Italian naval history
The Italian naval history is of the late national state unification of Italy dominated. Over the centuries, individual Italian states developed into sea powers that played an important role in the Mediterranean . Occasionally they cooperated in the defense against external dangers, otherwise they rivaled for maritime domination , trading establishments and colonies, especially because of their trade interests , and therefore also waged wars against each other.
With the discovery of America and new global sea routes , the Mediterranean and with it Italy lost its maritime role to sea powers on the Atlantic Ocean , in particular to Portugal , Spain , France , England and the Netherlands . In addition, some Italian states lost their independence as a result of the Italian Wars in the 16th century. The remaining maritime republics of Genoa and Venice , which had already reached the peak of their development, were each too small on their own to really set limits to the expansion of the Ottoman Empire at sea, even if some successes were not lacking. This development reached its lowest point with the Napoleonic occupation of Italy .
The establishment of the national Italian navy since 1861 was shaped by the claim to be in the tradition of long-gone naval powers . Much more difficult was the practical endeavor to form a new navy from small and very different naval forces from individual states , the effectiveness of which resulted not only from the sum of the warships , but above all from the well-managed cooperation of marines from all parts of the country. The "Royal Navy" of Italy (Regia Marina) developed into one of the largest naval forces in the world by 1940, particularly because of the Franco-Italian naval rivalry. During the Second World War , with the Suez Canal and Gibraltar, the accesses to the Mediterranean remained in British hands, which cut off Italy and the Regia Marina in an inland sea . Due to the lack of fuel, aircraft carriers or adequate protection by the air force and because of the British information superiority ( radar , ultra ), the action options of the prestigious battle fleet were limited to combat missions with good visibility and to operations in the central Mediterranean. With the armistice of September 8, 1943, the fleet had to be handed over to the Allies in Malta . Portions of this fleet made after the war, the foundation for the reconstruction of the Navy, which in 1946 after abolition of the monarchy in Italian Navy has been renamed. As a temporary solution, some ships and submarines were taken over from the United States until the Italian shipbuilding industry could replace them with newbuildings. In the following decades, the Republic of Italy ensured the preservation of a relatively small, balanced, high-quality navy despite financial constraints, which in turn operated primarily in the central Mediterranean within the framework of NATO . Since the end of the Cold War , the Marina Militare has contributed to a number of international military operations.
Antiquity
First fleets
The first notable fleets that arose on the coasts of Italy and operated from there were those of the Etruscans and those of the Greek cities of southern Italy.
The Etruscans secured by 535 BC with the naval victory of Alalia , they along with the Carthaginians in front of Corsica against the Greeks from Massalia and Alalia won, control of the northern Tyrrhenian Sea , which its territory along the coast of today's Tuscany and Lazio , the The name " Tyrrhenian thalassocracy ". Securing this sea area and fighting piracy in the western Mediterranean were of the greatest importance for Etruscan trade. The further Etruscan expansion failed in 474 BC in the naval battle of Kyme in the Gulf of Naples , when the fleets of Syracuse and Kyme defeated the Etruscans under Hieron I of Syracuse . Later on, the Etruscans were subject to the Romans on land and were incorporated into their empire. In contrast to the Greeks, who were known for their triremes , the Etruscans stayed with their Biremes until the end , possibly for reasons of cost.
In addition to Syracuse, which rose to become the most powerful city in southern Italy after the naval victory near Naples, Taranto was also considered a sea power. Both cities could each offer up to 100 trireme. The first Roman attempts to expand into southern Italy failed in 282 BC when Admiral Lucius Valerius and his ten ships were defeated by Taranto in the Gulf of the same name . Shortly afterwards, Roman ground forces attacked and sacked the city. Pyrrhus , who was called for help , achieved a few Pyrrhic victories with his reinforcements , but could not prevent the Romans from absorbing Tarento and then Syracuse.
Another notable seafaring city that Rome fell victim to was Antium , the capital of the Volscians . In 340 BC they attacked Ardea and Ostia with their fleet . The so provoked Romans made the first serious attempts to build their own navy in their Navalia . From the year 338 the Rostra of the captured ships of Antium adorned the Roman Forum .
The Roman Navy
- Main article: Roman Navy
The Romans were originally a rural people who, despite their proximity to the sea, had little connection to seafaring . The navy also played a secondary role in the Roman military. When the power struggle with Carthage for power in Sicily , Italy and the Mediterranean was confronted with the superior Carthaginian fleet, Rome tried to imitate their shipbuilding and to transfer the strength of the Roman land forces to the sea by using special boarding bridges ( Corvus ) and thus made the conquest of enemy warships much easier. In the First Punic War , a Roman fleet under Gaius Duilius won the naval battle of Mylae off Sicily in 260 BC , with which Rome overcame Carthaginian naval rule. After Gaius Duilius, Caio Duilio in Italian , the Italian Navy last named a warship at the beginning of the 21st century .
After the Romans had conquered all areas around the Mediterranean with the help of the fleet, the only thing left for the Roman navy in the Mediterranean was to fight piracy. In Italy the two important naval bases were Classe near Ravenna and Misenum near Naples. In Misenum was the stronger of the two main fleets and also most of the marine infantry , which had a special political significance. Until the end of the first century AD, Roman legions were not allowed to stay in Italy for security reasons , which is why the marine infantry in Misenum formed an important counterweight to the infamous Praetorian Guard in the city of Rome.
The naval associations and bases that the Romans maintained outside of Italy are often reflected in the naval history of other countries.
middle Ages
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, the remaining Eastern Roman-Byzantine Empire tried to restore the old unity, especially under Emperor Justinian I. For this reason, the Byzantine Navy played one off the coasts of Italy and in the western Mediterranean as early as the 5th century outstanding role, where it first prevailed against the fleets of Vandals and Ostrogoths and then contributed to the defense against Arab sea attacks until the 11th century .
