Spica class (1935)
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 Side view of the Spica class |
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| Technical specifications | ||
| Ship type : | Torpedo boat | |
| Displacement : | 808 ts standard 1,040 ts maximum |
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| Length: | 83.50 m | |
| Width: | 8.10 m | |
| Draft : | 2.55 m | |
| Drive : | 2 steam turbines from Franco Tosi , 2 shafts 19,000 PS (14,200 kW ) |
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| Fuel supply: | 201–227 t of oil | |
| Speed : | 34 kn (63 km / h ) | |
| Crew : | 116 | |
| Armament: | 3 × 100 mm L / 47 guns 10 × 20 mm anti-aircraft guns - guns 2 × 13.2 mm anti-aircraft machine guns 4 × 1 (or 2 × 2) 457 mm torpedo tubes up to 20 sea mines |
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The Spica class was a class of torpedo boats used by the Italian Navy . The total of 32 units were put into service in several groups in slightly different versions between 1936 and 1938 and were all used in World War II, 23 did not survive the war. Two units were given to Sweden in 1940.
history
planning
Article 8 (a) of the 1930 Naval Treaty allowed any number of surface combat ships to be built with less than 600 ts (610 t) displacement. With this in mind, the Italian Navy Design Office began project work in 1932 for a ship class within this specified value. By reducing the artillery from four to three 10 cm guns in the final design and by using 45.7 cm torpedo tubes, after these had not been used in new buildings since the early 1920s, the given displacement limit was achieved only to exceed a few tons. Defensive (anti-submarine hunting and escort security) and offensive tasks were planned, so a combined gun and torpedo armament was chosen. As a result, the type was the first new, nominally and qualitatively as a real torpedo boat to be classified as a real torpedo boat design after the torpedo boats of the 1 PN class from the First World War.
As a parallel construction of the French Navy , the main Italian competitor in the Mediterranean, using the 600 ts clause, was the La Peloméne class . The German Reich used the clause with the torpedo boats in 1935 .
construction
With the 1932 budget, the two prototypes Spica and Astore were approved. They were laid down on May 24, 1933 at Bacini e Scali Napoletani in Naples . The launch of the Spica took place on March 11th, that of the Astore on April 22nd, 1934; the commissioning took place on May 30th and June 16th, 1935.
The following boats Centauro and Climene were approved in 1933 and on May 30 and July 25, 1934 at Cant. Nav. Riuniti, Ancona laid down. Launched on February 19 and January 7, 1936, they went into service on June 16 and April 24, 1936, respectively. The main dimensions and the displacement of the type were slightly changed, so that the modification of the superstructure and a different composition and arrangement of the armament became possible.
The next boats Perseo and Sirio were on November 12, 1934 at Cant. Nav. Di Quarnaro, Fiume laid on the keel, dimensions, displacement and storage of bunkers differed only slightly from their predecessors. The armament and its setup also remained unchanged.
The construction of another ten boats was approved in connection with the Abyssinian War. Aldebaran , Altair , Andromeda and Antares built the Ansaldo shipyard, Sestri, Castore and Cigno built Cant. Nav. Riuniti. Canopo and Cassiopeia were at Cant. Nav. Del Tirreno, Sagittario and Vega to the Cant. Nav. Di Quarnaro awarded. Compared to the previous group, the technical data changed only minimally, so that they can be described as replicas. The keels were laid between October 2, 1935 and March 11, 1936, the launching followed from June 14 to November 22, 1936. The boats went into service from October 8, 1936 to April 26, 1937.
With the 1936 budget, in addition to twelve destroyers, 16 other boats of the Spica type were approved. When the keel was laid between October 29, 1936 to September 29, 1937, Alcione , Airone , Aretusa , Ariel , Clio , Circe , Calliope , Calipso near Ansaldo, Libra , Lince , Lira , Lupo near Cant. nav. del Quarnaro, Pallade , Partenope , Pleiadi and Polluce at Bacini e Scali Napoletani.
period of service
The two prototype buildings Spica and Astore were sold to Sweden in 1940 and run there as the Romulus class. They entered service with the Swedish Navy on March 27 and only retired in 1958.
