Sirtori class
_crowned.svg){kind=small} Sirtori class |
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 Giovanni Acerbi 1929
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| overview | |
| Ship type : |
cacciatorpediniere destroyer 1929: torpedine torpedo boat |
| Units: | 4th |
| Builder: | Odero , Sestri Ponente / Genoa |
| Keel laying : | February 1916 |
| 1. Launch : | November 24, 1916 Giuseppe Sirtori |
| 1. Commissioning: | December 1916 Sirtori |
| Use until: | on September 24, 1943, Francesco Stocco was lost as the last ship of the class |
| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement : | 790 ts 912 ts 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 : | 2,000 nm at 14 kn |
| Crew : | 84 |
| Armament: | 6 × 102 mm L / 35 guns, 2 × 2 457 mm torpedo tubes, 10 sea mines |
| Armament from 1921: | 6 × 102 mm L / 45 guns 2 × 40 mm L / 39 guns 2 × 6.5 mm L / 80 machine guns 2 × 2 457 mm torpedo tubes 10 sea mines |
| Armament from 1942: | 4 × 102 mm L / 45 guns 6 x 20 mm Breda - automatic cannons 2 x 457 mm torpedo tubes 2 x water bomb thrower |
The Sirtori class was a class of four relatively small destroyers of the Italian Regia Marina , the second of four classes of boats built between 1913 and 1919 of almost the same size, which differed only in terms of their armament. The Pilo class from 1913 with eight boats was followed by the Sirtori class from 1916 with four boats, the La Masa class from 1916 with eight boats and finally the Cantore - or Generali class from 1919 with six boats. They all displaced between 615 and 709 tons (standard), were 73–73.5 m long and 7.3 m wide and had three chimneys.
The ships of the Pilo and Sirtori class and five of the La Masa class were used in the First World War . All units of the four classes were reclassified to torpedo boats on October 1, 1929 . Of the 26 similar boats, 24 were still used in World War II .
Technical specifications
The Sirtori class was a further development of the Pilo class. Their main artillery no longer consisted of 3 inch cannons, as in the Pilo class , but of six 10.2 cm L / 35 guns, three on each side, and their four torpedo tubes were arranged in sets of twins. All four boats of the class were on 2 February 1916, which Cantieri Odero in Sestri Ponente to put Kiel . The commissioning took place in the months of December 1916 to July 1917.
The boats were 73.5 m long (72.5 m in the waterline ) and 7.3 m wide and had a maximum draft of 2.8 m . Their water displacement was 790 t (standard) and 912 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 30 knots , but at the beginning of the Second World War it had dropped to only about 25 knots. The bunker capacity was 150 tons of oil. The crew numbered 84 to 85 men.
They were originally armed with six 10.2 cm Schneider Armstrong L / 35 cannons and four 45 cm torpedo tubes in side sets of twins. Up to ten mines could be carried. From 1921 the old main artillery was replaced by more modern 102 mm L / 45 guns as well as two 40 mm L / 40 guns from Vickers-Terni for air defense and two 6.5 mm L / 80 machine guns of the type Colt-Browning given on board.
In 1942, the armament of the two remaining boats ( Giuseppe Sirtori and Francesco Stocco ), which had been classified as torpedo boats since 1929, was modified by reducing the number of 10.2 cm guns and torpedo tubes in favor of increased anti-aircraft armament. It now consisted of two 102-mm cannons, two 40-mm flak and six 20-mm Flak L / 65 from Breda as well as two 45-cm torpedo tubes and two depth charges .
Mission history
The four destroyers of the class came into service with the Regia Marina between December 1916 and July 1917 during the First World War; they eventually formed the 5th destroyer squadron stationed in Venice. The Giovanni Acerbi took part in the naval battle in the Strait of Otranto on March 15, 1917 . It was one of the first Allied units to leave Brindisi to intercept units of the Austro-Hungarian Navy that had attacked the Otranto Barrier during the night. The association included the British town cruisers Dartmouth and Bristol , the Italian flotilla leader Aquila and another three Pilo-class destroyers . The association could only run 24 knots due to the urgent need of an overhaul in Bristol . When enemy ships were discovered in the morning and it was realized that the escaping were two destroyers, the Italian units were sent to pursue them. The destroyers Csepel and Balaton of the Tátra class , fleeing into the protection of the coast , had previously successfully attacked an Italian convoy between Albania and Italy as a diversion. In the pursuit battle at high speed, the Italians immediately scored a hit on the Balaton , which in turn hit the Aquila and put its machine out of operation. The Italian destroyers stayed with their incapable of maneuvering flotilla commander and did not pursue them. At about the same time, the allies recognized the actual attack force against the Otranto barrier, the three rapid cruisers Novara , Helgoland and Saida , also on the march back to Cattaro . Dartmouth and Bristol ordered the destroyers Acerbi and Mosto to them and ran into a protective position for the Aquila . However, the rapid cruisers ran a north-west course to escape the artillery superior British cruisers. In the pursuit battle the cruisers of both parties received hits, but the burden of the fight was soon on the Dartmouth , as only their 152 mm guns could reach the enemy.The Bristol with its mixed armament fell further and further back due to insufficient speed, so that the Acerbi had already overtaken them without orders. The Allied commander ordered the moment to end the engagement when he feared the three rapid cruisers would turn against the single Dartmouth as reinforcements were coming towards them. This actually came, but was still a long way off, they only tried to secure the towing of the badly hit Novarra by changing position .