In the 8th century the Lombards tried to conquer all of Italy. In doing so, they were directed not only against Byzantium, which ruled large parts of Italy, but also against the Pope , who called the Franks to help. Like the Byzantines, the Franks soon thought of a restoration of the old Roman Empire ( Renovatio imperii ) . Since Emperor Otto III. (980–1002) this claim was made by the Roman-German emperors , against which not only the popes resisted, but also many Italian city-states . Among these city-states there were some that were located on the coast, which turned to sea trade and were therefore later referred to as thalassocracies or "sea republics" ( it. Repubbliche marinare ). In the course of time they broke away from the Roman-German and Byzantine emperors and introduced democratic government structures. The four most famous of these maritime republics, which also shaped the Italian naval history of the Middle Ages, were Venice , Genoa , Pisa and Amalfi .
In 1947, the Republic of Italy decided to include the coats of arms of these four maritime republics in both the naval flag and the merchant flag . As a result, it was sometimes forgotten that there were other city-states in the Middle Ages that could claim the status of a maritime republic, including Ancona , Gaeta and Noli . The Republic of Ragusa , now Dubrovnik in Croatia , was under Venetian influence for a long time, but formed its own state on the other side of the Adriatic and is therefore not part of this representation. Other Italian states had smaller fleets, such as the Papal States since the 9th century and the Duchy of Savoy since the acquisition of the county of Nice . These naval forces will be considered in the further course.
The comparison between the Italian maritime republics and the German Hanseatic cities on the North and Baltic Seas is close . While the Hanseatic cities cooperated to protect and promote their trade interests, the Italian maritime republics were characterized by fierce competition, which often resulted in wars. The power struggle between the Ghibellines, who were loyal to the emperor , and the Guelphs , who supported the Pope , was also of importance in this context . At times the Maritime Republics fought together in loose alliances against external enemies, initially especially against the Arabs spreading across the Mediterranean . The fact that the Saracens could not gain a permanent foothold in Italy was also thanks to the maritime republics. The republics took part in the crusades , not only as a service provider in maritime transport, as well as in the fight against the Moors in Spain . In addition to conflicting trade interests, territorial issues were reasons for wars among the maritime republics, especially when it came to the division of areas that had been taken from the Arabs. Another threat to the maritime republics and their “overseas territories”, colonies and trading establishments in the eastern Mediterranean were the Turks who advanced from Central Asia to Asia Minor and finally brought down the Byzantine Empire when they conquered Constantinople in 1453 . In the fight against the Arabs and Turks, the maritime republics claimed, among other things, that they wanted to defend the Christian West . What remains characteristic of them, however, is that they often made dubious compromises because of their overriding commercial and financial interests, in which ideological and military principles often took a back seat.
Below is a graph showing the chronology of some of the maritime republics and brief descriptions of their history up to the end of the Middle Ages:
Amalfi
- See also: Duchy of Amalfi
As a maritime republic from the 9th to the 11th centuries, Amalfi played an important role in the Mediterranean region, especially in trade between the Orient and the Occident , in which it was at that time before Pisa, Genoa and Venice. From a military point of view, Amalfi was only of importance in the 9th century in defending against Saracen attacks. At that time, Amalfi was much larger than today's tourist resort on the Amalfi Coast , the course of which changed several times due to storms and landslides. With over 50,000 inhabitants, the city was one of the largest in Italy. The Maritime Republic covered most of the Sorrento Peninsula . Politically, Amalfi was part of the Byzantine Empire until the 9th century, but enjoyed extensive autonomy due to its importance as a trading center and thanks to its strong navy . The Amalfitans rebelled against attacks by the neighboring Lombards in 839 and thus fought for their independence, which was also defended through alliances with the Saracens if necessary. In 866 Amalfi recognized the sovereignty of Ludwig II and helped him in 872 in the liberation of the Bishop of Naples. As a thank you, Amalfi received the island of Capri . In order to protect itself against further attacks by the neighbors, Amalfi submitted to the southern Italian Normans Robert Guiskards in 1073 and thus largely gave up its independence. In the war against Roger II of Sicily in 1135, the devastating Pisan attack on Amalfi took place, which was not only viewed as a legitimate Norman target, but also as an unpleasant commercial competitor. Despite everything, Amalfi was able to continue its maritime trade to a limited extent until a severe storm destroyed the port facilities and the shipyards in 1343.
The isolated location on the steep coast moved the Amalfi and their neighbors early on to seek their fortune in seafaring and in trade. As early as the 8th century, they dominated maritime trade on the coasts of Campania and Lazio . Its further expansion was based on a sea victory of the Byzantines against the Saracens in 747, as a result of which the North African Saracens lost Cyprus and large parts of the Levant , from where they had imported wood. Amalfi stepped in as a new supplier of wood, which had the raw material paid for in gold and used it to buy spices, precious stones, textiles and goldsmith products in the Levant. The Amalfi people sold these luxury goods in Italy, France and Spain with large profit margins. With these profits, they not only created one of the most impressive cities of the time, but also one of the largest fleets in the Mediterranean. While the construction of merchant ships remained the responsibility of individual families or maritime trading companies, the Maritime Republic built its warships in specially designated shipyards or arsenals in Amalfi, Atrani , Minori , Maiori and other places. The warships were initially dromons of the Byzantine type and replicas of Arab legends, later mainly galleys with 108 to 120 oars, and finally galeas as well .
