Roma is a battleship (battleship) of the Littorio class, which was part of the Royal Italian Navy. The ship was named after the Italian capital and became the third battleship in the series. Despite the successful passage of all the tests, it did not have time to prove itself on the battlefield. Today we will look at the history of the creation, service and death of the battleship Roma, as well as its technical characteristics.
CV
The Roma battleship is the third Littorio-class ship. However, it differs from other ships in the series. The battleship did not have a chance to take an active part in the naval confrontations of the Second World War, but it is considered a participant in it for at least two reasons. First, in the summer of 1943, the ship came under attack by American aircraft. And secondly, when they wanted to hand over the ship to the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition, German aircraft destroyed it.
As mentioned above, the battleship got its name in honor of the Italian capital - the city of Rome. In addition to him, two more ships were named after Rome: an armored frigate in 1865 and a squadron battleship in 1907.
Build and test
According to the plan of the Italian Naval Ministry for 1935, only the first two models of the Littorio-class battleship were to be part of the Royal Navy. However, already in the winter of 1935, the Chief of Staff of the Italian Navy, Admiral Cavagnari, invited Benito Mussolini to lay down two more ships. Mussolini initially rejected this idea, but in January 1937 he nevertheless gave his consent.
September 18, 1938 at the Cantieri Ruiniti del Adriatico shipyard in Trieste, the battleship Roma was laid down. On June 9, 1940, she was launched, and on June 14, 1942, the ship was completely completed. Compared to the Vittorio Veneto, the predecessor of the series, the battleship has been technically improved. The ship received increased freeboard dimensions and enhanced armament: instead of 24 Breda machine guns, 32 were installed.
Case
The Italian battleship received an elongated hull: its length (240 m) exceeded its width (32.9 m) by almost seven and a half times. At the same time, the width was three times the draft (9.7 m), and the block coefficient was 0.57. The hull was divided into 23 watertight compartments by means of 22 main transverse watertight partitions. The hull had a pair of continuous decks: upper and lower, as well as a forecastle deck and three platforms, occupying only part of the length of the vessel. A double bottom stretched along the entire length of the ship. Between the barbettes of the 1st and 3rd towers, it was supplemented with a third layer. The standard displacement of the vessel was about 40, and the total displacement was about 45thousand tons. The displacement of different models of the series could fluctuate within 500 tons.
Booking
The main feature of the Littorio-class battleships was the underwater protection of the Pugliese system. It consisted of two concentric cylinders passing along the underwater part between the barbettes of the 1st and 3rd artillery towers of the main caliber. According to the calculations of engineers, the resistance of protection to an underwater explosion was equivalent to 350 kilograms of TNT. In practice, it was not possible to bring protection to such indicators, mainly due to the low strength of riveted joints. The thickness of the side armor ranged from 70 to 280 mm. Individual elements of the vessel had the following armor thickness:
- Main deck - 90-162mm.
- Upper deck - 45 mm.
- Main caliber turrets - 200-350 mm.
- Cutting - 280-350 mm.
Power Plant
Ships of the Littorio class were equipped with eight boilers and four turbines, the total capacity of which was more than 128,000 horsepower. This was enough for four propellers to accelerate the ship to a speed of 30 knots. The range of the ship at an average speed of 14 knots was almost 5,000 miles.
Thus, in terms of driving performance, the battleships of the Littorio type were among the best of their time in their class. In terms of speed, the ships could compete with the American ships of the Iowa type and the French ships of the Richelieu. However, in terms of cruising range, Italian battleships were several times inferior to these competitors. Due to smallthe fuel system capacity of the battleship "Roma" could not prove itself to the fullest.
Crew
The crew of the battleship consisted of 92 officers, 122 non-commissioned officers, 134 foremen and 1506 sailors. If it served as a flagship, then the crew was supplemented by officers (from 11 to 38 people), as well as foremen and sailors (from 20 to 30 people).
Armaments
The Roma battleship was armed with the following weapons:
- 65 Breda Mod (20mm).
- 54 Breda Mod (37mm).
- 50 Mod (90mm).
- 55 Mod (152mm).
- 50 Ansaldo Mod (381mm).
The caliber is indicated in brackets after the name.
Service
Benito Mussolini ordered no naval rearmament until 1933. In 1933, the old battleships of the Conte di Cavour class went for modernization, and the following year two new ships were laid down, named Vittorio Veneto and Littorio. In May of the following year, the Naval Ministry began to prepare a five-year program of naval construction, which included the construction of 4 battleships, 4 cruisers, 3 aircraft carriers and 54 submarines.
At the end of 1935, Mussolini received from Admiral Domenico Cavagnari an offer to build two more Littorio-class battleships under this program in order to increase his chances of resisting a possible attack by the Franco-British Alliance. It was about the ships Roma and Impero. Benito Mussolini did not make sudden decisions about the prospect of building battleships, but in early 1937nevertheless approved Cavagnari's proposal. By the end of the same year, the projects of the ships were approved, and the funds for their construction were transferred to responsible persons.
On August 21, 1942, the battleship Roma arrived at the port of Toronto and joined the ninth division. Despite the fact that the battleship participated in the exercises and managed to visit various military bases, there were no combat missions for it. The reason was that the Italian naval forces were catastrophically saving fuel. On November 12, 1942, ships such as Roma, Littorio and Vittorio Veneto were moved from Toronto to Naples in response to the Allied invasion of North Africa. On the way, the ships were attacked by the British submarine HMS Umbra, which, however, did not cause them any harm.
