Cantore class

Cantore- class
Generale Marcello Prestinari in Monaco in 1923
overview
Ship type :	cacciatorpediniere destroyer 1929: torpedine torpedo boat
Units:	6th
Builder:	Odero , Sestri Ponente / Genoa
Keel laying :	November 1919 to June 1921
1. Launch :	April 23, 1921 Generals Antonio Cantore
1. Commissioning:	July 1, 1921 Cantore
Use until:	1943
Technical specifications
Displacement :	730 ts standard 870 ts maximum
Length:	73.5 m above sea level, 72.5 m pp.
Width:	7.3 m
Draft :	up to 3.0 m
Drive :	4 Thornycroft boilers 2 Tosi turbines 15,500 HP
Fuel supply:	150 tons of oil
Speed :	30 kn
Range :	2,000 nm at 14 kn
Crew :	118
Armament:	3 × 102 mm L / 45 guns 2 × 76 mm L / 40 guns 4 × 6.5 mm anti-aircraft machine guns 4 × 457 mm torpedo tubes (2 × 2) 10 sea mines

The Cantore class , also known as the Generali class , was created between 1919 and 1922 for the Italian Regia Marina . The six relatively small destroyers ( cacciatorpediniere ) were the fourth variant of a basic design for the Italian Navy built with the Pilo class since 1913. The existing units of these classes were reclassified to torpedo boats in 1929 .

The class

The Cantore class was the last of four classes of boats built between 1913 and 1919 of almost the same size, which differed only in terms of their armament. The Pilo class from 1913 with eight boats was followed by the Sirtori class from 1916 with four boats, the La Masa class from 1916 with eight boats and finally the Cantore class from 1919 with six boats. They all displaced between 615 and 709 tons (standard), were 73–73.5 m long and 7.3 m wide and had three chimneys. All were reclassified to torpedo boats on October 1, 1929 .

The Cantore class consisted of the boats named after Italian generals: Generals Antonio Cantore , Generals Antonio Cascino , Generals Antonio Chinotto , Generals Carlo Montanari , Generals Achille Papa and Generals Marcello Prestinari .

Technical specifications

The Cantore class was a further development of the La Masa class. All six boats were built at Cantieri Odero in Sestri Ponente ( Genoa ) between 1919 and 1922 . Their main artillery was reduced from four to only three 10.2 cm Schneider Armstrong L / 45 cannons compared to the La Masa class , all positioned on the center line so that one broadside still consisted of three guns. There were also two 7.6 cm Ansaldo Flak L / 40 and four 6.5 mm machine guns as well as four 45 cm torpedo tubes in swiveling twin sets . Ten mines could be carried.

The boats were 73.5 m long (72.5 m in the waterline ) and 7.3 m wide and had a maximum draft of 3.0 m . Their water displacement was 730 t (standard) and 890 t (maximum). The machinery consisted of four oil-fired Thornycroft - boilers and two Tosi - steam turbines , the 15,500 horsepower delivered. The ships had two waves . The top speed was 30 knots . The bunker capacity was 150 tons of oil, the range 2000 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 14 knots. The crew consisted of about 105-118 men.

On October 1, 1929, the boats were downgraded to torpedo boats. In 1936 they were equipped with demining equipment. Their armament was modified in 1939 to the extent that they replaced the two 7.6 cm cannons with two 20 mm Flak Twins L / 65 Model 1935 from Breda and two to four 8 mm Fla-MG L / 80 ( of the previous four 6.5-mm-MG), and two water bombs bowler received.

Operation history and whereabouts of the boats

During the Corfu crisis in the last days of August 1923, the Cantore , the Chinotto , the Papa and the Prestinaro were sent to the Dodecanese to protect the archipelago against possible hostilities from Greece. The other two boats, the Cascino and the Montanari , were part of the squadron that bombarded and occupied the island of Corfu on the evening of August 30, 1923 with the battleships Conte di Cavour and Giulio Cesare and the old armored cruisers San Giorgio and San Marco Italian troops supported.