The Amalfi navy, together with warships from Naples and Gaeta, took part in the fight against the Saracens, who repeatedly attacked the coasts of Italy and even contemplated the destruction of Rome . In 846 Amalfi and his allies won a victory at Punta Licosa , then in 849 a weather-favored victory in the naval battle of Ostia . If necessary, Amalfi and other cities in the region supported the Byzantine Navy with warships, as in 812 off Sicily. In addition, Byzantium repeatedly commissioned Amalfi's shipyards to build ships for its own navy. From 875 onwards, Amalfi largely stayed out of the wars against the Saracens and concentrated on trade.
The seafarer Flavio Gioia from Amalfi was credited with inventing the compass in the past , but this cannot be proven. It can be considered certain that the compass was developed in the Mediterranean region independently of Chinese inventions and that Amalfi people made a significant contribution to its improvement and spread. It is also worth mentioning the Amalfi's maritime law , which was codified in the Tabula Amalphitana from the 11th century and was applied throughout the Mediterranean region until the 16th century.
The Amalfi flag shows a white, so-called Maltese cross on a blue background. Amalfi merchants founded a pilgrim hospital in Jerusalem around 1020, which was dedicated to John the Baptist . To supply and protect the pilgrims of the Order of St. John, who after moving to there was Malta in the 16th century in Malta has been renamed. Amalfi claims to have given the order the Johanniter or Maltese cross, which is actually an "Amalfi cross".
Pisa
- See also: History of Pisa , Portolan
The city of Pisa , located on the Arno , was closer to the sea in the Middle Ages than it is today, as deposits moved the river mouth further west over time. In the Middle Ages, Pisa's inland port was connected to the sea by a number of river arms and canals. The fortified naval base and trading port of Porto Pisano , on the other hand, was located directly on the sea, immediately north of today's port city of Livorno . The Sinus Pisanus or Portus Pisanus , which was already used by the Romans, had to be modified several times due to the silting and finally lost its role as the most important port in Tuscany to the former fishing village of Livorno in the 16th century .
Pisa survived the end of the Western Roman Empire and the great migration largely unscathed. As early as the beginning of the 7th century, the Pisan fleet was strong enough to influence the peace negotiations between the Byzantines and Lombards. Pisa was first Byzantine, then Lombard and Frankish. Pisa became a real naval power that ruled large parts of the Mediterranean in the 12th century in the fight against the Saracens. After the first defensive battles, a counterattack was launched as early as 828 along the North African coast. The largest Pisan operations included the liberation of Corsica and Sardinia carried out with Genoa , the attack on the Balearic Islands launched in 1113 and participation in the First Crusade , which inspired Pisa's Levant trade. For the numerous operations, Pisa received numerous privileges from both the emperors and the popes, which further strengthened Pisa's autonomy. Imperial diplomas from 1162 and 1165 Pisa transferred the stretch of coast between Porto Venere and Civitavecchia , i.e. the entire coast of Tuscany and the southern Maremma . Because of the Pisan prerogatives in Sardinia and Corsica, there were soon armed conflicts with the trading rival Genoa. Between 1119 and 1133 it remained a guerrilla war, which the Pope arbitrated by reorganizing the dioceses of Corsica and subordinating them in part to the Archbishop of Genoa. The war between 1165 and 1175 revolved around Corsica and Sardinia as well as commercial rights in France and Spain, while the war between 1192 and 1204 revolved around commercial rights in Sicily. At the end of the 12th century, Pisa challenged Venice when it established trade relations with several Adriatic cities and incited Pola to revolt. After Pisa was defeated by the Venetians before Brindisi , the Pisan trade in the Adriatic was regulated by a treaty. A comparable result could also be achieved with Genoa at the same time.
After the Pisan and Imperial Sicilian ships defeated the Genoese loyal to the Pope at Giglio in the conflict between Emperor and Pope in 1241 , Pisa occupied the Corsican city of Aleria and besieged Genoa in 1243, but without success. In another conflict with Genoa, the Pisan fleet was defeated in the naval battle of Meloria in 1284 . It was the greatest naval battle of the Middle Ages. Since Pisa did not keep the following peace agreement, the Genoese destroyed Porto Pisano by 1290. Parts of the Pisan port chain hung in Genoese churches for centuries until they were returned in 1860 in the course of the unification of Italy. In 1324 Pisa also lost its bases in Sardinia when the Aragonese enforced their right to the island given by the Pope by force of arms. In 1406 Pisa finally fell to Florence .
The flag of the Ghibelline Republic of Pisa goes back to the imperial blood flag . Under the sign of the cross, the Pisans freed Sardinia from the Saracens. The twelve balls at the ends of the cross represent the twelve apostles .
Genoa
- See also: Republic of Genoa , Genoese colonies
Genoa was an insignificant little port city until the 10th century, under Roman, Ostrogothic, Byzantine and Longobard rule. Since the Ligurian Apennines made the exchange with the northern Italian lowlands more difficult and the traffic routes dating from Roman times fell into disrepair, the Ligurian coast also turned to seafaring. Genoa suffered from several Saracen attacks from the 8th to the 10th century, which led to the establishment of its own naval forces, which fought the Saracens in 806 near Corsica and defeated them in 935 near Asinara . The autonomy of Genoa, which has existed since the 11th century, and the primacy in Liguria, was confirmed by Emperor Frederick I in 1162. Originally elected consuls headed the republic, later Dogen , following the Venetian model . The political development of Genoa already suffered from the pronounced individualism and the extreme greed for power and profit of the oligarchy at the time of the consuls . Basically, in contrast to Venice, the Republic of Genoa had no real government, but rival groups that regulated the exercise of power and the appointment of public offices through unofficial agreements. At times the rule was given to neutral third parties from Milan or France, or was forced to do so because of the internal instability. The Banco di San Giorgio also developed into an important power factor . Inevitably, the state did not have sufficient authority to sufficiently collect customs duties and other taxes, which is why the large private property and the lack of public finances remained characteristic of the Republic of Genoa.
