Italian destroyer Giuseppe Missori

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History
Kingdom of Italy
NameGiuseppe Missori
NamesakeGiuseppe Missori (1829–1911), Italian soldier
BuilderCantieri navali Odero, Sestri Ponente, Kingdom of Italy
Laid down19 January 1914
Launched20 December 1915
Completed7 March 1916
Commissioned7 March 1916
ReclassifiedTorpedo boat 1 October 1929
IdentificationPennant number MS (1922–1943)
FateCaptured by Nazi Germany 10 September 1943
Nazi Germany
NameTA22
Acquired10 September 1943
Fate
  • Laid up 11 August 1944
  • Scuttled 3 May 1945
  • Refloated 1949
  • Scrapped
General characteristics
Class and typeRosolino Pilo-class destroyer
Displacement
  • 912 tons (max)
  • 770 tons (standard)
Length73 m (240 ft)
Beam7.3 m (24 ft)
Draught2.3 m (7 ft 7 in)
Installed power16,000 brake horsepower (11,931 kW)
Propulsion
Speed30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Range1,200 nmi (2,200 km; 1,400 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement69-79
Armament

Giuseppe Missori was an Italian

Adriatic campaign
until she was seriously damaged in 1944. She sank in May 1945.

Construction and commissioning

Giuseppe Missori was

laid down at the Cantieri navali Odero (English: Odero Shipyard) in Sestri Ponente, Italy, on 19 January 1914. She was launched on 20 December 1915 and completed and commissioned on 7 March 1916.[1]

Service history

World War I

1916

torpedo boats and steered to attack them.[2] While the Austro-Hungarian ships headed toward the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Pola with the Italians in pursuit, three Austro-Hungarian seaplanes attacked the Italian ships. The Italians repelled the attack, but at 15:50, after an Austro-Hungarian cruiser and two additional Austro-Hungarian torpedo boats departed Pola to support the Austro-Hungarian ships, the Italian force gave up the chase and withdrew.[2] Meanwhile, Fuciliere and Zeffiro succeeded in laying the minefield during the night of 3–4 May 1916.[3]

On 12 June 1916, escorted by Cesare Rossarol and Guglielmo Pepe as far as the Austro-Hungarian defensive

Fasana Channel on the southwest coast of Istria.[2]

1917–1918

An Austro-Hungarian Navy force consisting of the scout cruiser Helgoland and the destroyers Balaton, Csepel, Lika, Orjen, Tátra, and Triglav left the Austro-Hungarian naval base at 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. Giuseppe Missori got underway from Brindisi with the scout cruisers Aquila and Sparviero, the destroyers Antonio Mosto and Indomito, the British light cruisers HMS Gloucester and HMS Newcastle, and the French destroyers Bisson, Commandant Bory, and Commandant Rivière to join other Italian ships in pursuit of the Austro-Hungarians, but 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.[2]

On the night of 1–2 July 1918 Giuseppe Missori and the destroyers Audace, Francesco Stocco, Giovanni Acerbi, Giuseppe La Masa, Giuseppe Sirtori, and Vincenzo Giordano Orsini provided distant support to a formation consisting of the torpedo boats Climene and Procione and the coastal torpedo boats 15 OS, 18 OS, 48 OS, 3 PN, 40 PN, 64 PN, 65 PN, and 66 PN. While 15 OS, 18 OS, and 3 PN, towing dummy landing pontoons, staged a simulated amphibious landing to distract Austro-Hungarian troops, 48 OS, 40 PN, 64 PN, 65 PN, and 66 PN bombarded the Austro-Hungarian lines on the Italian front, with Climeme and Procione in direct support. During the operation, the Italian destroyers clashed with an Austro-Hungarian force composed of the destroyers Balaton and Csikos and two torpedo boats. After a brief exchange of gunfire in which the Austro-Hungarian ships, particularly Balaton, suffered damage, the Austro-Hungarian ships withdrew toward Pola and the Italians conitnued with their bombardment operation.[2]

By late October 1918, Austria-Hungary had effectively disintegrated, and the

Cortellazzo. The Italian ships then proceeded to Trieste, which they reached at 16:10. There they disembarked 200 members of the Carabinieri and General Carlo Petitti di Roreto, who proclaimed Italy's annexation of the city to a cheering crowd.[2][5] On 5 November 1918, Giuseppe Missori, Giuseppe La Masa, the battleship Ammiraglio di Saint Bon, and the destroyers Giuseppe Cesare Abba and Rosolino Pilo entered the port at Pola, the site of an important Austro-Hungarian Navy base, after which units embarked on the ships occupied the city over the following days.[5] World War I ended with an armistice between the Allies and the German Empire
on 11 November 1918.

Interwar period

After World War I, Giuseppe Missori′s armament was revised, giving her five 102-millimetre (4 in)/35-caliber guns, two 40-millimetre (1.6 in)/35-caliber guns, and four 450-millimetre (17.7 in) torpedo tubes,[6] and, according to some sources, two 65-millimetre (2.6 in) machine guns.[7] Her full-load displacement rose to 900 tonnes (886 long tons).[6]

On the morning of 6 August 1928 Giuseppe Missori and Giuseppe Cesare Abba, serving as

bow in the collision and entered dry dock for repair.[11]

Giuseppe Missori was reclassified as a torpedo boat on 1 October 1929.[6]

From 1936 to 1938, Giuseppe Missori took part in the Italian intervention on behalf of the Spanish Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, patrolling the Strait of Sicily to prevent the smuggling of supplies to Spanish Republican forces.[10]