With the start of the Italian attack on Albania in April 1939, the boats were used to secure convoys to and from Albania. When Italy entered World War II on June 10, 1940, the Cascino , Chinotto , Montanari and Papa formed the 2nd torpedo boat division stationed in La Maddalena . In the days before and up to July 10, 1940, the four boats laid a total of 30 defensive mine barriers with a total of 2196 mines off the coast of Sardinia in association with four mine-layers and auxiliary ships . After that, they mainly provided escort service to North Africa.

The Cantore and Prestinari were when the war began part of the 3rd Torpedo Boat Division in Naples and secured initially continued in the Adriatic troop and supply transports to Albania. The two boats were subordinated to the newly formed Maritrafalba Marine Command in Brindisi on October 21, 1940 . Just four days later, both were assigned to the Forza Navale Speciale , which was to carry out the planned invasion of Corfu. The association ran out on October 31, but was then ordered to withdraw the troops because of the bad weather in Valona ( southern Albania ); the landing on Corfu was canceled. The Prestinari then belonged on November 28, 1940 to the association of four destroyers and two torpedo boats, which occupied Greek positions northeast of Corfu with sustained artillery fire. After that she was mainly used as escort to North Africa.

The Cantore in Kotor 1941

Cantore initially stayed in the Adriatic Sea, where she took part in the occupation of several Dalmatian islands and in the fight against the partisans of the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army after the German attack on Yugoslavia in April 1941 . Then this boat was also used for security services between Italy or Greece and North Africa.

In the escort services, the boats had to reckon with the British submarines and aircraft stationed in Malta and with mines . On August 21, 1940, Papa repulsed an attack by the British submarine Rorqual with depth charges . From February 8, 1941, the troop and supply transports for the German Africa Corps were secured. On February 22nd, the Montanari damaged the British submarine Ursula near the Kerkenna Islands , which had previously torpedoed the transporter Sabbia (5788 GRT) he was accompanying . On March 28, 1941, the Chinotto ran at Capo Gallo west of Palermo on a mine barrier laid the previous night by the British submarine Rorqual , broke in two parts and sank to a depth of 103 m. 48 men of their crew were killed. On the morning of July 30, 1941, the father succeeded in sinking the British submarine Cachalot by ramming; the crew of the submarine, with the exception of one man, were able to leave their boat and were taken in by their papa .

From autumn 1941, the security work was made considerably more difficult by the fact that the British in Bletchley Park had deciphered the Italian radio traffic with the key machine C-38m for the convoys to North Africa. In November, ran Prestonari at a safe conduct business before the Libyan coast near Zuwara due, but was relatively undamaged recovered and after Tripoli are introduced. On December 23, 1941, Papa found a raft of the British light cruiser Neptune , which sank in a minefield off Tripoli on December 20, off the Libyan coast , with only one survivor. On August 22, 1942, the Cantore was lost on the journey from Benghazi to Tobruk near Ras el Tin on a mine barrier that had laid the British submarine Porpoise on August 12; the boat broke in two and most of the crew went down with it. The Montanari took part in the defense of Tobruk on September 14, 1942 during the failed British attack on Tobruk ( Operation Agreement or Daffodil ). On the afternoon of January 31, 1943, the Prestonari sank about 14 nautical miles southeast of Cape Zibeb on a mine lock laid by the mine- layer Welshman the previous night. The boat had left Bizerta to help the corvette Procellaria, which had run into a mine . The boat sank within an hour with 84 men of its crew. On February 7, 1943, the Montanari was damaged by a bomb during an American air raid on Naples ; it was brought to La Spezia for repairs .