The political framework conditions meant that the republic, with the exception of a few patrol ships, was never able to establish its own state navy. Powerful Genoese families ( Doria , Fieschi , Grimaldi , Spinola and others) owned numerous merchant ships, which also acted as warships when necessary. If the republic or its trade in general were in danger, the private shipping companies also set up large war fleets. Under these conditions one could hardly resist the temptation to wage private wars or to leave warships and crews for pay to foreign rulers or to plunder them according to the Saracen model. The fleets of the Genoese colonies also usually led a life of their own. Despite this internal structure, it was possible, together with Pisa, to expel the Saracens from Sardinia and Corsica and the surrounding waters, to make decisive contributions in the First Crusade with ships, siege engines and crossbowmen , to eliminate the competitor Pisa at Meloria in 1284 and to give the Venetians their position in the dispute the eastern Mediterranean, which they had gained there with the Fourth Crusade. In 1261 Genoa supported the reconquest of Constantinople by the Byzantines, who eliminated the Venetian puppet state there . Despite the largely lost war of Saint-Sabas , Genoa was able to expand into the Black Sea and beyond. The other wars between Genoa and Venice were mainly about the Bosporus and access to the Black Sea. In 1298 Genoa fought against Venice as far as the Adriatic Sea and, after the victory at Curzola, reached the height of its sea power. Venice allied itself in 1350 with the Aragonians against Genoa and Byzantium. The third Genoese-Venetian war ended with an agreement whereby each side wanted to respect the rights of the other in the Black Sea. In the decisive Chioggia War , Genoa attacked the Republic of Venice again in the Adriatic Sea and defeated the Venetian fleet at Pola in 1379 , but was defeated shortly afterwards when attempting to attack Venice on land at Chioggia . As a result, Genoa was left behind and gradually lost its colonies in the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, especially after the Ottomans conquered Constantinople. Genoa's trade was subsequently concentrated in central and western North Africa and, ultimately, especially on the Iberian Peninsula . The Genoese in particular were interested in possible alternative sea routes to the Orient in order to eliminate Venetian, Ottoman and Arab middlemen.
Genoese shipbuilding had been leading since the High Middle Ages . They helped rulers in France, Spain, Portugal and also in the Orient to build their own fleets. Genoese experts built the arsenal in Seville for Alfonso the Wise of Castile and the arsenal in Rouen for Philip the Handsome of France .
From 1190, English ships used the flag of Genoa in the Mediterranean , which placed them under the protection of the Genoese fleets. The English king paid an annual tribute to Genoa for this. The flag later became the flag of England and is its symbol to this day. It can also be found in the flag of London , the flag of the Royal Navy and as a central component in the Union Jack .
Venice
- See also: Republic of Venice , Venetian Colonies , Economic History of the Republic of Venice , Venetian Diplomacy
During the migration of peoples and the beginning of the Lombard rule in Italy, parts of the population between the Alps and the northern Adriatic fled to the headlands and islands of the Venetian lagoon , which due to their isolated location remained part of the Eastern Roman-Byzantine Empire. The new inhabitants of the lagoon initially lived mainly from fishing, salt extraction and trade, which they carried out with boats along the coasts and rivers. At the time, the Adriatic was under the control of the Byzantine Navy, which had an important naval base in Ravenna . When Byzantine naval power subsided, Venice gradually took over its role in the northern Adriatic. In the 9th and 10th centuries Venice first succeeded in eliminating rivals in Comacchio , Capodistria and Istria and thus bringing the northern Adriatic under control. Slavs advancing from the east had in the meantime reached the Dalmatian coast and either subjugated the locals there or allied themselves with them. At sea they soon devoted themselves to piracy, thereby threatening Venice's trade. At the mouth of the Neretva (Narenta) river , near the old Roman town of Narona, there was an important pirate base, which was almost invulnerable from the sea, and was additionally secured by bases on Korčula (Curzola) and Lastovo (Lagosta). The Narentans , who ruled large parts of the Adriatic for a long time, were only able to decisively defeat Venice after many battles in 998, thus creating the basis for later rule in Dalmatia. Over time, this challenged Hungary in particular , which also included Croatia . In the southern Adriatic, Venice saved the city of Bari, besieged by the Saracens, in 1002. Over time, the Saracens had advanced to the Venetian lagoon, which is why the city built the first large warships (chelandie) to protect them , which were the origin of the Venetian navy can be viewed. In 1081 the southern Italian Normans threatened Venice's sea connections with Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire itself when they attacked Albania and almost brought the Strait of Otranto under control. The sea battles fought there until 1085 contributed to the defense of the Norman threat, for which Venice received numerous privileges from Constantinople, including free access to the Black Sea. Venice had not only brought the Adriatic under its control, but also acted as an independent sea power in the eastern Mediterranean.
Venice was less involved in the first crusades than Genoa and Pisa. But the sea victory at Ascalon in 1123 and the participation in the conquest of Tire in the following year also brought trading establishments and privileges in the Levant. Venice's success and wealth aroused envy and open hostility among the Byzantines, especially against the 10,000 or so Venetians residing in Constantinople, as well as the endeavor to cancel the trade privileges granted or extorted by the Venetians. This induced the Doge Enrico Dandolo to have the capital of the Byzantine Empire conquered by the Crusaders in the Fourth Crusade , in return for the Venetian sea transport (around 200 ships), which the Crusaders could not pay for. The Venetian fleet and its siege towers played a special role in the siege of the city. After the conquest, the Latin Empire was installed in Constantinople , which was predominantly led by Venetians and French. Through various territorial gains, Venice secured control of the Aegean and access to the Black Sea. Venice came into conflict with Genoa, which supported the reconquest of Constantinople by the Byzantines in 1261 and thus weakened Venice until Genoa was defeated in the Chioggia War in 1380. Venice held its primacy in the eastern Mediterranean until the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453.
