Light Cruisers

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Brian James
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Light Cruisers

Unread post by Brian James »

Light Cruiser RM Alberto da Giussano,(a Sub-Class of the Condottieri Class) pictured at Taranto in the early 1930's,note on her fo'c'sle catapult her CANT 25AR Scout Seaplane.
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ivorthediver
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Re: Light Cruisers

Unread post by ivorthediver »

Cor ....I bet it took time to fit the name plate on her .

To the untrained eye the range finder looks like a pineapple and gives the appearance that the superstructure top heavy to me , other than that a sleek vessel
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designeraccd
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Re: Light Cruisers

Unread post by designeraccd »

The early Italian CLs did not stand up to incoming fire well. The RN decimated them, by both submarine and surface forces.

The last 4 units (2 sub classes) were quite handsome. The last 2 Italian CLs both survived the war and were basically a new design compared to the earlier 8 cruisers. The GARABALDI, of the last pair, was modernized and converted to a CLG, with a twin Terrier launcher aft. Also, she had been equipped to carry Polaris missiles. She test fired at least one, but as far as I know never actually carried them. After her conversion, she was considered the most powerful surface warship in European waters!!

The last class of CLs were more of destroyer leaders, armed with 8-5.3" instead of 6" of all the others. DFO
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ivorthediver
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Re: Italian Light Cruiser.

Unread post by ivorthediver »

Yes I agree they did look smart , and I did not know they were kitted out with Polaris . ;)
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designeraccd
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Re: Light Cruisers

Unread post by designeraccd »

Only the GARABALDI was fitted for Polaris, as stated, I don't think she ever carried any operationally........DFO

sigh......still could not add a photo.... :?
Brian James
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Re: Light Cruisers

Unread post by Brian James »

Condottieri Class Light Cruiser RM Raimondo Montecuccoli.
She was part of the third group of Condottieri Class Light Cruisers. They were larger and better protected than their predecessors. She was built by Ansaldo, Genoa in 1934.Raimondo Montecuccoli entered service in 1935 and was sent out to the Far East in 1937 to protect Italian interests in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and returned home in November 1938 after being relieved by Bartolomeo Colleoni. During the war she participated in the Battle of Punta Stilo, on July 9th 1940, and in the successful attack on Harpoon convoy during the Battle of Pantelleria, on June 15th 1942. Raimondo Montecuccoli and the Cruiser Eugenio di Savoia, forming the 7th Division, fought a long gunnery duel off Pantelleria with the escort of a large Allied convoy to Malta, at the end of which their combined fire crippled the destroyer HMS Bedouin and damaged the Cruiser HMS Cairo and the Destroyer HMS Partridge; only two ships from the convoy reached Malta, one of them holed by a mine. Partridge took the disabled Bedouin under tow. During the last stages of the action, according to post-battle reports from both sides, Raimondo Montecuccoli scored a hit on the minesweeper HMS Hebe at approx. 26.000 yards. Two Allied freighters from the convoy, the Sargo Ship Burdwan and the large Tanker Kentucky, both of them disabled by previous air attacks and abandoned by their escorts, were finished off by the Italian squadron. Kentucky was shelled and set on fire by Raimondo Monteccucoli's guns.The Italian Cruisers also forced Partridge to cast off the tow and leave Bedouin behind. The disabled Destroyer was eventually sunk by an Italian SM 79 torpedo bomber.
She was heavily damaged by USAAF bombers in Naples on December 4th1942, with the loss of 44 of her crew, but having been repaired and just weeks before the armistice, on August 1943, she was operative again. The Cruiser became by this time one of the few Italian naval units fitted with the Italian designed radar EC-3 ter Gufo radar. On August 4th Raimondo Montecuccoli along with the Light Cruiser Eugenio di Savoia, shelled without consequences a small Allied convoy off Palermo during the Allied invasion of Sicily, in an aborted attempt to attack the United States Navy fleet in port. The Allied convoy was actually an American Submarine chaser, USS SC-530, escorting a freshwater barge. The Italian Cruisers withdrew after picking up a number of coastal search radars tracking them with their Metox devices.After the Armistice she was interned by the Allies and returned to Italy after the war to serve as a Training Cruiser until 1964.
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designeraccd
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Re: Light Cruisers

Unread post by designeraccd »

The old cruiser was used for training after WW2, with B turret removed. Like most of the Italian warships of this era, she was a handsome warship. :) DFO
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Brian James
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Re: Light Cruisers

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Lead Ship,Light Cruiser RM Luigi di Savoia Duca Degli Abruzzi pictured on speed trials off La Spezia in 1937.
The Duca degli Abruzzi Class Cruisers were the final version of the Condottieri Class and were larger and better protected than their predecessors. The armament was also increased by two extra 152 mm guns, triple turrets replaced twins in the "A" and "Y" positions. The machinery was also revised which led to these ships having a slightly slower maximum speed than their predecessors. was completed in 1937 and formed the 8th Cruiser division with her sister ship Giuseppe Garibaldi. She fought in the following actions:
Battle of Calabria, where she led a squadron of Light Cruisers which fired the first salvos of the battle
September 1st 1940: Part of the fleet that attempted to intercept the convoy Hats
Battle of Cape Matapan
September 24th 1941: Part of the fleet that attempted to intercept the convoy Halberd headed for Malta.
Damaged by an aircraft torpedo on November 22nd 1941 but repaired, she was interned by the Allies after the Italian Armistice and later served in the South Atlantic on operations against potential German raiders.
After 1945, her torpedo launchers were removed and replaced by two 4 inch anti-aircraft guns. Since 1953 she was equipped with an AN/SPS-6 2D air search radar.
She served in the post war Marina Militare until 1961,she was scrapped in 1972.
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designeraccd
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Re: Light Cruisers

Unread post by designeraccd »

The 2 ABRUZZI's were indeed the last CLs, not counting the Captain Romani class! Both were in some action, but it wasn't until the G. GARABALDI got her rebuild into a CLG that she became, at that time, the most powerful surface ship other than a carrier in European waters. :) DFO
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designeraccd
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Re: Light Cruisers

Unread post by designeraccd »

A view of the light cruiser CADORNA under construction in Trieste, 1931. Also, a view of her in 1943...one of the very few Italian cruisers to survive the war altho she was apparently worn out. :o DFO
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