The boats formed the following divisions:
- Airone , Alcione , Aretusa and Ariel : 1st torpedo boat division in Tripoli
- Libra , Lince , Lira and Lupo : 8th torpedo boat division in Naples ,
- Canopo and Cassiopea: 9th Torpedo Boat Division in Cagliari
- Perseo , Sagittario , Sirio and Vega : 10th Torpedo Boat Division in Naples
- Castore , Centauro , Cigno , Climene : 11th torpedo boat division in Syracuse
- Aldebaran , Altair , Andromeda and Antares : 12th torpedo boat division in La Spezia
- Calipso , Calliope , Circe , Clio : 13th torpedo boat division in La Spezia
- Pallade , Partenope , Pleiadi , Polluce : 14th torpedo boat division in Syracuse.
The main task of the boats in the Second World War was the guardianship. Here, among other things, several submarines could be sunk by boats of the class, e.g. B. Pleiadi the British submarine HMS Undaunted . A total of 22 boats were lost in Italian services. Lira was lifted after the surrender of Italy by the Wehrmacht and listed as TA 49 , but sank before completion on November 4, 1944 in an air raid.
The seven remaining units remained in service with the Italian Navy for a long time after the war. So went Libra and Sagittario until 1964 out of service.
Further developments
The Ariete class was a reissue of the Spica design modified after the war experience. For the Swedish Navy, four torpedo boats in the modified Spica design were built from 1941 onwards due to the positive experience with Italian purchases . The shipyard CRDA, Monfalcone built nine torpedo boats as a reduced version of the Spica class for the Siamese Navy .
technical description
Hull and drive
The hulls of the two prototypes reached a length of 80.35 meters, a width of 8.2 meters and a draft of 2.26 and 2.82 meters respectively. The type displacement was 630 ts, in use 901 tons were displaced. The Climene and Centauro had slightly different values. They measured 81.4 meters in length, 8.2 meters in width with a draft of 2.38 and 3.01 meters, as well as 652 ts type and 1010 t operational displacement.
The drive was provided by two Yarrow boilers with superheaters, which emitted their steam on two 9500 PSw Tosi turbines for two shafts. A maximum of 34 kn should be achieved. In tests, the design speed was exceeded by the Spica at 730 tons at 37.5 knots.
The Spica group reached 1728 nautical miles at 16 knots and 620 nautical miles at 30 knots with 201 t of oil. The bunker capacity of the Climene and Centauro was increased to 221 t, so the cruising range at 1960 nm was 15 knots and 705 nautical miles at 30 knots. The oil reserves of the Perseo and Aldebaran groups were 207 tons for 1892 nm at 15 kn and 683 nm at 30 kn. The Alcione Group carried 215 t of oil. The propulsion system remained the same for all boats.
Armament
The original main armament of the draft was three manually operated 10 cm L / 47 SK guns M1931 from OTO , which were only suitable for sea target fire with only 45 ° barrel elevation. After the model with a 60 ° tube elevation was available in 1937, the mount was replaced by this on the existing boats, and new ones have already been completed with this. Two guns were always arranged aft, with the second one raised above the other, the third one on the forecastle in front of the bridge.
In addition, there were two 4 cm double flak guns (L / 39) on platforms behind the funnel (2 × 2-4 cm), two 13.2 mm double machine guns and two depth charges. The boats of the Perseo / Climene group received four 13.2 mm machine guns without the two 4 cm guns, which were replaced by 2 cm L / 65 anti-aircraft machine guns at the end of 1939, so they held in total ten 13.2 mm tubes. The other boats drove with eight 13.2 mm machine guns.
Four torpedo tubes in different positions and combinations of single and double tubes were installed on the units. Spica and Astore drove, for example, with a double set in the midship line and two simple torpedo tubes on each side on port and starboard.
literature
- Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare: Le Navi d'Italia . V . I cacciatorpediniere italiani , 1900–1971 (Fioravanzo, Pollina, Ricciardi, Gnifetti). Rome, 1971.
Web links
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ a b Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats, vol. 1. 1914 to 1939. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 , p. 187
- ↑ a b c d Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats, vol. 1. 1914 to 1939. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 , p. 189
- ↑ a b Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats, vol. 1. 1914 to 1939. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 , p. 190
- ↑ MJ Whitley: Destroyers in World War II . Motorbuch Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 , p. 176