Since the early Middle Ages, the Republic of Venice has set up naval forces periodically or seasonally as required. A real navy developed during the wars with Genoa, in which ever larger fleets were used. In the late Middle Ages , the republic was one of the few states with permanent naval forces. In peacetime the Venetian Navy had 20 to 40 light galleys , whose insufficient sea endurance compensated for the numerous bases in Dalmatia and in the eastern Mediterranean. During the war, 25 galleys were added to the reserve fleet, as well as armed state or private merchant ships. This supplementary practice decreased over time because the modified merchant ships were less and less suitable for war purposes. Instead, the regular navy and its reserve were gradually enlarged around 1500 due to the increasing Ottoman threat.
The heart of the Venetian Navy was the arsenal of Venice , built from 1104 onwards , which was expanded several times over the years and at the end of the Middle Ages was the largest industrial enterprise in Europe. The Arsenal renewed the fleet in general by building new ones, kept the reserve fleet and ensured the speedy construction of additional ships in the event of war.
The flag of Venice generally shows the well-known Lion of St. Mark with an open book that reads PAX TIBI MARCE EVANGELISTA MEUS (“Peace be upon you, Mark, my evangelist”). The red flag of sea war , on which the lion of St. Mark holds a sword above the closed book, was never officially established as such by the Republic of Venice. The red color, the closed book and the sword generally stood for the state of war.
Wars and naval battles
The following is a list of the most important naval battles that the Maritime Republics fought or participated in from the first millennium to the end of the Middle Ages:
- 998: Venetians defeat Narentani pirates in front of Pagania
- 1002: Venetian fleet horrifies Bari, besieged by the Saracens
- 1003: Genoese and Corsicans drive Saracens from Corsica, fighting for Sardinia
- 1004: Venetians under Pietro II. Orseolo defeat the Saracens near Messina
- 1005: Pisans destroy Saracen bases in Reggio Calabria and the surrounding area
- 1012: Pisans attack Saracens in Sardinia, Pisan victory at sea near Alghero
- 1016: Genoese and Pisan victories at Luni
- 1016: Pisans and Genoese conquer Sardinia and get into a dispute over the island
- 1030: Pisan attack on Saracen places in Tunisia
- 1034: Pisans plunder and pillage the Bône
- 1051: Pisans repel Saracen attack on Corsica and Sardinia, causing tension with Genoa
- 1064: Pisan-Norman attack against Saracens in Palermo , Pisans capture several Saracen ships
- 1070: Because of the tension surrounding Corsica, Genoese attack on Pisa, which is repulsed at the mouth of the Arno
- 1079: Pisans respond to Genoese attacks by pillaging Rapallo , also winning subsequent naval battle
- 1081: Southern Italian Normans attack Albania and threaten Venetian sea trade, Venetian sea victory at Durrës
- 1083: After two victories at sea near Corfu, the Venetians are clearly defeated by the Normans in the third battle near Corfu
- 1085: Decisive naval victory of the Venetians under Vitale Falier against the weakened Normans at Butrint ; Byzantines recognize Venetian rule in the Adriatic, numerous trade privileges
- 1087: Pisa, Genoa and Amalfi access Mahdia at
- 1089: Genoese and Pisans plunder Tunis and neighboring towns in the Saracen manner, making enormous booty
- First Crusade (1096-1099)
- Sea transport of the crusaders brings in trading posts in the Levant , Byzantine resistance
- 1099: Pisans attack Corfu, Kefalonia , Lefkada and Zante , fighting in the Aegean against Byzantines
- 1099: Venetians beat Pisans before Rhodes
- 1099: Genoese encounter a superior Arab fleet off Jaffa, abandon their ships and take part in the conquest of Jerusalem with armaments
- 1099: Pisans and Genoese support the conquest of various coastal towns from the seaside until 1110
- 1100: Venetian and Pisan attack failed Ashkelon on
- Balearic Campaign (1113–1115)
- 1113: Pisan attack attempt with around 300 ships ends due to storm and navigation errors on the Catalan coast
- 1114: With help from Barcelona , Montpellier , Narbonne and others conquest of Ibiza , the Arab fortress on Mallorca holds up in heavy fighting
- 1115: Pisans insist on the conquest of Mallorca, which succeeds; rich booty, but in 1116 the Almoravids are back again
- 1118: In the battle for Dalmatia, the Venetians under Ordelafo Faliero are defeated by the Hungarians at Zadar
- 1123: Venetians under Domenico Michiel defeat the Arabs in front of Ascalon, besiege Sidon and Tire and then plunder various places in the Aegean
- 1125: Domenico Michiel conquers parts of Dalmatia with his fleet
- 1135: Pisan attack on Amalfi
- 1137: Venetians defeat Normans at Trani ; Another Pisan attack on Amalfi
- 1146: Genoese attacks on Menorca and Almería , involvement in attacks on Lisbon and Tortosa (until 1149)
- 1149: Venetians and Byzantines defeat Normans at Cape Malea
- 1153: During the siege of Askalon , the Venetians defeat the Fatimids near Jaffa
- 1177: Naval victory of the Venetians at Punta Salvore against Pisans and Genoese in imperial service; Venice's independence is widely recognized
