La Masa class
_crowned.svg){kind=small} La Masa class |
|
|---|---|
 Angelo Bassini 1923
|
|
| overview | |
| Ship type : |
cacciatorpediniere destroyer 1929: torpedine torpedo boat |
| Units: | 8th |
| Builder: | Odero , Sestri Ponente / Genoa |
| Keel laying : | from September 1916 |
| 1. Launch : | September 6, 1917 Giuseppe La Masa |
| 1. Commissioning: | September 28, 1917 La Masa |
| Use until: | on December 31, 1958, Giacinto Carini was canceled as the last ship of the class and then scrapped in 1963 |
| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement : | 785 ts 851ts maximum |
| Length: | 73.5 m above sea level, 72.5 m pp. |
| Width: | 7.3 m |
| Draft : | up to 2.8 m |
| Drive : | 4 Thornycroft boilers 2 Tosi turbines 15,500 HP |
| Fuel supply: | 150 tons of oil |
| Speed : | 30 (29) kn |
| Range : | 2,230 nm at 12.5 kn |
| Crew : | 84 |
| Armament: | 4 × 102 mm L / 45 guns 2 × 76 mm L / 40 guns 2 × 6.5 mm L / 80 machine guns 2 × 2 457 mm torpedo tubes 10 sea mines |
| last : | 1 × 102 mm L / 45 guns, 2 depth bomb throwers, mine detector |
The La Masa class was a class of eight relatively small destroyers of the Italian Regia Marina . After the pilot and sirtori classes, it was the third of four classes of boats built between 1913 and 1919 of almost the same size, which differed only in terms of their armament. Six destroyers of the La Masa class were still used in World War I , of which the Benedetto Cairoli was lost after a collision with the Giacinto Carini . All four classes were reclassified to torpedo boats on October 1, 1929 . In World War II, five boats were La Masa class lost. The two remaining boats were converted into fast minesweepers and formed the Giuseppe Cesare Abba class with two similar conversions of the Pilo class .
Technical specifications
The La Masa class was a further development of the Sirtori class . Four boats were ordered in 1915, four more in 1916. All eight boats were built at Cantiere Odero in Sestri Ponente ( Genoa ). Their main artillery consisted of four 102-mm Schneider- Armstrong L / 45 cannons , the two in front side by side, the two aft one behind the other on the center line. The guns were the Italian variant of the British 4-inch Mk.V gun. Were added two 76-mm Ansaldo - Flak L / 40 (instead of the 40-mm anti-aircraft guns of Sirtori class ) and four Italian 6.5 mm machine guns , a variant of the Colt Browning-MG . To do this, the destroyers carried four 450 mm torpedo tubes in swiveling twin sets. Ten mines could also be carried. This equipment with the newer and heavier guns caused a reduction in the main artillery from six in the Sirtori class to just four. Since the two aft were now positioned one behind the other, one broadside continued to consist of three cannons.
The boats were 73.5 m long and 7.3 m wide and had a draft of 3.0 m . Their water displacement was 660 t (standard) and 875 t (maximum). The machinery consisted of four oil-fired Thornycroft - boilers and two Tosi - steam turbines , the 15,500 horsepower delivered. The ships had two waves . The top speed when commissioned was 34 knots , but had dropped to just 30 knots at the start of World War II . The bunker capacity was 150 tons of oil, the range 2230 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 13 knots. The crew consisted of about 100 men.
In 1929 the boats were reclassified as torpedo boats . Their armament was modified after Italy entered the Second World War , primarily to strengthen the anti-aircraft armament. After that it was no longer the same for all boats. Between 1940 and 1942, five of the boats - Angelo Bassini , Enrico Cosenz , Nicola Fabrizi , Giuseppe La Farina and Giacomo Medici - had two or even three of the 102 mm cannons and one of the two torpedo tube sets removed. In their place they received six 20 mm Flak L / 65 from Breda and two depth charges . On the Giacinto Carini and the Giuseppe La Masa , a 533 mm torpedo tube triplet set was installed behind the third chimney, in addition to the 450 mm torpedo tube twin set on the aft deck. In addition, these two boats received four 20 mm flak twins L / 65 of the Breda 1935 type.
The two boats that survived the World War, Giacinto Carini and Nicola Fabrizi , were converted into fast minesweepers and reclassified in 1953/54 . After that they only had a 102-mm cannon and three 20-mm flak twins L / 65, but were now equipped with radar and mine-clearing equipment.
Units and whereabouts
The eight units of the class originated at Cantieri Odero in Sestri Ponente , they were named after personalities of the Italian independence and unification efforts.
| Name and ID | Keel laying | Launch | in service | Whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Giuseppe La Masa (LM) |
September 9, 1916 | 9/6/1917 | 9/28/1917 | Confiscated by the German Wehrmacht at the shipyard in Naples on September 9, 1943 and blown up on September 11, 1943 |
|
Giacinto Carini (CA, CR) |
September 9, 1916 | November 7, 1917 | 11/30/1917 | Reclassified as a minesweeper in 1954; retired in December 1958 |
| Benedetto Cairoli | September 9, 1916 | 12/28/1917 | 3.2.1918 | On l0. Sunk in the Ionian Sea in April 1918 after colliding with sister ship Giacinto Carini |
|
Angelo Bassini (BS) |
October 2, 1916 | March 28, 1918 | 1.5.1918 | Sunk on May 28, 1943 during an American air raid in Livorno |
|
Nicola Fabrizi (FB) |
September 9, 1916 | July 18, 1917 | July 12, 1918 | Reclassified as a minesweeper in 1954 ; retired in February 1957 |
|
Giuseppe La Farina (FR, LF) |
12/29/1917 | 3/12/1919 | 3/18/1919 | On May 4, 1941, ran into an Italian mine off the east coast of Tunisia and sank |
|
Agostino Bertani ; 1921: Enrico Cosenz (CS) |
December 23, 1917 | 6.6.1919 | June 13, 1919 | On September 27, 1943, after severe damage from German air attack in the Adriatic Sea at Lastovo scuttled |
|
Giacomo Medici (MD) |
October 2, 1916 | September 6, 1918 | 13.9.1919 | Sunk on April 16, 1943 in an American air raid in Catania |
The destroyers of the La Masa class, like their predecessors, were used against the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic . The first loss occurred on 10. April 1918, when Benedetto Cairoli , who had been in service for just two months , sank in the Ionian Sea after a collision with the sister ship Giacinto Carini .
When the armistice came into force at the end of the First World War, two boats of the class, Giuseppe La Masa and Nicola Fabrizi , belonged to the association led by Audace , which occupied Trieste for Italy with 200 carabiniers .
The Agostino Bertani , which was only completed in June 1919 as the penultimate boat of the class, was taken over by officers in Trieste on the night of October 8, 1919, who then wanted Gabriele D'Annunzio in Fiume . They transferred the destroyer to Fiume. D'Annunzio declared Fiume independent against the will of the Italian government. Italy occupied Fiume at the end of the year and the ships defected to the legionaries returned to the Regia Marina in January 1921, where they were decommissioned. Like the other defected ships, the Bertani was renamed. The destroyer was put back into service as Enrico Cosenz . The new namesake (1820–1898) was a former chief of staff of Italy.
In 1923, a number of destroyers of the class were in action during the Corfu crisis with the units off Corfu and in the Dodecanese, which were supposed to put pressure on Greece.
literature
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2000, ISBN 0-87021-326-1 .