Curtatone class

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Marina Regia
Curtatone class
Curtatone, 1942.jpg Curtatone 1942
overview
Ship type : cacciatorpedine destroyer
from 1938: torpedine torpedo boat
Units: 4th
Builder: Fratelli Orlando & Co in Livorno
Keel laying : January 1920 to January 1921
1. Launch : March 17, 1922 Curtatone
1. Commissioning: June 21, 1923 Curtatone
Use until: 1945 Monzambano , scrapped in 1951
Technical specifications
Displacement : 967  ts standard
1,214 ts maximum
Length: 84.94 m above sea level, 84.6 m pp.
Width: 8.02 m
Draft : 2.48 m
Drive : 4 Thornycroft boilers
2 Zoelly turbines
22,000 HP
Speed : 32 kn
Fuel supply: 206 tons of oil
Range : 1,800 nm at 15 kn
Crew : 117
Armament: 4 × 102 mm L / 45 guns
2 × 76 mm L / 30 guns
6 × 457 mm torpedo tubes (2 × 3)
16 sea ​​mines

The Curtatone- class was a class of four destroyers in the Italian Navy . The ships completed in 1923/24 were similar to the Palestro- class ships built by the same shipyard until 1923 . The Curtatone -class units were named after battles during the Italian Wars of Independence . Reclassified as torpedo boats in 1938 , they were primarily used in escort services during World War II . The Curtatone was lost on May 20, 1941 by a mine hit.

After the Italian surrender , the Calatafimi and the Castelfidardo entered the service of the Navy , which they used as TA 19 and TA 16 .
Only the Monzambano survived the war and did not leave the service of the Italian Navy until April 15, 1951 .

history

The class destroyers ( Curtatone , Castelfidardo , Calatafimi and Monzambano ) were all built at Fratelli Orlando & Co in Livorno . The orders for all four were awarded together with those for the four Palestro- class destroyers during World War I , but they were not started at that time due to the lack of material. The four 875 t units of the Palestro class were started in 1917, but were only launched after the end of the war and were used by the Italian Navy between January 1921 and April 1923. The Curtatone -class ships were not started until four years after the order and were laid down in 1920 and 1921. The Curtatone was launched as the first unit on March 17, 1922, and it was also the first to enter service on June 21, 1923. As the last destroyer of the class, the Monzambano came into service with the Regia Marina on June 4, 1924.

technical description

The four destroyers were a modification of the Palestro type, compared to this, the hull was extended by 4.5 m. The boats had a type displacement of 967 ts , a construction displacement of  1170 t with a 1214 t operational displacement. The overall length was 84.94 m, the width 8.02 m with an average draft of 2.48 m

The drive was formed by four Thornycroft boilers with two sets of Zoelly turbines , which worked on two shafts and provided 22,000 WPS . A similar drive with an output of 18,000 hp was already used in the Palestro class. The two Audace- class destroyers, also completed at Orlando in 1914 , had already received Zoelly-type turbines imported from Switzerland.

Indomito , the lead ship of the Italian three-chimney destroyer

Externally, this produced at Orlando destroyer distinguished with its two chimneys of the first made of "Pattison" destroyers of Indomito class and its further developments with the Pilo - , Sirtori - , La Masa - and Cantore classes , all three chimneys had and eventually comprised 34 destroyers. With Ardito and Ardente , Orlando also delivered two replicas of these three chimneys to the Navy in 1914, but they were powered by Parsons turbines .
From the Curtatone class up to the beginning of the 1930s, the subsequent destroyers for the Italian Navy were two-chimney. From the Dardo class , the following new buildings were built with only one chimney.
During the test drives, the Curtatone reached 36.6 knots, Castelfidardo 35.5 knots at a design speed of 32 knots. With the bunker capacity of 200 t of oil, the cruising range was 390 nautical miles at a speed of 28 kn.

Armament

The original armament consisted of four 102 mm L / 45 guns in double mounts, two 76 mm L / 30 anti-aircraft guns in single mounts and six 457 mm torpedo tubes in sets of three. In addition, 16 sea ​​mines could be carried after the installation of the corresponding facilities in 1930 . All larger guns and torpedo tubes were arranged for the first time in an Italian design on the midship line.

The four 102 mm L / 45 cannons from Schneider-Armstrong were designed as cradle mounts with a maximum barrel elevation of 35 °. These guns were the first double mounts to be used on a destroyer worldwide. The installation of the main artillery in twin mounts became a feature of all Italian destroyers up until the Second World War. The Curtatone class, however, remained the only class that received these 102 mm guns, as the caliber of the main artillery of the Italian destroyers was increased to 120 mm from the following new builds.