On the day the Italian armistice was announced on September 8, 1943, the three remaining boats were in the shipyard for repairs , the Cascino and the Montanari in La Spezia and the Papa in Genoa . To avoid German confiscation, all three were self-scuttled by their crews on September 9th . The Montanari was lifted by the Navy , but it turned out to be unusable, was not repaired and sunk again on October 4, 1944 in La Spezia by aerial bombs. The father was also lifted on 17 October 1943 as torpedo boat TA 7 provided by the Navy in service, October 18 as Fast Chaser SG 20 reclassified, and on November 1 1943, after a mine hit, the serious damage caused by Rumpfverwindungen , retired again. January 6, 1944 the boat leapt at the north pier of Genoa and was aground. During an air raid on Genoa on January 12, 1944 , it capsized at the same location; the wreck was lifted and finally on 24./25. Sunk as a block ship in the port of Oneglia in April 1945 .

units

Name and ID	Keel laying	Launch	Commissioning	Whereabouts
Generals Antonio Cantore (CE)	11/11/1919	04/23/1921	07/01/1921	Sunk on August 22, 1942 west of Tobruk after being hit by a mine
Generale Antonio Chinotto (CH)	11/20/1919	August 7, 1921	09/26/1921	Sank on March 28, 1941 after a mine hit near Palermo
Generale Achille Papa (PP, PA)	December 4, 1919	December 8, 1921	February 9, 1922	Sunk in Genoa on September 9, 1943; salvaged by the Navy and put into service on October 17, 1943 as TA 7 , on October 18 as SG 20 ; retired after a mine hit on November 1, 1943. Badly damaged and capsized in an air raid on Genoa on January 12, 1944; lifted and on 24./25. Sunk in Oneglia in April 1945.
Generals Antonio Cascino (CI)	March 13, 1920	03/18/1922	May 8, 1922	Sunk in La Spezia on September 9, 1943
Generale Marcello Prestinari (PR)	May 23, 1921	4.07.1922	08/17/1922	Sank on January 31, 1943 after being hit by a mine near Bizerta
Generale Carlo Montanari (MN)	June 7, 1921	October 4, 1922	11/9/1922	Sunk on September 9, 1943 in La Spezia; Lifted by the Navy, not repaired and sunk by aerial bombs in La Spezia on October 4, 1944.

Notes and individual references

Jump up ↑ Antonio Cantore (1860-1915), Antonio Cascino (1862-1917), Antonio Chinotto (1858-1916), Carlo Montanari (1810-1853), Achille Papa (1863-1917), Marcello Prestinari (1847-1916).

↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/40-06.htm
↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/40-10.htm
↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/40-11.htm
↑ ^a ^b http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/40-08.htm
↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/41-02.htm
↑ http://www.trentoincina.it/dbunita2.php?short_name=Chinotto ; http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/41-03.htm
↑ http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3416.html
^ Submarine losses 1904 to present day , RN Submarine Museum, Gosport
↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/41-10.htm ; Friedrich Ludwig Bauer: Deciphered secrets: methods and maxims of cryptology. 3. Edition. Springer, 2000, ISBN 3-540-67931-6 , pp. 140-141; Joachim Beckh: Lightning and Anchor, Volume 2: Information Technology, History & Backgrounds. Books on Demand, 2005, ISBN 3-8334-2997-6 , pp. 269-270; FH Hinsley, Alan Stripp (Eds.): Codebreakers: The inside story of Bletchley Park. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1993, ISBN 0-19-280132-5 ; Friedrich Ludwig Bauer: Decrypted secrets: methods and maxims of cryptology. Springer, 4th edition. 2007, ISBN 978-3-540-24502-5 , p. 223; http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/archive/index/june1941.rhtm
↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/42-08.htm
↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/43-01.htm
↑ The Procellaria sank with 24 dead.

literature

MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2000, ISBN 0-87021-326-1 .

Web links

[1] Jump up ↑ Antonio Cantore (1860-1915), Antonio Cascino (1862-1917), Antonio Chinotto (1858-1916), Carlo Montanari (1810-1853), Achille Papa (1863-1917), Marcello Prestinari (1847-1916).