- 1196: Venetians defeat Pisans before Brindisi
- Fourth Crusade (1202-1204)
- 1202: Venice provides the crusaders with over 200 ships; instead of payment, the conquest of Zara
- 1203: Venetians conquer parts of the fortress of Constantinople from ships, but withdraw again
- 1204: Venetians involved in the conquest of Constantinople, received among others Corfu, Crete (Candia), parts of the Morea , Euboea (Negroponte)
- 1241: Pisan-Sicilian fleet in imperial service defeats Genoese in the sea battle of Giglio ( Meloria )
- 1248: Genoese occupation of Rhodes until 1250
- War of the Euboian Succession (1256–1258) with Genoese and Venetian participation
- First Venetian – Genoese War (1256–1270)
- 1257: Venetians under Lorenzo Tiepolo defeat Genoese at Acre
- 1263: Venetians beat Genoese and Byzantines at Spetses in the sea battle of Settepozzi
- 1264: Genoese beat Venetians at Durazzo
- 1266: Venetian victory at Trapani against Genoese
- 1274: Venetians and their allies are defeated by Byzantines at Demetrias
- 1284: Genoese under Oberto Doria beat Pisa in the naval battle of Meloria devastating
- Second Venetian – Genoese War (1294–1299)
- 1294: Genoese naval victory against the Venetians near Laiazzo
- 1295: Venetian resort in the Black Sea Genoese colony of Caffa in
- 1298: Genoese victory in the sea battle at Curzola
- Byzantine-Venetian War (1294–1302)
- 1338: Genoese ships in French service attack Southampton , participation in the naval war on the English Channel 1338–1340
- Byzantine-Genoese War (1348-1349)
- Third Venetian – Genoese War (1350–1355)
- 1351: Venetian attack on Galata; Genoese siege of the Venetian fortress Oreos on Evia
- 1352: Naval battle in the Bosporus between Genoese and Venetian fleets and their Aragonese and Byzantine allies
- 1353: Venetians defeat Genoese near Alghero, Sardinia
- 1354: Genoese defeat Venetians at Zonklon
- Byzantine Civil War (1352–1357) with Genoese and Venetian participation
- Byzantine Civil War (1373–1379) with Genoese and Venetian participation
- Fourth Venetian-Genoese War (1378-1381)
- 1378: Venetian victory at Anzio
- 1379: Genoese under Luciano Doria defeat the Venetians in the sea battle at Pola
- 1380: Venetians under Vettor Pisani defeat the Genoese fleet near Chioggia
- 1390: Largely unsuccessful Genoese-French crusade against Mahdia
- 1416: Venetians beat Ottomans at Gallipoli after it the Negroponte and the Cyclades had attacked
- 1431: Venetians and Florentines defeat Genoese near Portofino
- 1435: Genoese win the naval battle at Ponza against the Aragonese and take Alfonso V prisoner
- 1440: Venetians win battle on Lake Garda at Ponale against Milanese who had triumphed at Maderno the year before
- 1453: Ottomans conquer Constantinople ; Genoese escorts still reach the city despite Ottoman resistance
- Ottoman-Venetian War (1463–1479), Venetians lose Negroponte (Euboea) and parts of Venetian Albania , among others
- 1466: Venetian fleet conquest of Imbros , Thasos and Samothrace involved
- 1474: Operations on Lake Skadar during the first siege of Scutari
- 1476: French and Portuguese corsairs strike Genoese escorts to Flanders and England at Cape St. Vincent ; Crew member Christopher Columbus swim to the Portuguese coast
- Italian Wars (campaign 1494–1495)
- 1495: Genoese squadron under Francesco Spinola captured eleven French ships in Rapallo , freed the city and then brings French convoy from Naples before Sestri Levante on
Venetian galley near Curzola (1298)
Genoese fleet in home port (1481)
Pietro Mocenigo , Admiral and Doge
Modern times
See also: Sea Route to India , Age of Discovery , Colonialism
In addition to Portuguese, it was mainly Italian seafarers who, with their discoveries in the 16th century , shifted the focus of seafaring from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean and thus put Italy on the sidelines: Christopher Columbus from Genoa , Amerigo Vespucci and Giovanni da Verrazzano from Florence , Giovanni Caboto and his son Sebastiano from Venice . Before them, the Venetian Alvise Cadamosto and the Genoese Antonio da Noli , Lancelotto Malocello and Antoniotto Usodimare had rediscovered the Canaries and Cape Verde Islands , which then served as outposts for further expeditions along the African coast and to America .
The framework conditions in the early modern period were also characterized by the Italian wars up to 1559 and the further Franco-Habsburg power struggle , which was fought in Italy up to the 18th century, as well as by the Turkish wars , in which the Republic of Venice in particular took over its possessions in the east Gradually had to give up the Mediterranean region. The great naval victory of the Holy League at Lepanto in 1571 and other temporary successes could not stop the decline of the remaining maritime republics of Genoa and Venice, whose history ended in 1797 with Napoleon's Italian campaign . In the Mediterranean, the fleets of the Italian states played only a subordinate role compared to those of the new European sea powers due to a lack of national unity. Until the middle of the 19th century, the Italian navies earned merit in the long struggle against the corsairs of the North African barbarian states .
