Italian destroyer Bersagliere (1906)
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| History | |
|---|---|
 Italy | |
| Name | Bersagliere |
| Namesake | A member of the Bersaglieri, Italian infantrymen trained as sharpshooters |
| Builder | Gio. Ansaldo & C., Genoa, Kingdom of Italy |
| Laid down | 13 July 1905 |
| Launched | 2 October 1906 |
| Completed | 13 April 1907 |
| Commissioned | 5 June 1907 |
| Stricken | 5 July 1923 |
| Identification | Pennant number BG |
| Fate | Scrapped |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Displacement | 395–424 long tons (401–431 t) |
| Length | |
| Beam | 6.1 m (20 ft 0 in) |
| Draught | 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) |
| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 28.5 knots (52.8 km/h; 32.8 mph) |
| Complement | 55 |
| Armament |
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Bersagliere (a member of the Bersaglieri) was the lead ship of the Soldato-class ("Soldier"-class) destroyers of the Italian Regia Marina ("Royal Navy"). Commissioned in 1907, she served in the Italo-Turkish War and World War I. She was stricken in 1923.
Design
Bersagliere was powered by two sets of
Construction and commissioning
Bersagliere was
Service history
1907–1911
During the summer of 1907, Bersaglieri engaged in crew training.[4] A devastating earthquake in the Strait of Messina and subsequent tsunami struck Messina, Sicily, and Reggio Calabria on the Italian mainland on 28 December 1908. On 30 December 1908 Bersagliere, her sister ship Artigliere, and the battleship Vittorio Emanuele arrived at Messina to assist in rescue operations.[5][6]
Italo-Turkish War
The
World War I
1915
On 29 May 1915 Artigliere, Bersagliere, Garibaldino, and Lanciere bombarded the Adria Werke chemical plant in Monfalcone, a production site for poison gases, while Corazziere and their sister ships Alpino and Pontiere provided support.[8] The ships carried out another bombardment of the Adria Werke on 7 June 1915.[8]
On 3 July 1915 Bersagliere was assigned to the 3rd Gruppo (Group) of the 4th Naval Division (or "Cagni" Division).[8] She took part in coastal defense operations and the escort of convoys to the Principality of Albania in 1915–1916.[4] At 01:00 on 6 July 1915 she got underway from Venice with the rest of her squadron and steamed to Porto Buso, then turned in the direction of Savudrija Point (known to the Italians as Punta Salvore) on the northern end of Istria on the coast of Austria-Hungary to conduct an offensive reconnaissance sweep. The sweep yielded no results, and the ships steamed back toward Venice. At 04:30 they were about 30 nautical miles (56 km; 35 mi) east of Chioggia, where they were to rendezvous with the armored cruiser Amalfi and another destroyer squadron led by the destroyer Impavido. Plans called for the combined force to sweep the Gulf of Venice in a search for Austro-Hungarian ships. While heading toward the rendezvous, however, Amalfi was torpedoed by the Austro-Hungarian Navy submarine U-26 and sank in ten minutes.[8]
1916–1918
On 23 February 1916, under the command of Capitano di frgatta (Frigate Captain) Del Buono, Bersagliere joined Corazziere and Garibaldino in escorting 12
In 1917, Bersagliere deployed to the Tyrrhenian Sea, where she operated into 1918.[4] On 8 January 1918 she took over escort duty from Lanciere at Savona, Italy, for the large passenger steamers San Giovanni and San Guglielmo, which had left Genoa that day bound for New York City. The ships were instructed to hug the Italian coast, and were in the Gulf of Genoa only 800 metres (870 yd) off Loano when the Imperial German Navy submarine U-63 attacked the convoy, torpedoing San Guglielmo and sinking her at 44°07′N 008°18′E / 44.117°N 8.300°E.[10][11]
Later in 1918, Bersagliere operated in the Dodecanese. 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. World War I ended a week later with an armistice between the Allies and the German Empire on 11 November 1918.
Post-World War I
After World War I, Bersagliere operated on patrol duty and as a
and subsequently scrapped.Notes
References
Citations
- ^ a b c Fraccaroli 1985, p. 268.
- ^ Fraccaroli 1970, p. 67.
- ^ a b c d e f Gli altri Bersaglieri (in Italian).
- ^ Beaasom forum
- ^ Betasom fourm.
- ^ Beehler 1913, p. 10.
- ^ a b c d e f g Favre, pp. 67, 70, 77, 97–98, 140, 172..
- ^ Favre, pp. 67, 70, 98, 172..
- ^ Centro Sub Tigullio Archived 31 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine (in Italian).
- ^ Passenger steamer San Guglielmo - Ships hit by U-boats - German and Austrian U-boats of World War One - Kaiserliche Marine - uboat.net.
- ^ Fraccaroli 1985, p. 286.
- ^ Marina Militare (in Italian).
Bibliography
- Beehler, W. H. (1913). The History of the Italian-Turkish War, September 29, 1911 to October 18, 1912 (PDF). Annapolis, Maryland: William H. Beehler. (reprinted from Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute with additions)
- Favre, Franco. La Marina nella Grande Guerra. Le operazioni navali, aeree, subacquee e terrestri in Adriatico (in Italian).
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - Fraccaroli, Aldo (1970). Italian Warships of World War I. Ian Allan. p. 67. ISBN 0711001057.
- Fraccaroli, Aldo (1985). "Italy". In Gray, Randal (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 252–290. ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8.
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 Imperial Chinese Navy | |
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