Folgore class
_crowned.svg){kind=small} Folgore class |
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 The destroyer Folgore 1931
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| overview | |
| Ship type : | destroyer |
| Units: | 4 built on 2 shipyards: Cantieri del Quarnaro, Fiume Officine & Cantieri Partenopei, Naples |
| Keel laying : | January to May 1929 |
| 1. Launch : | March 22, 1931 Baleno |
| 1. Commissioning: | June 15, 1932 Baleno |
| Use until: | April 30, 1943 Lampo was the last unit sunk |
| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement : | 1,240 ts standard 2,130 ts maximum |
| Length: | 96.05 m |
| Width: | 9.20 m |
| Draft : | 3.30 m |
| Drive : | 3 Thornycroft steam boilers 2 Belluzo steam turbines with single gear 44,000 HP (32,800 kW ) |
| Fuel supply: | 510 tons of oil |
| Speed : | 38 kn (70 km / h ) |
| Range : | 3,600 nm at 12 kn |
| Crew : | 183 |
| Armament: | 4 × 120/50 mm guns (2 × 2) 2 × 40/39 mm pom-poms 4 × 13.2 mm anti-aircraft machine guns 6 × 533 mm torpedo tubes (2 × 3) 54 sea mines |
The Folgore-class was a destroyer- class of the Italian Navy . The class consisted of four destroyers, which were built between 1929 and 1932 at the Cantieri del Quarnaro shipyards in Fiume and Officine & Cantieri Partenopei in Naples . Both shipyards had previously delivered destroyers to the Regia Marina .
The ships were initially referred to as the 2nd group of the Dardo class , the four ships of which were built at two other shipyards between 1929 and 1932 almost simultaneously.
When Italy entered the Second World War on the side of Germany in June 1940, the four destroyers in Taranto formed the " VIII Squadriglia Cacciatorpediniere (8th destroyer squadron) ", which was to be used with the heavy units of the fleet.
history
The four units of the Folgore class were built at Cantieri del Quarnaro in Fiume and at Bacini e Scali Partenopei in Naples . The keel was then laid in Fiume on October 1, 1929 and in Naples on January 30, 1930. On March 22, 1931, the Baleno was launched in Fiume as the first destroyer of the class in front of the two second newbuildings of the Dardo class by August 2, 1931 the other ships of the class followed. On June 15, 1932 Baleno was put into service, followed by the three sister ships until August 2, 1931 in service with the Regia Marina.
The destroyers had a standard displacement of 1220 t, but at the beginning of the war they displaced 1450 t under standard conditions and 2100 t with full payload due to modifications and fixed ballast to improve seaworthiness. They had a length of 96.1 m over all (94.3 m in the waterline), a hull width of 9.2 m and a draft of up to 3.3 m. The half meter less hull width was an attempt to achieve higher speeds. It led to more stability problems than in the previous classes. The conversions up to the war brought only minor improvements and the necessary ballast reduced the range.
The appearance was characterized by a large, wide chimney into which the exhaust pipes of the three water tube boilers of the Thornycroft type were led. The boilers supplied two simple geared turbine sets of the Belluzzo design arranged one behind the other with the steam required to deliver up to 44,000 hp to the two screws. 38 kn could be reached under test drive conditions. After the necessary modifications, only a maximum of 32 kn could be achieved under operating conditions. The maximum oil supply of 510 t gave the destroyers a range of 3600 nm at a cruising speed of 12 kn.
The ships of the Folgore class were like their predecessors in the Sauro , Turbine and Dardo classes with two 120 mm L / 50 twin guns of the Ansaldo type (model 1926) and two 40 mm L / 39 type anti-aircraft guns of the Vickers type -Terni (model 1917), two twin 13.2 mm L / 76-Fla machine guns of the Breda type armed. For this purpose, the destroyers had two 533 mm triple torpedo tube sets, two depth charges and had the option of carrying up to 54 mines if necessary .
By the end of 1940, the two-mm anti-aircraft guns and heavy twin-AA MG by five to six 20 mm 40-L / 65- machines guns replaced the type Breda. In 1942, the still existing Folgore and Lampo disembarked one of their torpdo tube sets, in its place of which two 37 mm L / 54 Breda automatic cannons were installed on the two destroyers.
Calls
All four ships belonged to the 8th destroyer squadron in Taranto in 1940 and were lost during their missions in World War II .
