Giulio Cesare (ship, 1914)
Giulio Cesare in its original state (1914)
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The RN Giulio Cesare was an Italian battleship of the Conte di Cavour class in the First and Second World War . It was named after the Roman statesman and general Julius Caesar . The ship's motto was Caesar Adest ( Latin for Caesar is there ). After the Second World War, the ship was delivered to the Soviet Union as a reparation , where it was used as Novorossiysk until its sinking in 1955 .
First World War
The Giulio Cesare was laid down on June 24, 1910 at Ansaldo in Genoa and launched on October 15, 1911. After almost four years of construction, it was put into service at the Regia Marina on May 14, 1914. The ship did not have any active combat missions during World War I. In 1923 it was involved in the brief Italian invasion of the Greek island of Corfu . From 1928 to 1933 the ship was used as an artillery training ship.
modification
In 1933, extensive reconstruction of the ship began, which took four years and resulted in an almost completely new ship. The 30.5 cm gun turret amidships was removed, and the 30.5 cm guns on the remaining four turrets were reamed to 32 cm caliber. New engines were installed that could bring the ship to 28 knots (52 km / h) with an output of 93,000 WPS (68,400 kW) . The newly developed Pugliese torpedo defense system was installed to protect against torpedoes . In addition, she received new bridge structures and a new bow.
Compare Giulio Cesare before and after the renovation
Original appearance of Giulio Cesare
Appearance of the Giulio Cesare after the renovation
Second World War
After Italy entered the war, the Giulio Cesare took part in the naval battle at Punta Stilo on July 8, 1940 , the first conflict between the Italian and British navies . During the battle, the Giulio Cesare was hit by a 38.1 cm shell from the HMS Warspite at a distance of over 15 miles . This is one of the greatest hit ranges to date on a moving target. On the Italian side, blue smoke was seen rising from the Warspite , which was interpreted as a hit from a 32.0 cm grenade from Giulio Caesare . According to British information, however , the Warspite was not hit during the entire battle; the incident remains controversial to this day.
During the British attack on Taranto on the night of November 11-12, 1940, the Giulio Cesare was the only battleship in the port of Taranto that was not attacked by the British torpedo bombers. After that she was used exclusively for convoy cover and took part in the First Sea Battle in the Gulf of Syrte . In 1942 it was found that the ship no longer met the requirements for frontline service, and it was used as a training ship for the rest of the war. After the end of the war, the ship was delivered to the Soviet Union as a reparation.
Novorossiysk
The Soviet fleet commissioned the battleship as Novorossiysk in 1949 . Until 1955 she was first the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet , then again an artillery training ship.
On October 29, 1955, the Novorossiysk was lying in the roads of Sevastopol when she was shaken by a huge explosion under her forecastle at around 1:30 a.m. The force of the explosion, which was estimated at 1.2 tons of TNT , tore numerous holes in the hull of the battleship, which slowly began to sink over the bow. At 4:15 a.m. - two hours and 45 minutes after the detonation - the Novorossiysk capsized , and 15 hours later she sank for good. Due to a miscalculation by Vice Admiral Viktor Parchomenko , the crew stayed in their quarters inside the ship after the detonation, 608 sailors were therefore killed in the largest disaster of the Soviet fleet. The sinking was kept secret until the 1980s.
The cause of the explosion is still controversial today. The official and most likely explanation is that a German magnetic mine from WWII exploded. In the following two years, 19 mines were found in the harbor bay, eleven of them with an explosive force comparable to the detonation that had sunk the Novorossiysk . However, this theory is doubted by critics, as the crater under the wreck is too small for such a mine. In addition, the batteries of the magnetos used had a maximum life of nine years and other ships had previously anchored at the same berth, which was considered mine-free, without igniting a mine.
According to conspiracy theories, the ship was blown up by Italian commandos or the KGB to create a ground for war against Turkey to conquer the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles .
literature
- Klaus Gröbig: Battleship “Giulio Cesare”. The fate of an Italian capital ship (= ships, people, fates. No. 110, ZDB -ID 1325248-3 ). Rudolf Stade, Kiel 2002.
