Impero (ship)

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Kingdom of Italy - Marina Regia Naval War Flag
Country of origin Italy
Ship type Battleship
Ship class Littorio class
Shipyard Ansaldo , Genoa
from 1941 CRDA , Trieste
Construction contract 1938
Keel laying May 14, 1938
Launch November 15, 1939
Commissioning -
building-costs ?
Ship motto ?
Whereabouts No longer completed
Shell broken off in 1948
displacement  
Standard displacement -
Displacement -
Maximum displacement -
Dimensions  
Length over all 240.70 m
Waterline length (KWL) 224.05 m
Width over everything 32.92 m
Height above freeboard ?
Height above everything ?
Draft (standard) Cover 4.5 m
Draft (maximum) 10.54 m
Propulsion system  
Drive type Steam turbines
Boiler system 8 oil-fired Yarrow boilers
Turbines 4 sets of Belluzzo steam turbines
with single gear
Shafts & screws 4 shaft, 4 three-wing screws
power 140,000 WPS (105,000 kW )
fuel Heavy fuel oil
Fuel supply 3700 t (normal)
4000 t (use)
4243 t (maximum)
Fuel consumption ?
control  
Steering gear 3 oars in the stern (2 behind the screws)
Performance  
Top speed -
Marching speed -
Power to weight ratio 3.18 t / PS
Range -
Armament  
Main artillery -
Middle artillery -
Air defense -
Armor  
Side armor (vertical) -
Upper deck (horizontal) 38 mm
Armored deck (horizontal) 162-207 mm
Lower deck (horizontal) 60 mm
Torpedo bulkheads 40 mm
Main artillery -
Middle artillery -
Command tower -
Chimney shafts -
Aircraft  
Flight system -
Planes -
crew  
Normal crew -

The RN Impero was an Italian battleship of the Littorio class from the Second World War . She was the third and penultimate ship in her class, named after the Italian word for “Imperium” or “Reich”, as with her sister ship RN Roma , alluding to the time of the Roman Empire . It was launched on November 15, 1939, but it was not completed due to circumstances that have not yet been clarified. The unfinished shell was sunk in a US air raid on February 15, 1945 in the port of Trieste , lifted in 1947 and scrapped in Venice from 1948 onwards .

history

prehistory

As the third and penultimate ship of the Littorio class , the RN Impero, like her sister ship RN Roma, was commissioned in 1938. This 2nd series was intended as an answer to the Richelieu class launched by France in 1935 , which in turn was an answer to the first two ships RN Littorio and RN Vittorio Veneto of the 1st series , which were built in Italy in 1934 and completed in 1940 . These two new battleships contained compared to the two older units now a number of improvements in bow shape , seaworthiness , hull structure , armor , fire control , command bridge , board flight plant , machinery, communications equipment and some more, so it that the most advanced units of the other navies in no way inferior or were ahead of them.

Ceremonial start of construction

The fact that the new battleships were given great propaganda and symbolic value by the fascist regime is proven by the choice of name. RN Impero was named after the Italian word for “empire” or “empire”, which was obviously an allusion to the ancient Roman empire or the empire that had existed since 1936 (and until 1941) after the Italian-Ethiopian war . The keel-laying of this new battleship on May 14, 1938 was celebrated with great pomp with great pomp with the participation of the greats from politics and the military.

Launch and construction freeze

The construction of the hull was smooth and even slightly faster than initially estimated, so the launch on 15 November 1939 in the Sestri Ponente - yard of Ansaldo in Genoa could take place. The completion of the Impero was planned for the end of 1941, so, as with the RN Roma built in parallel at CRDA in Trieste , it should take four instead of six years to complete significantly less time than the two first ships RN Littorio and RN Vittorio Veneto . However, its completion was delayed considerably after the launch, because the work, contrary to all plans, progressed only slowly. The ship, which was not even half-finished, was towed from Genoa to Trieste in 1941, as the Ansaldo shipyard's capacities were needed for the repair and maintenance of the units in service in the Mediterranean . CRDA then took over the completion of the ship, but in the same year the work, which was no longer carried out with the intended priority and speed, was discontinued due to circumstances that have not yet been fully clarified. A lack of steel was often given later as the reason or cause, but it is much more likely that the shell suffered certain damage in an unknown manner after it was launched, which was only discovered later and possibly caused difficulties during construction. These must have been so severe that under the given circumstances in times of war repairs or further construction was no longer an option. As early as 1941, when CRDA took over the Impero , the status of its completion was so behind that it was viewed by parts of the Regia Marina as a floating hull that was practically no longer usable, whereupon it lost interest in the circumstances.

On the other hand, the work on the RN Roma , which is also being equipped at CRDA, continued without any problems with the highest priority and was even further intensified after the construction of the Impero with the freed workers. Therefore, the often-cited lack of steel does not seem very realistic, because in the Trieste shipyard in 1940 by was the same since December 1941 continue with great effort in the repair and overhaul aerial torpedoes at the Battle of Taranto by British torpedo bomber ran aground Conte di Cavour worked. In addition, here - as at other Italian shipyards - smaller units such as submarines were still built, so that there should not have been any real shortage of steel and labor.

The end

The unfinished ship subsequently stayed in Trieste and was apparently forgotten. On September 9, 1943 (according to another version on September 10) after a day earlier Marshal Badoglio to succeed Mussolini , Office of the Prime Minister a separate peace with the Allies closed and the German Wehrmacht had occupied Italy to a final exit from the axis to prevent the Impero, together with the Conte di Cavour, which has been under repair at CRDA since December 1941 (sunk on the day of the armistice), was declared the spoils of German war. While work on the Conte di Cavour continued after its elevation under German direction with the participation of the Social Republic of Italy , there was of course no meaningful use for the Impero . She therefore remained lying in the port of Trieste, was occasionally used by the Wehrmacht as a target ship until she was destroyed on February 15, 1945 by a heavy US air raid together with the Conte di Cavour - curiously, the third sinking in her career. was sunk in shallow water by bomb hits.

In 1947, its hull, which had meanwhile been hindering shipping, was lifted and made floatable again, after another month in berth, it was towed to Venice and from 1948 it was scrapped.