Italian cruiser Zara
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Italy | |
| Name | Zara |
| Builder | Odero Terni Orlando, Muggiano |
| Laid down | 4 July 1929 |
| Launched | 27 April 1930 |
| Commissioned | 20 October 1931 |
| Fate | Sunk, 29 March 1941 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Zara-class cruiser |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 182.8 m (599 ft 9 in) |
| Beam | 20.6 m (67 ft 7 in) |
| Draught | 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in) |
| Installed power | 95,000 shp (71,000 kW) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph) |
| Range | 5,361 nmi (9,929 km; 6,169 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Complement | 841 |
| Armament |
|
| Armor | |
| Aircraft carried | 2 |
Zara was a
Zara saw extensive service during the first two years of Italy's participation in World War II, having taken part in several sorties to catch British convoys in the Mediterranean as the flagship of the 1st Division. She was present during the Battle of Calabria in July 1940, the Battle of Taranto in November 1940, and the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941. In the last engagement, Zara and her sister ships Fiume and Pola were sunk in a close-range night engagement with three British battleships. Most of her crew, 783 officers and sailors, including the divisional commander Admiral Carlo Cattaneo and the ship's commanding officer Luigi Corsi, were killed in the sinking.
Design
Zara was 182.8 meters (600 ft)
She was protected with an armor belt that was 150 mm (5.9 in) thick amidships. Her main deck was 70 mm (2.8 in) thick and there was a secondary deck 20 mm (0.79 in) thick over the main one. The gun turrets had 150 mm thick plating on the faces and the barbettes they sat in were also 150 mm thick. The main conning tower had 150 mm thick sides.[1]
Zara was armed with a
Zara's
Service history
Zara's
In August 1932, Zara took part in fleet training exercises in the
On 7 March 1939, Zara and her sister ships sortied from Taranto to intercept a squadron of Republican warships—three cruisers and eight destroyers—attempting to reach the Black Sea. The Italian ships were ordered not to open fire but merely to try to impede the progress of the Spanish ships and force them to dock at Augusta, Sicily. The Spanish commander refused and instead steamed to Bizerte in French Tunisia, where his ships were interned. A month later, from 7 to 9 April, Zara supported the Italian invasion of Albania without incident. She was in port in Genoa for Navy Day on 10 June; she spent the rest of 1939 uneventfully.[6]
World War II
At Italy's entrance into the Second World War on 10 June 1940, Zara was assigned to the 1st Division of the 1st Squadron, as the flagship of
Zara returned to Taranto, and was present during the Battle of Taranto on the night of 11–12 November. She was undamaged during the British attack. In the aftermath of the attack, the Italian command decided to disperse the fleet to protect them from further attacks; Zara was sent to La Spezia for periodic maintenance on the 12th. The work lasted until 9 December, and she steamed south to Naples the following day. British bombing of the port four days later forced the Italians to again relocate the cruisers, sending them first to La Maddalena in Sardinia on 15 December and then back to Naples on the 19th. They stayed there for three days before proceeding to Taranto on 22 December.[6] That month, Admiral Carlo Cattaneo came aboard Zara as the new commander of the division.[8] Training exercises with Gorizia followed on 29 January and continued into the next month, when Pola joined them on 13 February. In mid March, Zara, Pola, and Fiume conducted gunnery training in the Gulf of Taranto. By this time, Pola had replaced Gorizia in the 1st Division.[6]
Battle of Cape Matapan
The Italian fleet made another attempt to intercept a British convoy in the eastern Mediterranean south of
Admiral Iachino, the fleet commander, was unaware of Pola's plight until 20:10; upon learning of the situation he detached Zara, Fiume, and four destroyers to protect Pola. At around the same time, the British cruiser HMS Orion detected Pola on her radar and reported her location.[12] The British fleet, centered on the battleships Valiant, Warspite, and Barham, was at this point only 50 nmi (93 km; 58 mi) away.[13] The British ships, guided by radar, closed in on the Italians; at 22:10, Pola was about 6 nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi) from Valiant. Lookouts on the crippled Italian cruiser spotted shapes approaching and assumed them to be friendly vessels, so they fired a red flare to guide them. Almost twenty minutes later, the British illuminated first Zara and then Fiume with their searchlights; the British battleships obliterated Zara, Fiume, and two destroyers in a point-blank engagement.[14] Zara had been hit by four broadsides from Warspite and five more from Valiant in the span of just a few minutes. The destroyer HMAS Stuart launched torpedoes at the crippled Zara and scored at least one hit. The destroyer Havock launched four more torpedoes with unknown results.[15]
The British battleships then turned away to avoid a torpedo attack from the remaining destroyers. Zara, by now burning furiously, remained afloat and drifted near the immobilized Pola. Zara's commander decided at 02:00 that his ship could not be saved, and so ordered the crew to
Footnotes
Notes
Citations
- ^ a b c d Gardiner & Chesneau, p. 292
- ^ Brescia, p. 76
- ^ Whitley, p. 149
- ^ a b Whitley, p. 150
- ^ Whitley 1999, pp. 129–130.
- ^ a b c d e f Hogg & Wiper, p. 18
- ^ Brescia, p. 42
- ^ a b Brescia, p. 227
- ^ Bennett, pp. 121–124
- ^ a b O'Hara, p. 91
- ^ Stephen, p. 61
- ^ O'Hara, p. 92
- ^ Smith, p. 138
- ^ O'Hara, pp. 93–94
- ^ Bennett, p. 129
- ^ a b c Hogg & Wiper, p. 19
- ^ Bennett, p. 131
- ^ O'Hara, p. 97
References
- Bennett, Geoffrey (2003). Naval Battles of World War II. Barnsley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 0-85052-989-1.
- Brescia, Maurizio (2012). Mussolini's Navy: A Reference Guide to the Regia Marina 1930–1945. Barnsley: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84832-115-1.
- Hogg, Gordon E. & Wiper, Steve (2004). Warship Pictorial 23: Italian Heavy Cruisers of World War II. Flowers, T. A. (illustrator). Tucson: Classic Warships Publishing. ISBN 0-9710687-9-8.
- Gardiner, Robert & Chesneau, Roger, eds. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-913-8.
- O'Hara, Vincent P. (2009). Struggle for the Middle Sea: The Great Navies at War in the Mediterranean Theater, 1940–1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-648-3.
- Smith, Peter Charles (2008). The Great Ships: British Battleships in World War II. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3514-8.
- Stephen, Martin (1988). Grove, Eric (ed.). Sea Battles in Close-up: World War 2, Volume 1. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-556-6.
- Whitley, M. J. (1999). Cruisers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. London: Brockhampton Press. ISBN 1-86019-874-0.
Further reading
- Brescia, Maurizio; de Toro, Augusto (2022). Italian Heavy Cruisers: From Trento to Bolzano. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-68247-871-4.
- Fraccaroli, Aldo (1972). Warship Profile 17: RN Zara/Heavy Cruiser 1929–41. Windsor, UK: Profile Publications.
- ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
35°20′N 20°57′E / 35.333°N 20.950°E
External links
- Zara (1930) Marina Militare website
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in March 1941 | |
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