The torpedo and anti-aircraft armament were also changed variously later, in particular the two units taken into service with the German Navy received a modified anti-aircraft armament.

The crew consisted of 117 officers and men.

Mission history

The destroyers served a large number of units in the Regia Marina. In May / June 1929 Curtatone , Calatafimi , Monzambano and Palestro accompanied the esploratore Augusto Riboty on the second Italo Balbos mass flight from Taranto via Athens , Istambul and Varna to Odessa . 32 Savoia-Marchetti SM.55 , two SM 59bis and one Cant 22 took part in the flight from May 3rd . On the return flight, the Romanian Constanta was approached instead of Varna. From Taranto, the planes flew over Rome in formation on June 19 to return to their Orbetello base . In 1929, all four ships of the class formed the VIII Destroyer Squadron in Taranto. Together with the VII. Squadron, formed from units of the Palestro class, they belonged to the 4th destroyer flotilla led by the esploratore Augusto Riboty . After missions in North Africa, the Dodecanese and Italian East Africa , the four destroyers came to La Spezia in 1937 , where the old ships were often used for training purposes. Since they no longer met the standard of modern destroyers, the four boats were reclassified as torpedo boats on October 1, 1938 .

At the beginning of the Second World War, the units formed the 16th torpedo boat squadron in La Spezia . From there, the torpedo boat Calatafimi attacked on June 14, 1940, first alone and then unsuccessfully with speedboats of the 13th MAS Flotilla, a far superior French unit. By autumn 1940, all four units had moved to the Adriatic Sea to provide escort protection on the supply lines to Albania . They performed the same task in the Aegean Sea from 1941 to 1943. The Curtatone was lost on May 20, 1941 by a mine hit in the Saronic Gulf . After the Italian surrender , the Calatafimi (captured in Piraeus ) and the Castelfidardo (captured in the Suda Bay , Crete ) entered the service of the Navy , which they used as TA 19 and TA 16 for escort security. They formed the 9th torpedo boat flotilla of the Kriegsmarine with other previously Italian units and were used in November 1943 to secure the transports of the German combat group Müller , which recaptured islands occupied by the British during their Dodecanese campaign . The loot ships also served as fast troop transports. Both torpedo boats were lost under the German flag in the summer of 1944. The Monzambano continued to fight on the Allied side, survived the war and did not retire from the Italian Navy until April 15, 1951 .

units

Surname Keel laying Launch in service Whereabouts
Curtatone CT 3.01.1920 03/17/1922 06/21/1923 sunk on May 20, 1941
Castelfidardo CD 07/20/1920 4.06.1922 March 7, 1924 sunk in German service as TA 16 after an air raid on June 2, 1944 in Heraklion
Calatafimi CM 1.12.1920 03/17/1923 May 25, 1924 sunk in German service as TA 19 on August 9, 1944 by the Greek submarine Pipinos off Vathi
Monzambano  MB 01/20/1921 August 6, 1923 4.06.1924 out of service on April 15, 1951; scrapped

Individual evidence

  • Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats, Volumes 1 and 2, Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 :
  1. ↑ Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats . Volume 1, page 180
  2. ↑ Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats . Volume 1, page 306
  3. ↑ a b Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats . Volume 1, page 181
  4. ↑ Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats . Volume 2, page 228
  1. ^ Rohwer: Seekrieg , p. 81, October 21, 1940
  2. ^ Rohwer: Seekrieg , p. 400 1o.-24.11.1943
  3. ^ Rohwer: Seekrieg , p. 441 April 13 - May 2, 1944
  4. ^ Rohwer: Seekrieg , p. 452 June 1-23, 1944
  5. ^ Rohwer: Seekrieg , p. 465 2.7.-31.8.1944
  • MJWhitley: Destroyer in World War II . Motorbuch Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 (Original: Destroyers of World War Two . Arms & Armors Press, London):
  1. ↑ a b M.J.Whitley: Destroyers in World War II , page 174
  2. ↑ a b M.J.Whitley: destroyer during World War II , page 50
  3. ↑ MJWhitley: destroyer during World War II , page 175

Remarks

  1. ↑ Information from Whitley: Destroyers in World War II , page 174. Fock: Z-vor! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats , Volume 1, page 181 mentions 33.6 knots
  1. ↑ Curtatone May 29, 1848, Castelfidardo September 18, 1860, Calatafimi May 15, 1860, Monzambano April 9, 1848