American attack
December 4, when America launched a full-scale raid on Naples in the hope of destroying the Italian Navy, one cruiser was completely destroyed and two were seriously damaged. Two days later, the ships Roma, Littorio and Vittorio Veneto again set off in search of more peaceful places. This time the port of La Spezia (Italy) became such a place. In it, the ships received the status of flagships of the Royal Navy. Until April 1943, the port of La Spezia (Italy) avoided hostilities. But on April 14, the calm was broken, and the ship "Roma" for the first time came under a powerful air attack by the Americans. On April 19, the air raid was repeated. The vessel survived and did not receive any serious damage.
June 5, 1943, the battleship still could not resist the aviationthe pressure of the allies. On him, from the B-17 bomber, two armor-piercing shells were dropped, weighing 908 kilograms each. One of the bombs pierced the forecastle deck and side near the 222nd frame. Falling into the water, it exploded near the starboard side, damaging 32 m 2 of its underwater part. Water penetrated into the area from the 221st to the 226th frames. The second shell exploded in the water from the port side, near the 200th frame and damaged 30 m2 of the underwater part of the side. Water flooded the area from the 198th to the 207th frames. As a result, 2350 tons of sea water got into the ship. It did not sink only due to the fact that the bombs were not high-explosive, but armor-piercing.
On the night of June 23, the battleship was hit by two more aerial bombs. The first pierced the cabins and the pipeline, which led to the rapid flooding of the adjacent premises. The second shell hit the frontal plate of the 3rd 381 mm turret, causing minor damage to adjacent structures. Since the bomb sites were well armored, the battleship did not receive serious damage. However, the ship's home port had to be changed once again, as it needed to be repaired. On June 1, the ship arrived in Genoa, and on August 13 it returned to La Spezia.
The death of the battleship
September 9, 1943, under the flag of Admiral Bergamini, the battleship "Roma" went to sea at the head of the Italian squadron, supposedly heading for Salerno to attack the Allied landing forces. Soon the Italians changed course and headed for M alta. German intelligence quickly revealed the intentions of their formerallies, and soon, when the Italian squadron approached the Gulf of Sardinia, the German aircraft Dornier Do 217, which were armed with Fritz-X heavy radio-controlled planning bombs, were already ready to attack the battleships. The Italians did not take active action for two reasons. Firstly, the planes were high enough, and it was impossible to determine their identification marks. And, secondly, Bergamini believed that these were Allied aircraft that arrived to cover the squadron from the air.
The Germans' plans were far from allied, and at 15:37 they began to attack the battleships Littorio and Roma. Due to the fact that the ships immediately began to maneuver to confuse the pilots, they managed to thwart the first attack. However, 15 minutes later, one bomb hit the side of the Littorio, not far from the artillery mount, and the other hit the Roma ship.
The Fritz-X bomb hit the right deck of the forecastle, between 100 and 108 frames. She broke through the underwater protection compartments and exploded already in the water, right under the ship's hull. The explosion led to serious destruction of the underwater part of the ship, and it quickly began to fill with outboard water. In a matter of minutes, the aft engine room, the third power plant, as well as the seventh and eighth boiler rooms were flooded. Due to damage to the electric cables in the stern, short circuits began to occur, and after them, the ignition of electrical equipment.
At 16:02, the Italian Royal Navy finally lost the battleship Roma: the secondthe bomb hit the starboard forecastle between frames 123 and 126, broke through the decks and exploded right in the forward engine room. A strong fire began, which caused the detonation of the bow artillery cellars. The flame escaped from the barbette of the second 381-millimeter tower upwards, several tens of meters, and the tower itself fell off and fell overboard. After a series of massive explosions, the ship's hull broke near the bow superstructure. Listing to starboard, it capsized and sank.
Out of 1849 sailors on board the Roma that day, only 596 survived. According to some reports, several officers were on the ship with their families. The ship Littorio was more fortunate - at least it did not sink. When the attack of the ships began, the Italians immediately asked M alta for air cover, which was refused: Allied aviation was engaged in air cover for the amphibious assault in Salermo.
After the death of the battleship Roma, Admiral Da Zara took command of the squadron. He was determined to break through to M alta no matter what. In the end, having picked up the surviving sailors from the Roma, the cruiser Attilio Regolo, 3 destroyers and an escort ship set off for Port Mahon.
Service results
The battleship had serious prospects, but managed to serve in the Italian Navy for only 15 months. During this time, he made two dozen exits to the sea, but never took part in a single combat operation. In total, the ship covered 2492 miles. At sea, it spent 133 running hours. During this time, 3320 tons of fuel were consumed. The ship was under repair for 63 days.
In June 2012, the underwater robot Pluto Palla found a sunken ship. It is located at a depth of about 1000 meters, about 30 kilometers from the northern coast of Sardinia. On September 10, 2012, a memorial ceremony was organized on the Italian frigate at the site where Roma sank.
Conclusion
Italian battleship (battleship) "Roma", had great prospects and could become an outstanding vessel, but, unfortunately, its story ended, almost without beginning. Perhaps the fate of the ship was sealed even at the moment when Benito Mussolini abandoned it. However, history knows many cases when outstanding results were shown by precisely the equipment that they did not want to adopt for a long time.
