Italian battleship "Roma": characteristics, port of registry, combat service. Royal Navy of Italy

Roma is a battleship of the Littorio type, which was part of the Royal Navy of Italy. The vessel was named after the Italian capital and became the third battleship in the series. Despite the successful passage of all the tests, it never had time to prove itself on the battlefield. Today we will review the history of the creation, service and destruction of the battleship "Roma", as well as its technical characteristics.

Summary

Battleship "Roma" is the third vessel of the type Littorio. In this case it differs from the other ships of the series. Lincor was not able to take an active part in the sea confrontations of World War II, but he is considered to be its participant for at least two reasons. Firstly, in the summer of 1943 the ship was attacked by American aircraft. And secondly, when the ship was wanted to surrender to the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition, German aviation destroyed it.

As already mentioned above, the battleship got its name in honor of the Italian capital - the city of Rome. In addition to him, in honor of Rome called two more ships: an armored frigate in 1865 and a battleship in 1907.

Construction and testing

According to the plan of the Naval Ministry of Italy in 1935, the Royal Navy had to fight only two first models of the battleship Littorio. However, in the winter of 1935, the chief of staff of the Italian Navy, Admiral Cavagnari suggested that Benito Mussolini lay two more ships. Mussolini at first refused this idea, but in January 1937 he still gave his consent.

September 18, 1938 at the shipyard Cantieri Ruiniti del Adriatico in the city of Trieste was laid battleship "Roma". June 9, 1940, it was launched, and on June 14, 1942 the ship was completely completed. Compared with the Vittorio Veneto - the previous model of the series, the battleship was improved in technical terms. The vessel received enlarged freeboard dimensions and enhanced armament: instead of 24 Breda machine guns, 32 were installed.

Housing

The Italian battleship received a body of elongated shape: its length (240 m) exceeded the width (32.9 m) by almost seven and a half times. The width was three times higher than 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 waterproof partitions. The hull had a pair of continuous decks: the upper and lower decks, as well as the half-tank deck and three platforms occupying only a part of the length of the ship. A double bottom stretched along the length of the ship. Between the barbets of the 1st and 3rd towers it was supplemented with a third layer. The standard displacement of the vessel was about 40, and the full displacement - about 45 thousand tons. The displacement of different models of the series could fluctuate within 500 tons.

Reservation

The main feature of Littorio class battleships was the underwater protection of the Poulize system. It consisted of two concentric cylinders running along the underwater part between the barbets of the 1st and 3rd artillery towers of the main caliber. According to the calculations of engineers, the resistance to protection underwater explosion was equivalent to 350 kilograms of TNT. In practice, it was not possible to bring protection to such indicators, mainly because of the low strength of the riveted joints. The thickness of the board reservation ranged from 70 to 280 mm. The individual elements of the vessel had the following booking thickness:

1. The main deck is 90-162 mm.
2. The upper deck is 45 mm.
3. The towers of the main caliber are 200-350 mm.
4. Cutting - 280-350 mm.

Power plant

Class Littorio ships were equipped with eight boilers and four turbines, the total capacity of which was more than 128 thousand horsepower. It was enough for the 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 5000 miles.

Thus, from the point of view of driving qualities, the Littorio type battleships were among the best at the time in their class. On the speed of the ships could compete with American ships such as Iowa and French ships Richelieu. However, in terms of the range of navigation Italian battleships were several times inferior to these competitors. Because of the small capacity of the fuel system, the battleship Roma could not prove itself to the full.

Crew

The crew of the battleship consisted of 92 officers, 122 non-commissioned officers, 134 foremen and 1506 sailors. If he performed the function of the flagship vessel, the crew was supplemented by officers (from 11 to 38 people), as well as foremen and sailors (from 20 to 30 people).

Armament

The linear ship "Roma" armed with such weapons:

1. 65 Breda Mod (20 mm).
2. 54 Breda Mod (37 mm).
3. 50 Mod (90 mm).
4. 55 Mod (152 mm).
5. 50 Ansaldo Mod (381 mm).

The caliber is indicated in parentheses after the name.

Service

Benito Mussolini ordered not to conduct any naval rearmament until 1933. In 1933, old battleships of the Conte di Cavour type went to modernize, and the following year two new vessels were commissioned, named Vittorio Veneto and Littorio. In May of the following year, the Maritime Ministry began preparing 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 a proposal to build two more battleships of the Littorio type in the framework of the program, in order to strengthen their chances in opposing the possible attack of the Franco-British alliance. It was about the ships of Roma and Impero. Benito Mussolini did not take sudden decisions about the prospect of building battleships, but at the beginning of 1937 he still approved the proposal of Kavanjari. By the end of the same year, the projects of the vessels had been approved, and the means for their construction had been transferred to the responsible persons.

