Roma is a battleship of the Littorio type, which was part of the Royal Naval Forces of Italy. The ship was named after the Italian capital and became the third battleship in the series. Despite the successful completion of all tests, it still did not have time to prove itself on the battlefield. Today we look at the history of the creation, service and death of the battleship "Roma", as well as its technical characteristics.
Summary
The battleship Roma is the third ship of the Littorio type. Moreover, it differs from the rest of the ships of the series. Battleship was not able to take an active part in the naval 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 wanted to surrender to the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition, German aviation 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 in honor of Rome: an armored frigate in 1865 and a squadron battleship in 1907.
Construction and testing
According to the plan of the Italian Maritime Ministry for 1935, only the first two battleship models of the Littorio type 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, proposed Benito Mussolini to lay two more vessels. Mussolini at first rejected this idea, but in January 1937 he nevertheless gave his consent.
September 18, 1938 at the shipyard Cantieri Ruiniti del Adriatico in the city of Trieste, the battleship Roma was founded. On June 9, 1940 he was launched, and on June 14, 1942 the ship was completely completed. Compared with the Vittorio Veneto - the previous model in the series, the battleship has been improved technically. The ship received increased freeboard dimensions and enhanced armament: instead of 24 machine guns of the Breda model, 32 were installed.
Housing
The Italian battleship received an elongated body: its length (240 m) exceeded the width (32.9 m) by almost seven and a half times. The width was three times the draft (9.7 m), and the block coefficient was 0.57. The casing was divided into 23 watertight compartments through 22 main transverse watertight partitions. The hull had a pair of continuous decks: the upper and lower, as well as the deck of the forecastle 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 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 total - about 45 thousand tons. The displacement of different models of the series could fluctuate within 500 tons.
Reservation
The main feature of the Littorio class battleships was the underwater protection of the Puglieze system. It consisted of two concentric cylinders passing 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 underwater explosion protection was equivalent to 350 kilograms of TNT. In practice, it was not possible to bring the protection to such indicators, mainly due to the low strength of riveted joints. The thickness of the board reservation ranged from 70 to 280 mm. The individual elements of the vessel had the following reservation thickness:
- Main deck - 90-162 mm.
- Upper deck - 45 mm.
- Towers of the main caliber - 200-350 mm.
- Cutting - 280-350 mm.
Power plant
Littorio class ships were equipped with eight boilers and four turbines, the total capacity of which was 128-odd thousand horsepower. This was enough for four propellers to propel the ship to a speed of 30 knots. The cruising range of the ship at an average speed of 14 knots was almost 5,000 miles.
Thus, in terms of driving performance, battleships of the Littorio type were among the best in their class at the time. In terms of speed, ships could compete with American ships such as Iowa and French ships Richelieu. However, the Italian battleships were several times inferior to the specified competitors in range. Due to the small capacity of the fuel system, the Roma battleship could not fully express itself.
Crew
The crew of the battleship consisted of 92 officers, 122 non-commissioned officers, 134 foremen and 1,506 sailors. If he served as the flagship, the crew was supplemented by officers (from 11 to 38 people), as well as foremen and sailors (from 20 to 30 people).
Armament
The battleship Roma was armed with the following weapons:
- 65 Breda Mod (20 mm).
- 54 Breda Mod (37 mm).
- 50 Mod (90 mm).
- 55 Mod (152 mm).
- 50 Ansaldo Mod (381 mm).
The caliber is indicated in parentheses after the name.
Service
Benito Mussolini ordered not to carry out any naval rearmament until 1933. In 1933, the old battleships of the Conte di Cavour type went for modernization, and the following year two new ships were laid down, called Vittorio Veneto and Littorio. In May of the following year, the Naval Ministry began to prepare a five-year naval construction program, 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 battleships of the Littorio type as part of this program in order to strengthen 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 at the beginning of 1937 he nevertheless approved the proposal of Cavagnari. By the end of the same year, the draft ships were approved, and the funds for their construction were transferred to the responsible persons.
On August 21, 1942 the battleship Roma arrived at the port of Toronto and replenished 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 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 an 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.
