Carlo Bergamini

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Carlo Bergamini (born October 24, 1888 in San Felice sul Panaro ( Modena ), † September 9, 1943 near Asinara , Sardinia ) was an Italian admiral .

Military career

After training at the Naval Academy in Livorno , he served on various warships, including the cruisers Vettor Pisani and Pisa . During the First World War , he excelled in the defense of Valona in 1916 and in the shelling of Durazzo in 1918. During the Second World War he commanded the 4th, 5th and 9th divisions of the Italian fleet . With the battleship Vittorio Veneto he took part in the naval battle at Cape Teulada in November 1940 .

From April 5, 1943 he was the fleet chief on the battleship RN Roma . On the day of the armistice , September 8, 1943, he received the order to sail with the battle fleet from La Spezia to Malta , where the Italian warships were to be surrendered to the Allies in accordance with the armistice clauses. Although he was deeply bitter about this order and air support was not available, he carried it out on the night of September 9, 1943. Since the German armed forces wanted to prevent the surrender of the Italian fleet in any case, German air force units attacked the Italian warships on September 9, 1943 at 3:10 p.m. northwest of Sardinia. A remote-controlled missile of the type Fritz X hit the flagship Roma , the ammunition chamber of which exploded shortly afterwards. The Roma sank at 4:00 p.m. With Admiral Carlo Bergamini, a large part of the crew died. He was posthumously awarded the Medaglia d'oro al valor militare and promoted to Ammiraglio d'Armata.

After the war, the Italian Navy named warships after Bergamini, the ships of the Bergamini class . The type ship of the new FREMM frigates commissioned in 2013 also bears his name.

literature

  • Mariano Gabriele:  Bergamini, Carlo. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 9:  Berengario – Biagini. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1967.
  • Ireneo Remondi: Ammiraglio Carlo Bergamini: notizie biografiche , Massa Finalese: Baraldini 1986.
  • Pier Paolo Bergamini: Le forze navali da battaglia e l'armistizio , 2. ed. riv. e corr., Rome 2003 (Supplemento di Rivista marittima)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Evidence in the SBN Opac
personal data
SURNAME Bergamini, Carlo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian admiral
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH San Felice sul Panaro , Italy
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1943
Place of death near Asinara, Sardinia