Shortly after Italy joined the war, the squadron with all four units was involved in an advance by the Italian fleet, which secured a convoy to Italian Libya and met the British Mediterranean fleet. The ships did not play an active part in the ensuing sea battle at Punta Stilo . The units of the class were only involved three or four times in such operations with the fleet. At the turn of the year Folgore and Fulmine were under the “9. Destroyer Squadron ”was involved in operations against Greek positions in Albania .
The focus of the use of the ships in the war was securing convoy to Libya but also between Brindisi and Corfu .
Whereabouts of the ships
On April 16, 1941, a convoy consisting of the German freighters Adana (4205 BRT), Aegina (2447 BRT), Arta (2452 BRT) and Iserlohn (3704 BRT) as well as the Italian Sabaudia (1590 BRT) became a convoy for the German Africa Corps Intercepted and completely destroyed near the Kerkenna Islands by the British Force K from Malta with the destroyers Jervis , Nubian , Mohawk and Janus . The Luca Tarigo was able to sink the Mohawk by torpedo hits before her own sinking. The two other Italian security destroyers, Baleno and Lampo , also sank after heavy hits, only 37 men of the Baleno were rescued and 141 men of the 205-man crew of the Lampo died. The following day, four Italian destroyers, seven torpedo boats and two hospital ships as well as sea rescue planes managed to save 1248 of the 3000 shipwrecked soldiers. The Lampo , which was set up in shallow water , was lifted in August 1941 and, after being repaired, came back into service in mid-March 1942.
The Italian supply convoy "Beta" with seven ships from Naples to Tripoli , secured by six destroyers (including Fulmine and Euro ) and a long-range coverage group with the heavy cruisers Trento and Trieste , was on 9 November 1941 by Force K with the cruisers Aurora and Penelope as well as the destroyers Lance and Lively , who had maneuvered themselves unnoticed into a favorable attack position with the help of radar and the seven transporters ( Duisburg (7389 BRT), San Marco (3113 BRT), Maria (6339 BRT), Sagitta (5153 BRT) , Rina Corrado (5180 GRT) and the tankers Conte di Misurata (5014 GRT) and Minatitlan (7599 GRT)) sunk. Of the security destroyers, the Fulmine sank with 141 men, Grecale and Euro were damaged.
On 2 December 1942, the British sank Force Q from Bône the Folgore in the Strait of Sicily , which sank with 124 men.
In the last attempts to bring supplies to the German-Italian tank army in Africa, the destroyers Leone Pancaldo and Hermes with 300 men each on board and Lampo with a load of ammunition were repeatedly attacked by Allied aircraft on April 30 off Cape Bon . Pancaldo and Lampo sank after being hit by bombs. The Hermes was brought in, unfit to drive, to La Goulette near Tunis .
units
| Surname | Shipyard | Keel laying | Launch | in service | Whereabouts |
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| Baleno | CNQ, Fiume | October 1, 1929 | March 22, 1931 | 06/15/1932 | sunk on April 17, 1941 off Sfax by British destroyers in the battle for the Tarigo convoy |
| Folgore | OCP, Naples | 01/30/1930 | 04/26/1931 | 07/01/1932 | sunk on December 2, 1942 by British Force Q ships in the Strait of Sicily |
| Lampo | OCP, Naples | 01/30/1930 | 07/26/1931 | August 13, 1932 March 18, 1942 |
sunk on April 17, 1941 off Sfax in the battle for the Tarigo convoy, lifted and repaired again sunk on April 30, 1943 by bombs off Tunis. |
| Fulmines | CNQ, Fiume | October 1, 1929 | 08/02/1931 | 09/14/1932 | sunk on November 9, 1941 by ships of the British Force K while defending the so-called Duisburg convoy |
The Italian Navy owned a small Aviso called Baleno from 1861 to 1907 , which was built in Great Britain as the Fairy Queen .
The name Folgore was used in the Regia Marina from 1886 to 1900 by a torpedo Aviso built in Italy.
The name Fulmine was used by the Regia Marina's first destroyer from 1900 to 1921, which was built in Italy.
Lampo was the name of the type ship of the Regia Marina's first destroyer class, which was delivered by Schichau and was in service from 1900 to 1921.
literature
- Whitley, MH (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. Cassell Publishing. ISBN 1-85409-521-8 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , July 6-11, 1940 Mediterranean Sea, Battle of Punta Stilo (Calabria)
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , 6 and 9 January 1941 Mediterranean .
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , April 13-16, 1941 Mediterranean
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 7.- 11.9.1941 Mediterranean.
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 29.4.- 13.5.1943 Mediterranean, the final battle for Tunis and Bizerte.