Genoa
While Genoese families were still able to muster up to 200 warships in the Middle Ages, this number fell to around 90 by 1550 and to around 40 towards the end of the century. In contrast, the development of the Ottoman fleets reached its peak in the 16th century. Genoa and the other Italian states struggled to assert themselves against the Ottomans and the barbarians who, under leaders such as Khair ad-Din Barbarossa or Turgut Reis, made the Mediterranean unsafe. In addition, the French fleet strengthened in Toulon and the Savoyers also built a small navy in Nice , while in Tuscany the Medici made the new port of Livorno the center of their maritime activities. The power struggle between Emperor Charles V , who, in addition to Spain and its overseas possessions, also belonged to the Holy Roman Empire in Central Europe, and Francis I of France, who saw himself embraced by the emperor's domain , also had drastic effects in Genoa . Under these circumstances, the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria tried to protect the interests of the republic. After the Emperor had conquered Genoa in 1522, Andrea Doria entered the French service and liberated Marseille from the siege of the imperial troops . Since Francis I did not adhere to the agreed compensation and also did not want to return the city of Savona , Andrea Doria switched to the emperor's side in 1528 and expelled all the French from Genoa, whereupon they allied themselves with the Ottomans. As Imperial Admiral, Andrea Doria led a number of missions against the Ottomans and the French, not all of which were successful. Largely unsuccessful was his great-nephew Giovanni Andrea Doria .
Genoa remained allied with Spain in the further course. This enabled the Spanish Habsburgs to maintain the strategically important connection to the Austrian Habsburgs via Genoa and their Duchy of Milan . While the Genoese maritime power was in decline and Spain was building a world empire , Genoese long-distance traders and bankers transferred their experience of oriental trade to the Iberian peninsula as well as to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies and built up an informal trading empire there. In the 1570s there were representatives of over 100 Genoese banks at the Spanish court, where significant relationships of dependency developed between the two sides. The Genoese were less interested in territorial and much more in commercial conquests and soon deprived the powerful Spanish empire of a very large part of its colonial fruits. Something similar happened in Portugal and its colonies. The beginning of the decline of Spain and Portugal in the 17th century also brought the Genoas with it.
Genoa's military impotence was evident in May 1684, when the French navy bombarded the city and port of Genoa for several days in a large-scale operation because Genoese shipowners wanted to provide Spain with ships during the Reunion War and the republic allowed Spanish troops and supplies to pass ashore . As a result, the republic first became dependent on the French, then the uprisings in Corsica were not mastered and the island ceded to France. In 1797 Napoleon from Ajaccio eliminated the Republic of Genoa. In 1815 Liguria came to Sardinia-Piedmont , which made Genoa the center of the reconstruction of its navy.
Venice
The invention of the gun port in the 16th century also led to the transition from the galley to the galeas in Venice and then to the largest galleons . The transition to pure sailing ships was not easy for Venice. While the arsenal was a model for many other states in the Middle Ages, it was now Venice that imitated the shipbuilding of other navies. For example, the republic temporarily hired sailing warships from the Netherlands and England. The construction of its own ships of the line with an armament of 70 to 80 cannons began in the 1660s. Worth mentioning in this context are the more than 20 ships of the line of the San Lorenzo Giustinian type , which were built between 1691 and 1716. From 1724, frigates with up to 66 cannons followed. As a result of this development in shipbuilding, the fleet was also reorganized. The pure sailors were grouped together in the Armada grossa , and in the Armada sottile the rowed warships. In peacetime the fleet still had around 40 warships, plus the reserve fleet, which was increased from 25 to 50 and then to 100 ships in the 16th century. In 1633 the reserve was reduced to 50 ships again because the finances were insufficient, the arsenal could not keep such a fleet permanently available and crews for these ships had been missing for a long time. The Doge continued to have command of the fleet, albeit often only formally . In wartime this command could one as general since mar Capitan designated Captain-General or Admiral be transferred. The Provveditore generale da mar was the deputy head of the fleet, but mainly took care of financial matters and the administration of the fleet. Further subordinate Provveditori (literally: "Providers" or "Providers") were responsible for the arsenal, the maintenance of the fleet, the (ship) artillery and the fortifications. The commandant of the arsenal (the vice was Capitano dell'Arsenal ) as well as the port captains on the Lido di Venezia and in Malamocco were named admiral . The commanders of individual naval units, however, called themselves Capo da mar, but the chief of the Adriatic Fleet Capitano del Golfo . The other job and rank designations also had various peculiarities.
The Republic of Venice tried in the 16th and 17th centuries to defend its property and interests in the eastern Mediterranean against the advancing Ottomans, but in the course of time Cyprus , Crete and also Morea and other smaller islands, which were recaptured under Francesco Morosini , went into the Aegean lost. From 1573 to 1644 there was extensive peace between the Venetians and the Ottomans. But when Maltese pirates retreated to Crete with their booty and captured Mecca pilgrims after an attack on an Ottoman convoy in 1644, the Ottomans took this as an opportunity to attack Crete. During these heavy siege battles , which lasted more than 20 years , the Venetian fleet tried to cut off the Ottoman supplies to Crete and to force the enemy to surrender through operations at sea, especially with the Dardanelles . The Venetians were able to win several battles at sea during this time, but the desired strategic success failed to materialize.