The order to temporarily terminate the battle was not correctly interpreted on the Acerbi , which was approaching solely for a torpedo attack. This was interrupted in the concentrated fire of the three cruisers after failure of one of the front guns before the destroyer came within torpedo range.
Acerbi then received the order to cancel the battle by radio and she accompanied the Dartmouth on the march back. On the UC 25 , the cruiser was torpedoed despite a fuse that had grown to six destroyers and could only be brought back to port with great difficulty.
On 13./14. August 1917, the four destroyers of the class left Venice for the first time together with six other destroyers for an operation against the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The opposing formation at sea withdrew, however; only Vincenzo Giordano Orsini came into brief combat contact.
Even in the majority of the following missions from Venice there were no battles with units of the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
On November 4, 1918, the four destroyers of the class ran under the leadership of the old ship of the line Emanuele Filiberto to Fiume to “protect the Italian population”. This was done in the knowledge that, according to the existing agreements, the city should not fall to Italy. Already on the approach Acerbi were detached to Abbazia, today Opatija and Orsini to the island Lussino, today Lošinj , in order to prepare a takeover to Italy there. Here, recorded Domenico Cavagnari , the commander of the Orsini from, who managed to move to Yugoslavia professed soldiers Lussino to deduct the mainland. In the following days, Sirtori and Stocco also went to various places and islands in the archipelago off Fiume to claim them for Italy. It was not until November 17 that other Italian naval units appeared, which also put the military ashore to assert Italian territorial claims.
From 1920 onwards the conversion of the class to more modern 102 mm L / 45 guns began. In August 1923, the Sirtori belonged to a naval association around the battleships Caio Duilio and Andrea Doria , which moved to Lakki (Italian: Portolago) on Leros during the Corfu crisis in order to increase the pressure on Greece. After the influx of more modern and larger post-war buildings, the small destroyers of the Pilo class and its three successor classes were downgraded to torpedo boats in autumn 1929. At the beginning of the 1930s, some of them were stationed in Sicily or Libya and transported captured insurgents such as Umar al-Muchtar to the places of their trials or to exile in Ustica . They also served as school boats or as target tugs.
Whereabouts of the boats
Two boats, the Giovanni Acerbi and the Vincenzo Giordano Orsini , were used in Eritrea and were lost there. There they were assigned to the 5th Destroyer Squadron, which consisted of the three destroyers of the Leone class . The Giovanni Acerbi was badly hit by British bombers in early August 1940 after just a few inspection trips and could not be repaired on site. Largely disarmed, the boat was finally sunk on April 4, 1941 during a British air raid in Massaua .
The sister boat Vincenzo Giordano Orsini was four days later, on April 8, from its occupation of Massawa scuttled when taking the Base threatened by the British army.
When Italy entered the war, the other two boats belonged to the 3rd and 6th torpedo boat divisions together with three similar former destroyers of the Pilo etc. class and provided security service in the Mediterranean until the Italian surrender in September 1943.
Only a few days after the announcement of the armistice in Cassibile , the Giuseppe Sirtori was so badly damaged in a German air raid off Corfu on September 14, 1943, in the course of the German attack on Corfu that was carried out against stubborn Italian resistance that she was stranded on the beach had to and was blown up by its crew on September 25, 1943.
The Francesco Stocco was assigned to the newly formed command "Maritrafalba" in Brindisi on 21 October 1940 that for the implementation and assurance of the troop and supply transport to Albania was responsible. Only a few days later, on October 25th, she was assigned to the Forza Navale Speciale (FNS), which was supposed to carry out the planned but not carried out landing on Corfu when Italy was about to attack Greece . Then she carried out security work in the southern Adriatic again . It ran on January 31, 1941 off Ancona on a mine laid three days earlier by the British submarine Rorqual , but could be repaired again. The boat was sunk by German fighter pilots on September 24, 1943 also near Corfu.
Units of class
All four units in the class were built at the Cantieri Odero shipyard in Sestri Ponente .
| Name and ID | Keel laying | Launch | in service | Whereabouts |
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Giuseppe Sirtori (SR) |
02/02/1916 | 11/24/1916 | 12/22/1916 | On September 14, 1943, after a German air raid near Corfu, severely damaged, set on the beach and blown up on September 25, 1943 |
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Giovanni Acerbi (AC) |
02/02/1916 | 02/14/1917 | 02/26/1917 | At the beginning of August 1940 in Massaua irreparably damaged by a British air raid and then finally sunk in Massaua by British aerial bombs on April 4, 1941 |
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Vincenzo Giordano Orsini (OR) |
02/02/1916 | 04/23/1917 | 05/12/1917 | Sunk in Massaua on April 8, 1941 |
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Francesco Stocco (ST) |
02/02/1916 | May 5, 1917 | 07/19/1917 | Sunk by German aerial bombs near Corfu on September 24, 1943 |
Notes and individual references
- ↑ http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNIT_4-35_m1914.htm
- ↑ a b Halpern: World War I , p. 163ff.
- ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/40-10.htm
- ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/41-01.htm
- ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/43-09.htm
literature
- Robert Gardiner, Randal Gray: Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921 , Conway Maritime Press, London 1985, ISBN 0-85177-245-5
- Paul G. Halpern: A Naval History of World War I , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1995, ISBN 1-55750-352-4 .
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2000, ISBN 0-87021-326-1 )