Roma was an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
Vittorio Veneto class
battleshipA battleship is a large, heavily armored warship with a main battery consisting of the largest caliber of guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers or destroyers. There are currently no battleships in service....
that served in the
Regia MarinaThe Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. She was built in 1940 and commissioned in 1942.
Last cruise and sinking
On September 8 1943
Roma, together with most of the remaining Italian fleet, set off from
La SpeziaLa Spezia is a city in the Liguria region of northern Italy, at the head of La Spezia Gulf, and capital city of the province of La Spezia. It is one of the major Italian military and commercial harbours, located between Genoa and Pisa on the Ligurian Sea...
for Malta to surrender to the Allies in the aftermath of the
Armistice with ItalyThe Armistice with Italy was an armistice signed on September 3 and publicly declared on September 8, 1943, during World War II, between Italy and the Allied armed forces, who were then occupying the southern end of the country, entailing the capitulation of Italy...
.
Roma was the flagship of the fleet's commander, admiral
Carlo BergaminiCarlo Bergamini was an Italian admiral.- Early life:Born in San Felice sul Panaro, Bergamini became a Guardiamarina in 1908. He participated in the Italian-Turkish war as an officer on the battleship Vettor Pisani. During World War I, he was the chief of artillery on the cruiser Pisa...
.
Roma's commander was Adone Del Cima. The fleet included two other battleships,
Vittorio VenetoVittorio Veneto was the lead ship of the Italian Vittorio Veneto-class battleships, that served in the Regia Marina during World War II...
and
ItaliaLittorio was an Italian Vittorio Veneto class battleship that served in the Regia Marina during World War II. She was named after the Lictor , in ancient times the bearer of the Roman fasces, which was adopted as the symbol of Italian Fascism.-Construction:Her keel was laid down in 1934 at the...
(formerly
Littorio), three cruisers and eight destroyers (others joined later in the course of the cruise).
The following day the ships were intercepted near
AsinaraAsinara is an Italian island of 51 km² in area, with approximately 700 inhabitants. The island is located off the northwestern tip of Sardinia, and is mountainous in geography with steep, rocky coasts...
island (northern
SardiniaSardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . The area of Sardinia is . The nearest land masses to the island are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Tunisia, and the Spanish Balearic Islands...
) by 12 German
Dornier Do 217The Dornier Do 217 was a bomber used by German Luftwaffe during World War II as a more powerful version of the Dornier Do 17, known as the Fliegender Bleistift . Designed in 1937 and 1938, its design was refined and production began in 1940. It entered service in 1941 and by the beginning of 1942...
K-2s from the III. Gruppe of KG100, which had taken off from
IstresIstres is a commune in southern France, some 60 km north-west of Marseille. It is in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a sous-préfecture. The population of Istres is 42,090...
, near Marseille. The German planes were carrying a pioneering new weapon, the
Fritz XFritz X was the most common name for a German air-launched anti-ship missile, used during World War II. Fritz X was a nickname used both by Allied and Luftwaffe personnel. Alternate names include Ruhrstahl SD 1400 X, Kramer X-1, PC 1400X or FX 1400. The latter is also the origin for the name "Fritz...
(
FX1400) radio-guided bomb, first deployed (unsuccessfully) on 21 July 1943.
Italy's prime minister,
Pietro BadoglioPietro Badoglio, 1st Duca di Addis Abeba, 1st Marchese del Sabotino was an Italian soldier and politician...
, had ordered the fleet to open fire only if attacked, and the order was initially respected. However, when the fleet finally opened anti-aircraft fire, it became clear the German planes were deliberately keeping themselves outside the range of Italian AA guns (5,000 m), too far for a conventional bombing attack. Nevertheless, the Italian ships began making tight turns in an effort to put the Germans off their aim. The Italians were unaware at this time that the Fritz-X's radio remote control system (known as
Kehl in German) was susceptible to electronic countermeasures.
The first ship hit by the new weapon was the battleship
Italia. Despite damage to her bow (which caused her to ship over 900 tons of water), she maintained her speed.
Roma was then struck twice. The first bomb hit amidships between 90 mm AA gun mounts, pierced the main armor deck and punched clean through the entire ship, exploding underneath it and wrecking the starboard turbines. This reduced the ship's speed to . The second bomb hit above deck between turret #2 and the conning tower. The resulting explosion blew 'B' turret overboard and snuffed out the boilers, bringing the ship to a halt. Fires raging below decks eventually reached the main magazines where ready ammunition was stowed. Bergamini, Del Cima and 1,350 crew members were all killed when, at 16:12, the ship exploded, split in two and sank. Only 596 survivors, most badly burned, were rescued
http://www.regiamarina.net/people/admirals/bergamini_us.htm.
Roma was thus the first capital ship to be sunk by an in-flight guided munition of any sort.
External links