassified | Destroyer 1921 |
Fate | Sold to Spanish Nationalist Navy October 1937 |
Stricken | 5 January 1939 |
Motto | Nullum opus arduum ("No Hard Work")[1] |
Spain | |
Name | Teruel |
Namesake | Teruel, a city in eastern Spain |
Operator |
|
Acquired | October 1937 |
Stricken | 17 August 1948 |
Fate | Scrapped |
General characteristics (as Gulgielmo Pepe) | |
Class and type | Alessandro Poerio-class destroyer |
Displacement | |
Length | 85 m (278 ft 10 in)[3] |
Beam | 8 m (26 ft 3 in) |
Draft | 3.11 metres (10 ft 2 in)[4] |
Propulsion | 2 Belluzzo steam turbines, 24,000 hp (17,897 kW), 3 Yarrow three-drum water-tube boilers, 2 shafts[2] |
Speed | 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)[2] |
Range | 2,400 nmi (4,400 km; 2,800 mi) at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) |
Crew | 109[2] |
Armament |
|
General characteristics (as Teruel) | |
Class and type | Alessandro Poerio-class destroyer |
Displacement | |
Length | 86 m (282 ft 2 in)[4] |
Beam | 8 m (26 ft 3 in) |
Draft | 2.8 metres (9 ft 2 in)[4] |
Propulsion | 2 Belluzzo steam turbines, 24,000 hp (17,897 kW), 5 Yarrow boilers, 2 shafts[4] |
Speed | 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph)[4] |
Crew | 130[4] |
Armament |
Guglielmo Pepe was an Italian Alessandro Poerio-class scout cruiser. Commissioned into service in the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in 1915, she served during World War I, participating in the Adriatic campaign, often supporting raids by Italian motor torpedo boats.[5] She was reclassified as a destroyer in 1921 due to her light displacement. Like her sister ships, Alessandro Poerio and Cesare Rossarol, she was named after a famous Neapolitan light cavalryman who helped defend Venice from attacks by the Imperial Austrian Army during the revolutions in 1848.[2][6]
In 1937, Fascist Italy sold the ship to the Nationalist faction in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Renamed Teruel, the ship subsequently served in the Spanish Navy until she was stricken in 1948.
Design
Guglielmo Pepe was an Italian "light
Plans originally called for Guglielmo Pepe to have an armament of four
Construction and commissioning
Guglielmo Pepe was
Service history
Regia Marina
World War I
1915–1916
World War I was raging when Guglielmo Pepe entered service in August 1915. On 30 December 1915 she became part of the 2nd Scouting Group of the 4th Naval Division along with her sister ships Alessandro Poerio and Cesare Rossarol, based at Venice.[9]
On 3 May 1916, Guglielmo Pepe and Cesare Rossarol got underway with the
Guglielmo Pepe and Cesare Rossarol laid a minefield off Ancona, Italy, on 11 May 1916.[9]
Escorted as far as the Austro-Hungarian defensive
On 1–2 November 1916, Guglielmo Pepe, Alessandro Poerio, Francesco Nullo, and Giuseppe Missori made ready to provide possible support to an incursion by
1917–1918
On the night of 25–26 August 1917 Guglielmo Pepe and Cesare Rossarol escorted the coastal torpedo boats 34 PN, with the motor torpedo boat MAS 6 in tow, and 35 PN, towing the motor torpedo boat MAS 91, to a point where the two MAS boats dropped their towlines The MAS boats then raided the harbor at Durrës (known to the Italians as Durazzo) on the coast of the Principality of Albania in an attempt to attack steamers there. The MAS boats found no steamers in the harbor and withdrew without results.[11]
An Austro-Hungarian Navy force consisting of the scout cruiser Helgoland and the destroyers Balaton, Csepel, Lika, Orjen, Tatra, and Triglav left Cattaro on 18 October 1917 to attack Italian convoys. The Austro-Hungarians found no convoys, so Helgoland and Lika moved to within sight of Brindisi to entice Italian ships into chasing them and lure the Italians into an ambush by the Austro-Hungarian submarines U-32 and U-40. At 06:30 on 19 October 1917, Guglielmo Pepe, with Contrammiraglio (Counter admiral) Biscaretti embarked, got underway from Brindisi with Alessandro Poerio and the destroyers Pilade Bronzetti, Insidioso and Simone Schiaffino to pursue the Austro-Hungarians. The destroyers Ippolito Nievo and Rosolino Pilo and the British light cruiser HMS Weymouth diverted from a voyage from Vlorë (known to the Italians as Valona), Albania, to Brindisi to join the pursuit. After a long chase which also saw some Italian air attacks on the Austro-Hungarian ships, the Austro-Hungarians escaped and all the Italian ships returned to port without damage.[11]
Guglielmo Pepe, Cesare Rossarol, Ippolito Nievo, and the destroyer Indomito were assigned to support a raid against Durrës on the night of 10–11 February 1918 by the motor torpedo boats MAS 9 and MAS 20, towed by the coastal torpedo boats 37 PN and 38 PN.[11] Bad weather forced the cancellation of the raid.[11]
