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Italian battleship Roma (1940)

 
Italian Battleship Roma (1940)

 
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Italian battleship Roma (1940)
 
 
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Roma was an Italian
Italy

Italy , 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....
 Vittorio Veneto class battleship
Battleship

A battleship is a large, heavily armour warship with a main artillery battery consisting of the largest calibre of guns. Battleships were larger, better armed, and better armored than cruisers and destroyers....
 that served in the Regia Marina
Regia Marina

The Regia Marina Italiana dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification . In 1946, with the birth of the Italy , the Royal Navy changed its name as it was now the Navy of the Italian Republic ....
 during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. She was built in 1940 and commissioned in 1942.

eptember 8 1943 Roma, together with most of the remaining Italian fleet, set off from La Spezia
La Spezia

La 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....
 to surrender to the Allies in the aftermath of the Armistice with Italy
Armistice with Italy

The 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 Allies of World War II armed forces, who were then occupying the southern half of the country, entailing the Capitulation of Italy....
. It was the flagship of the fleet's commander, admiral Carlo Bergamini
Carlo Bergamini (admiral)

Carlo Bergamini was an Italy admiral....
.






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Roma was an Italian
Italy

Italy , 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....
 Vittorio Veneto class battleship
Battleship

A battleship is a large, heavily armour warship with a main artillery battery consisting of the largest calibre of guns. Battleships were larger, better armed, and better armored than cruisers and destroyers....
 that served in the Regia Marina
Regia Marina

The Regia Marina Italiana dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification . In 1946, with the birth of the Italy , the Royal Navy changed its name as it was now the Navy of the Italian Republic ....
 during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. 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 Spezia
La Spezia

La 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....
 to surrender to the Allies in the aftermath of the Armistice with Italy
Armistice with Italy

The 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 Allies of World War II armed forces, who were then occupying the southern half of the country, entailing the Capitulation of Italy....
. It was the flagship of the fleet's commander, admiral Carlo Bergamini
Carlo Bergamini (admiral)

Carlo Bergamini was an Italy admiral....
. The commander of the ship was Adone Del Cima. The fleet included two other battleships, Vittorio Veneto
Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto

Vittorio Veneto was the lead ship of the Italy Vittorio Veneto class battleship battleships, that served in the Regia Marina during World War II....
 and Italia
Italian battleship Littorio

Littorio was an Italian Vittorio Veneto class battleship 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....
 (formerly Littorio), three cruisers and eight destroyers (others joined later in the course of the cruise).

The following day the ships were intercepted near the Asinara
Asinara

Asinara is an Italy island of 51 km? in area, with approximately 700 inhabitants. The island is located just off the northwestern tip of Sardinia, and is mountainous in geography with steep, rocky coasts....
 island (northern Sardinia
Sardinia

Sardinia is the Mediterranean islands#By area island in the Mediterranean Sea . The area of Sardinia is . The island is surrounded by the France island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Tunisia and the Balearic Islands....
) by 12 German Dornier Do 217
Dornier Do 217

The Dornier Flugzeugwerke Do 217 was a bomber aircraft used by Nazi Germany during World War II. It was designed from scratch as a replacement for the earlier Dornier Do 17....
K-2s from the III. Gruppe of KG100, which had taken off from Istres
Istres

Istres is a Commune in southern France, some 60 Km north-west of Marseille. It is in the Provence-Alpes-C?te d'Azur regions of France, in the Bouches-du-Rh?ne departments of France, of which it is a subprefecture....
, near Marseille.

Pietro Badoglio
Pietro Badoglio

Pietro Badoglio, 1st Duke of Addis Abeba, 1st Marquess of el Sabotino , was an Italy soldier and politician. He was a member of the National Fascist Party and commanded his nation's troops under Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War; his efforts gained him the title Duke of Addis Abeba....
 had ordered to open fire only after being attacked, and the order was initially respected. However, when the fleet finally opened anti-aircraft fire, it was clear that the German planes were keeping themselves outside the Italian guns (5,000 m), too far for a conventional bombing mission.

The first ship to be hit by the new weapons was the Italia, which however kept her pace. Roma was then struck twice by Fritz X
Fritz X

Fritz X was the most common name for a Nazi Germany air-launched anti-ship missile, used during World War II. Fritz X was a nickname used both by Allied and Luftwaffe personnel....
 guided bombs, a pioneering example of a precision-guided munition
Precision-guided munition

Precision-guided munitions are guided weapons intended to precisely hit a specific target, and to minimise damage to things other than the target....
 that was deployed for the first time on 21 July 1943, without success. Italians did not know that the Fritz-X's radio remote control system, known as the Kehl in German, was susceptible to electronic countermeasures. The first one hit amidship between 90 mm AA gun mounts, piercing deck and side, then exploded under the ship, reducing its speed to ; the other one hit above deck between turret #2 and the conning tower. It caused an explosion that threw the turret outboard and affected the boilers, starting a major fire that detonated the main magazines.

Bergamini, Del Cima and other 1,350 crew members were killed when at 16:12 the ship exploded, split into two parts and sank. Only 596 survivors, most badly burned, were rescued.

It was thus the first capital ship to be sunk by an in-flight guided munition of any sort.

See also

  • Fritz X
    Fritz X

    Fritz X was the most common name for a Nazi Germany air-launched anti-ship missile, used during World War II. Fritz X was a nickname used both by Allied and Luftwaffe personnel....


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