August 21, 1942 battleship "Roma" arrived in the port of Toronto and joined the composition of 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 him. The reason was that Italy's naval forces were catastrophically economizing on fuel. On November 12, 1942, such vessels 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.

The attack of Americans

On December 4, when America launched a full-scale raid on Naples in the hope of exterminating the Italian Navy, one cruiser was completely destroyed and two seriously damaged. Two days later, the ships of Roma, Littorio and Vittorio Veneto again went in search of quieter 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 military operations. But on April 14, the lull was broken, and the ship "Roma" was first hit by 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.

On June 5, 1943, the battleship still did not resist the air pressure of the Allies. On him, from the B-17 bomber were dropped two armor-piercing projectiles, weighing 908 kilograms each. One of the bombs broke through the deck of the half-tank and the side of the 222nd frame. Fell into the water, it exploded near starboard, damaging 32 m ^{2 of} its underwater part. Water penetrated into the area from the 221st to 226th frame. The second projectile exploded in the water from the side of the port side, near the 200th frame and damaged 30 m ^{2 of the} underwater part of the side. Water flooded the area from the 198th to the 207th frame. As a result, the ship got 2350 tons of seawater. It did not sink only due to the fact that the bombs were not explosive, but armor-piercing.

On the night of June 23, the battleship was hit by two more air bombs. The first broke through the cabins and the pipeline, which led to a rapid flooding of adjoining premises. The second projectile hit the frontal slab of the 3rd 381-millimeter tower, which led to minor damage to neighboring structures. Since the bombing sites were well-armored, the battleship did not receive any serious damage. However, the port of registration of the ship had to be changed again, since he needed repairs. 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, allegedly headed for Salerno to attack the Allied airborne forces. Soon the Italians changed course and headed for Malta. German scouts quickly revealed the intentions of their former allies, and soon, when the Italian squadron approached Sardinia Bay, German Dornier Do 217s, armed with heavy Fitz-X radio-controlled planning bombs, were already ready to attack battleships. The Italians did not take any 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 are allied aircraft, which arrived to cover the squadron from the air.

The plans of the Germans were far from being allied, and at 15:37 they began to attack the battleships of Littorio and Roma. Due to the fact that the ships immediately began to maneuver in order to confuse the pilots, they managed to disrupt the first attack. However, 15 minutes later one bomb hit the side of the vessel Littorio, not far from the artillery installation, and another directly into the ship "Roma".

The bomb "Fritz-X" hit the right deck of the half-tank, in the interval between 100 and 108 frames. She broke through the compartments of underwater protection and exploded in the water, right under the hull of the ship. Explosion led to serious destruction of the underwater part of the ship, and he quickly began to fill with seawater. In a few minutes, the stern engine room, the third power station, and the seventh and eighth boiler compartments were flooded. Due to the damage to the electrical cables in the stern, closures began to occur, followed by the ignition of electrical equipment.

At 16:02, the Royal Navy of Italy finally lost the battleship Roma: the second bomb hit the right half tank in the interval between 123 and 126 frames, broke through the decks and exploded right in the nose engine room. A violent fire began, which caused the detonation of the artillery bowls. The flame burst from the barbette of the second 381-mm tower upwards, for several tens of meters, and the tower itself fell and fell overboard. After a series of massive explosions, the hull of the ship broke off near the bow superstructure. Rushing to starboard, it capsized and sank.

Of the 1,499 seamen on that day aboard the Roma, only 596 survived. According to some reports, several officers were on the ship with their families. The Littorio ship was more fortunate - at least it did not drown. When the attack began, the Italians immediately asked Malta for air cover, which was denied: Allied aviation was engaged in aerial cover of the sea assault in Salermo.

After the death of the battleship Roma, Admiral Da Zara took charge of the squadron command. In spite of everything, he was determined to break through to Malta. Eventually, picking up the surviving sailors from the ship Roma, cruiser Attilio Regolo, 3 destroyers and escort ship went to Port Mahón.

Service Summary

Battleship had serious prospects, but managed to serve in the Italian Navy for only 15 months. During this time he made two dozen exits at sea, but he did not participate in any military operation. In total, the vessel passed 2,492 miles. In the sea it spent 133 running hours. During this time, 3320 tons of fuel were consumed. 63 days the ship was under repair.

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, on the place where Roma sank, a memorial ceremony was organized on the Italian frigate.

Conclusion

The Italian battleship Roma had great prospects and could become an outstanding vessel, but, unfortunately, his story ended, practically not having begun. Perhaps the fate of the ship was sealed yet at a time when Benito Mussolini refused it. However, history knows a lot of cases when the outstanding results were shown by the same technique that they did not want to adopt for a long time.