At 23:54 on 14 May 1918, Ippolito Nievo, with MAS 99 in tow, and Pilade Bronzetti, towing MAS 100, dropped their tow cables about 15 nautical miles (28 km; 17 mi) from Bar (known to the Italians as Antivari) on the coast of Montenegro. The two MAS boats, after an unsuccessful attack on Bar, reunited with the two destroyers. Guglielmo Pepe and Cesare Rossarol supported the operation, which concluded with the return of the ships to Brindisi at 09:00 on 15 May.[11]
On 2 October 1918 Gulglielmo Pepe, Alessandro Poerio, Cesare Rossarol, Ippolito Nievo, and Simone Schiaffino were at sea with the battleship Dante Alighieri and the scout cruiser Carlo Alberto Racchia to provide distant cover for a British and Italian naval bombardment of Durrës. The main mission of Gulglielmo Pepe′s force was to counter any attack against the bombardment force by Austro-Hungarian ships based at Cattaro.[11]
By late October 1918, Austria-Hungary had effectively disintegrated, and the Armistice of Villa Giusti, signed on 3 November 1918, went into effect on 4 November 1918 and brought hostilities between Austria-Hungary and the Allies to an end. On 10 November 1918, Guglielmo Pepe and Cesare Rossarol transported Italian infantry units to Pola to reinforce Italian units already occupying the city.[9][15] World War I ended the next day, with an armistice between the Allies and the German Empire on 11 November 1918. On 27 November 1918, Guglielmo Pepe took possession of Rab, an island off the coast of Dalmatia.[15]
Post-World War I
In 1921, Guglielmo Pepe was reclassified as a destroyer.[5][10] She made various cruises and took part in representation missions in the Aegean Sea and Black Sea. In 1922, the city of La Spezia awarded battle ensigns to Guglielmo Pepe, the scout cruiser Falco, the destroyer Angelo Bassini, and the torpedo boat Premuda.[16]
During 1936, Guglielmo Pepe underwent minor repairs and maintenance. With the
Modifications
The Spanish Nationalists renamed the ship Teruel.
Service history
The Spanish Nationalists took possession of Teruel at
On 24 May 1938, Teruel got underway from Palma de Mallorca as part of a flotilla and that night collided with her sister ship, the destroyer Huesca (the former Alessandro Poero). Striking Huesca′s stern, Teruel proceeded to Cádiz for repairs.
After the Spanish Civil War ended in victory for the Nationalists in 1939, Teruel was incorporated into the post-civil war Spanish Navy. She had proven mechanically unreliable during the conflict, and the Spanish Navy made no attempt to upgrade her capabilities after the civil war. Relegated to use as an auxiliary and training ship, she was stricken from the naval register on 17 August 1948. She subsequently was scrapped.
References
Citations
- ^ I motti delle navi Italiane, Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare, Rome, 1998, p. 43 (in Italian).
- ^ a b c d e f "Italian Cesare Rossarol – Warships 1900–1950". Ladislav Kosour. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "R.N. Cesare Rossarol". Gravitazero.org. Archived from the original on 3 February 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Spanish Teruel (Nationalist Navy) – Warships 1900–1950". Archived from the original on 12 April 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
- ^ a b c Marina Militare (in Italian).
- ^ "Cesare Rossarol". Kranicadive. Archived from the original on 20 June 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
- ^ "The destroyer Rossarol provides for some great wreck diving as there are several places where you can enter it". Greatest Dive Sites. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
- ^ a b c "Cesare Rossarol RM (1918), List of Casualties – Italian". Wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Cesare Balzi, "Dalla prora alla poppa del Rossarol," in Mondo Sommerso, Vol. 52, No. 10, October 2010 (in Italian).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Favre, pp. 127, 129, 133, 196–197, 239, 241, 255.
- ^ a b Favre, p. 98.
- ^ "100 YEARS AGO THE SACRIFICE OF NAZARIO SAURO: MEMORY OF THE FIRST VIOLATOR OF PORTS OF THE NAVY". en.difesaonline.it/. Online Defense. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
- ^ a b Giorgio Giorgerini, Attacco dal mare. Storia dei mezzi d'assalto della Marina italiana, pp. 35–38 (in Italian).
- ^ a b Renato Battista La Racine, "In Adriatico subito dopo la vittoria", in Storia Militare, No. 210, March 2011 (in Italian).
- ^ Collezione Online - La Domenica del Corriere Archived 31 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Buques de la Guerra Civil Española (1936–1939) – Destructores (in Spanish).
Bibliography
- Favre, Franco. La Marina nella Grande Guerra. Le operazioni navali, aeree, subacquee e terrestri in Adriatico (in Italian).
- García Flórez, Dionisio (2002). Buques de la Guerra Civil Española. Destructores (in Spanish). ISBN 84-932284-7-8.