Attack of the americans
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 the flagships of the Royal Navy. Until April 1943, the port of La Spezia (Italy) avoided military operations. But on April 14th the lull was broken, and the Roma ship was first hit by a powerful air attack by the Americans. April 19, the air raid repeated. The vessel survived and did not receive any serious damage.
June 5, 1943 the battleship still could not resist the air pressure of the Allies. Two armor-piercing shells, weighing 908 kilograms each, were dropped on it from a B-17 bomber. One of the bombs pierced the deck of the forecastle and the side of the about 222nd frame. After falling into the water, it exploded near the starboard side, damaging 32 m 2 of its underwater part. Water penetrated the area from the 221st to the 226th frame. The second shell exploded in the water from the port side, about the 200th frame and damaged 30 m 2 of the underwater side of the side. Water flooded the area from the 198th to the 207th frames. As a result, 2350 tons of sea water fell into the ship. He 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 air bombs. The first broke through 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 tower, which led to minor damage to neighboring structures. Since the places where the bombs were hit were well armored, the battleship received no serious damage. However, the ship’s home port had to be changed again, as it needed to be repaired. On June 1, the ship arrived in Genoa, and on August 13 it returned again to La Spezia.
The death of the battleship
On September 9, 1943, under the flag of Admiral Bergamini, the battleship Roma went to sea at the head of an Italian squadron, supposedly heading for Salerno to attack the allied landing forces. Soon the Italians changed course and headed for Malta. German intelligence quickly revealed the intentions of their former allies, and soon, when the Italian squadron approached the Gulf of Sardin, the German Dornier Do 217 aircraft, which were armed with heavy Fritz X radio-controlled planning bombs, were ready to attack the battleships. The Italians did not take action for two reasons. Firstly, the planes were high enough, and identifying their identification marks was impossible. 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 in order to confuse the pilots, they managed to thwart the first attack. However, after 15 minutes, one bomb hit the side of the Littorio, not far from the artillery mount, and the other went directly to 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 damage to the underwater part of the ship, and it quickly began to fill with sea water. In a matter of minutes, the aft engine room, the third power station, as well as the seventh and eighth boiler rooms were flooded. Due to damage to the electrical cables in the aft, short circuits began to occur, and after them - ignition of electrical equipment.
At 16:02, the royal naval forces of Italy finally lost the Roma battleship: the second bomb hit the right forecastle in the interval between 123 and 126 frames, broke through decks and exploded right in the bow engine room. A strong fire began, which caused the detonation of bow artillery cellars. Flames burst from the barbet of the second 381 mm tower upwards, several tens of meters, and the tower itself fell and fell overboard. After a series of massive explosions, the hull of the ship broke near the bow superstructure. Tipping to the starboard side, it capsized and sank.
Of the 1849 sailors aboard the Roma that day, only 59 survived. According to some reports, several officers were aboard the ship with their families. The ship Littorio was more fortunate - at least he did not drown. When the attack on the ships began, the Italians immediately asked Malta for air cover, which they refused: the Allied aircraft engaged in air cover for the naval assault in Salermo.
After the death of the battleship Roma, Admiral Da Zara assumed command of the squadron. In spite of everything, he intended to break into Malta. Ultimately, picking up the surviving sailors from the Roma, the cruiser Attilio Regolo, 3 destroyers and an escort ship set sail for Port Mahon.
Service Summary
The battleship had serious prospects, but managed to serve in the Italian Navy for only 15 months. During this time, he made two dozen trips to the sea, but never participated in any military operation. A total of 2,492 miles passed. At 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 Pluto Palla underwater robot found a wreck. It is located at a depth of about 1000 meters, about 30 kilometers from the northern coast of Sardinia. September 10, 2012 at the place where Roma sank, a memorial ceremony was organized on the Italian frigate.
Conclusion
The Italian ship of the line (battleship) “Roma” had great prospects and could become an outstanding vessel, but, unfortunately, its history ended, almost without beginning. Perhaps the fate of the ship was a foregone conclusion at the time when Benito Mussolini abandoned it. However, history knows quite a few cases when the very technology that for a long time they didn’t want to adopt showed outstanding results.