Bartolomeo Colleoni 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...
Condottieri classThe Condottieri class was a sequence of five, different, light cruiser classes of the Regia Marina, although these classes show a clear line of evolution. They were built before World War II to gain predominance in the Mediterranean Sea...
light cruiserA light cruiser is a warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armoured cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armour in the same way as an armoured cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
, 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...
. It was named after
Bartolomeo ColleoniBartolomeo Colleoni was an Italian condottiero.Colleoni was born at Solza, in the countryside of Bergamo , where he prepared his magnificent mortuary chapel, the Cappella Colleoni, in a shrine that he seized when it was refused him by the local confraternity, the Consiglio della Misericordia...
, an Italian military leader of the 15th century.
Colleoni was launched on December 21 1930.
Bartolomeo Colleoni served in the Mediterranean until November 1938, when she sailed to relieve
Raimondo MontecuccoliRaimondo Montecuccoli was a Condottieri class light cruiser serving with the Italian Regia Marina during World War II. She survived the war and served in the post-war Marina Militare until 1964.-Design:...
in the Far East. She arrived off
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level...
on December 23 1938, and remained there until the outbreak of war between Britain and France and Germany.
Bartolomeo Colleoni 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...
Condottieri classThe Condottieri class was a sequence of five, different, light cruiser classes of the Regia Marina, although these classes show a clear line of evolution. They were built before World War II to gain predominance in the Mediterranean Sea...
light cruiserA light cruiser is a warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armoured cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armour in the same way as an armoured cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
, 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...
. It was named after
Bartolomeo ColleoniBartolomeo Colleoni was an Italian condottiero.Colleoni was born at Solza, in the countryside of Bergamo , where he prepared his magnificent mortuary chapel, the Cappella Colleoni, in a shrine that he seized when it was refused him by the local confraternity, the Consiglio della Misericordia...
, an Italian military leader of the 15th century.
Colleoni was launched on December 21 1930.
Bartolomeo Colleoni served in the Mediterranean until November 1938, when she sailed to relieve
Raimondo MontecuccoliRaimondo Montecuccoli was a Condottieri class light cruiser serving with the Italian Regia Marina during World War II. She survived the war and served in the post-war Marina Militare until 1964.-Design:...
in the Far East. She arrived off
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level...
on December 23 1938, and remained there until the outbreak of war between Britain and France and Germany. On 1 October, having turned over command in the Far East to the sloop
Lepanto-Battles:*third Battle of Lepanto ; defeat of the Turkish fleet; the most famous of the Lepanto battles and one of the decisive events in world history* an ancient battle near modern Lepanto was called the Battle of Naupactus ....
, the cruiser returned home, where she arrived on 28 October.
Colleoni formed the 2nd Cruiser Division in the 2nd Squadron together with
Giovanni dalle Bande NereGiovanni delle Bande Nere was an Italian Condottieri class light cruiser, named after the homonymous 16th century condottiero and member of the Medici family, that served in the Regia Marina during World War II...
. Her first operation was a minelaying sortie on 10 June 1940 in the Sicilian Channel, followed by troop convoy cover duties between
NaplesNaples in Italy, is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples. The city is known for its rich history, art, culture, architecture, music and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,800 years old...
and
TripoliTripoli is the largest and capital city of Libya.Tripoli has a population of 1.69 million...
in July.
On 17 July the ship sailed from Tripoli, accompanied by
Bande Nere and bound for
LerosLeros is a Greek island and municipality in the Dodecanese prefecture in the southern Aegean Sea. It lies 317 km from Athens's port of Piraeus, from which it can be reached by an 11-hour ferry ride .-Geography:The island is 74 square kilometres and has a coastline of 71 km...
in the
AegeanThe Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
, where British activities in Greek waters were causing concern. In the early hours of 19 July, while off
Cape SpadaThe Battle of Cape Spada was a naval battle during the Battle of the Mediterranean in World War II. It took place on 19 July 1940 in the Mediterranean Sea off Cape Spada, the north-western extremity of Crete.-Preliminary moves:...
(
CreteCrete is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km²...
), the Italian squadron, having been reported by
RAFThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
aircraft the previous day, was intercepted by the
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n
light cruiserA light cruiser is a warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armoured cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armour in the same way as an armoured cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
HMAS SydneyHMAS Sydney was a light cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy between 1934 and 1941. Sydney had great success in the first years of World War II, but controversy and mystery surrounded the loss of the battle-hardened ship and her crew in November 1941...
and five destroyers. During the ensuing
engagementThe Battle of Cape Spada was a naval battle during the Battle of the Mediterranean in World War II. It took place on 19 July 1940 in the Mediterranean Sea off Cape Spada, the north-western extremity of Crete.-Preliminary moves:...
Colleoni eventually received a shell hit to the engine room from
Sydney, which immobilised her and left her an easy target for the destroyers' torpedoes.
She sank with the loss of 121 sailors.
Probably the major historical interest of this battle was that it revealed the inflated nature of Italian official trial stats. On paper (on trial) the
Colleoni had been listed with a maximum speed of over 40 knots and should never have been overhauled by the 32-knot
Sydney. The truth of the matter is that the Italian Navy had been in the habit of running speed trials not only at light-weight (without ammunition and full fuel loaded) but also without much of their designed armament.