World War II

Italian service

World War II broke out in September 1939 with Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland. Italy joined the war on the side of the Axis powers with its invasion of France on 10 June 1940. At the time, Giuseppe Missori was part of the 6th Torpedo Boat Squadron, along with Giovanni Aceri, Giuseppe Sirtori, and Rosolino Pilo. During the war, she mainly served as an escort, operating on convoy routes in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Libya, in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, in the waters of Sicily, and in the Adriatic Sea.[10] On 27–28 June 1940 Giuseppe Missori and Rosolino Pilo transported supplies and 52 soldiers from Taranto, Italy, to Tripoli, Libya.[12]

From 8 to 10 February 1941 Giuseppe Missori, the destroyer

auxiliary cruiser Deffenu departed Tripoli to escort the steamers Bainsizza, Motia, Sabaudia, and Utilitas to Palermo and Naples. After two unsuccessful attacks by the British submarine HMS Truant, the first at 33°36′N 012°53′E / 33.600°N 12.883°E / 33.600; 12.883 and the second at 33°46′N 012°57′E / 33.767°N 12.950°E / 33.767; 12.950, the convoy returned to Tripoli. It got back underway at 23:30 on 11 February arrived in Italy without further incident.[13]

On 10 April 1941 Giuseppe Missori got underway from Palermo with the torpedo boats

Tunisia. On 12 April, however, the British submarine HMS Tetrarch torpedoed and sank Persiano at 33°29′N 014°01′E / 33.483°N 14.017°E / 33.483; 14.017 (Persiano).[14]

In the aftermath of the destruction of an Italian convoy by British destroyers on 16 April 1941 in the Battle of the Tarigo Convoy, Giuseppe Missori took part in operations to rescue the convoy's survivors.[15]

On 3 June 1941 the "Aquitania" convoy, composed of the merchant ships Aquitania, Beatrice Costa, Caffaro, Montello, and Nirvo and the tanker Pozarica, departed from Naples for a voyage to Tripoli escorted by Giuseppe Missori and the destroyers Aviere, Camicia Nera, Dardo, and Geniere. On 4 June, while the ships were about 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi) from the Kerkennah Islands, they came under attack by British planes which hit Montello and Beatrice Costa. Montello exploded and sank with no survivors, while Beatrice Costa suffered such serious damage that her crew abandoned ship and Camicia Nera sank her.[16][17]

On 8 September 1943, the Kingdom of Italy announced an armistice with the Allies and switched sides in the war, prompting Nazi Germany to begin Operation Achse, the disarmament by force of the Italian armed forces and the occupation of those portions of Italy not yet under Allied control. At the time, Giuseppe Missori was at Durrës (known to the Italians as Durazzo) on the coast of the Italian Protectorate of Albania. She, Rosolino Pilo, and the steamer Marco bombarded German positions, but German forces captured her on 10 September 1943.[10][18]

German service

Nazi Germany incorporated the ship into the Kriegsmarine with the name TA22.[19] Her first operation in German service — with her Italian crew still aboard to operate her, supervised by German personnel — was to escort a convoy of other Italian ships captured at Durrës — Rosolino Pilo, the auxiliary cruiser Arborea, and the steamers Argentina and Italia — on a voyage to Trieste. The convoy departed Durrës on 25 September 1943. During the voyage, the Italian crew of Rosolino Pilo overwhelmed the German guards aboard their ship on 26 September, took back control of her, and steamed her to Allied-controlled Brindisi. TA22 and the rest of the convoy arrived at Trieste later on 26 September.[10][18]

TA22′s Italian crew sabotaged her on 6 October 1943, bu the Germans repaired her and returned her to service.[10] On 25 June 1944, however, she suffered serious damage in an attack by British aircraft while operating southeast of Trieste. Towed to the Julian March,[19][20] she was deemed beyond worthwhile repair, laid up on 11 August 1944,[19] and stripped of useful weapons and equipment.[21]

On 3 May 1945, TA 22 was scuttled at Muggia.[10][19][1][22] Her wreck was refloated in 1949 and subsequently scrapped.[19]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Fraccaroli 1970, p. 72.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Favre, pp. 127, 129, 133, 197, 250, 266, 284.
  3. ^ a b Favre, pp. 98.
  4. ^ Favre, pp. 96, 127, 129, 132.
  5. ^ a b La Racine, R. B. (March 2011). "In Adriatico subito dopo la vittoria". Storia Militare (in Italian). No. 210.
  6. ^ a b c Marina Militare (in Italian).
  7. ^ Da Navypedia.
  8. ^ a b c d e f "Regio Sommergibile F 14. Agonia e morte di un sommergibile" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Giorgio Giorgerini, Uomini sul fondo. Storia del sommergibilismo italiano dalle origini a oggi, pp. 109–111 (in Italian).
  10. ^ a b c d e f g "Torpediniera Giuseppe Missori" (in Italian).
  11. ^ La tragedia del sommergibile F.14 (in Italian).
  12. ^ Fall of France, June 1940
  13. ^ a b Force H, February 1941
  14. ^ German raiders and British armed merchant cruisers, April 1941
  15. ^ Battle for Greece, Action off Sfax, April 1941
  16. ^ Inshore Squadron, Tobruk, June 1941
  17. ^ Giorgio Giorgerini, La guerra italiana sul mare. La Marina tra vittoria e sconfitta 1940–1943, pp. 469-470 (in Italian).
  18. ^ a b "Secondo Risorgimento" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 29 March 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  19. ^ a b c d e Italian Giuseppe Missori (MS), German TA 22 - Warships 1900-1950 Archived 6 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ forum A Trieste ... :: View topic - Il sommergibile ed il bunker di Sistiana (in Italian).
  21. ^ "Title not stated" (in Italian). March 2018. bot=InternetArchiveBot,
  22. ^ Fraccaroli 1985, p. 269.

Bibliography

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