Sea battle at Zonchio (1499)
Battle of Lepanto (1571)
Battle of Phocea (1649)
Battle of the Dardanelles of 1656
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Below is a list of the most important naval battles and skirmishes that the Venetians fought against the Ottomans, the barbarians and others in the 16th and 17th centuries:
- 1499: Venetians under Antonio Grimani are defeated by Kemal Reis' Ottoman fleet at Zonchio ( Sapientza )
- 1500: Kemal Reis defeats the Venetians again near Modon
- 1502: Superior Venetian fleet under Benedetto Pesaro forces Kemal Reis to retreat near Santa Maura
- 1533: Venetians propose Ottoman naval force before Candia
- 1538: Ottoman naval victory at Preveza against the Venetians and their allies
- 1560: Ottomans beat Spaniards, Venetians and other allies at Djerba ; Peak of the Ottoman naval power
- 1571: Maritime victory of the Holy League at Lepanto , in which the Venetians provide the majority of the Christian ships
- 1572: Skirmishes with the Ottomans ( Kilic Ali Pascha ) off Cape Matapan , Cerigo and Cervi
- 1583: Venetians defeat the Maltese at Cerigotto
- 1609: Venetians defeat Ottomans at Paxos
- 1617: Skirmishes between Spaniards, Neapolitans and Sicilians under Francisco de Ribera against Venetians in the Adriatic
- 1618: Dutch ships under the Venetian flag fight against Spaniards near Gibraltar
- 1620: Venetians under Federico Nani defeat Francisco de Ribera in a battle near the Christiana Islands
- 1628: English defeat Venetians and French at İskenderun
- 1638: Venetian victory against Algerian corsairs near Corfu
- 1646: Venetian blockade of the Dardanelles, Ottoman attempt at breakthrough fails
- 1647: Battle between the Ottoman and Venetian fleets under Tommaso Morosini off Euboea
- 1649: Venetians defeat the Ottomans near Phocea and then off Crete
- 1651: Venetian victory at Naxos against the Ottomans
- 1654: Ottomans defeat Venetians at the Dardanelles; Venetian success at Milos
- 1655: Venetians under Lazzaro Mocenigo defeat the Ottomans at the Dardanelles
- 1656: Venetian and Maltese fleets under Lorenzo Marcello achieve sea victory at Dardanelles
- 1657: Venetians win a number of battles against Algerian corsairs and Ottomans, but the latter break through at Dardanelles
- 1658: Venetian victory between Imbros and the Dardanelles, further battles until 1660
- 1661: Venetian-Maltese victory at Milos
- 1662: Venetians successfully attack the Ottoman escort between Kos and Kalymnos
- 1667: Venetians defeat Ottomans and Tunisians near Crete
- 1668: Venetians defeat Ottomans at Pelagio, Ottomans win against Venetians off Crete
- 1686: Ottoman Alexandria escort is attacked by Venetians, further fighting at Mitylene
- 1688: Ottomans and Algerians defeat Venetians
- 1690: Ottomans and Algerians defeat Venetians; Venetians fight against Ottomans and North African corsairs at Mitylene
- 1695: The Ottomans defeat the Venetians under Antonio Zeno near Inousses
- 1696: Sea battle at Andros between the Venetians and the Ottomans ends without result
- 1697: Sea battles between the Venetians and the Ottomans at Limnos , Andros and Euboea
- 1698: Sea battle at Samothrace between the Venetians on the one hand and the Ottomans and North African corsairs on the other ends in a draw
- 1716: Naval battle near Corfu between the Venetians and the numerically superior Ottomans ends in a draw, the Ottomans have to abandon their attempt at conquest
- 1717: Another sea battle at Imbros against a superior Ottoman fleet results in numerous losses among the crews
- 1717: Sea battle at Cape Matapan between Portugal, Venice, Papal States as well as Malta and the Ottomans ends in a draw, the planned reconquest of the Morea fails
- 1718: Siege of Dulcigno canceled
After the Peace of Passarowitz, the Republic of Venice had only four fortresses on the Greek and Albanian mainland, as well as some Ionian islands, including Corfu , Kefalonia and Kythera, in addition to Terraferma and Dalmatia . In 1719 the Habsburgs made Trieste a free port , and in 1732 the Pope followed suit with Ancona , which further weakened Venice's maritime trade. This clearly showed the decline of the republic, which was only accelerated by the decadent aristocracy and their politics. In the military field, Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg was able to delay the decline somewhat. The fleet, which consisted of about 15 ships of the line, ten frigates and 20 galleys around 1750, stood out against North African corsairs under the admirals Giacomo Nani and Angelo Emo , especially in 1784 during an operation against Tunisia. The arsenal in Venice, steeped in tradition, worked inefficiently and produced ships that were technically not up to date. Attempts were made to counteract this with an engineering school founded in the Arsenal in 1777. Angelo Emo was able to improve the discipline and the training of the crews a bit recently.
In early 1797 Napoleon's revolutionary troops put an end to the millennial republic of Venice. In the same year Venice fell to the Habsburgs with the Peace of Campo Formio . What was left of the Venetian Navy was passed on to the Austrians, who now called their naval forces the Austro-Venetian Navy . This navy also had its center in Venice from 1814 after Napoleonic rule in Italy. Officers and men came almost exclusively from Veneto, Istria and Dalmatia and spoke Venetian . The Naval School in Venice continued to train future officers, including the later Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff . Immediately after his victory at Lissa against the Italian Navy, his crews celebrated him with the old Venetian battle cry Viva San Marco! When Veneto fell to Italy in 1866, the Austrian navy retained its bases in Istria and Dalmatia. After having lost numerous Venetian seamen because of the revolution of 1848 , efforts were subsequently made to push back the Venetian-Italian element as far as possible.
Small navies
The coasts of the Papal States were under the protection of the Byzantine Navy until the 9th century . The Saracen attacks on Rome in 843, 846 and 849 ultimately required the establishment of our own naval forces. They often did not exist permanently and were supplemented by fleets from other Christian states if necessary. Papal warships took part in the various crusades and Turkish wars as well as in the defense against corsairs. A papal naval association took part in the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571 under Marcantonio Colonna . The warships were built in the Roman inland port of Ripa Grande, where a new arsenal was built from 1715, but which mainly built merchant ships. The main bases were in Civitavecchia and Ancona . After the Napoleonic interlude there was no significant reconstruction; In 1823 the Navy had a schooner named San Pietro (12 cannons) and three smaller units. There were also twelve patrol boats of the customs flotilla and four steam boats of the Tiber flotilla. The three organizations mentioned were merged in 1856 to form the Papal Navy , which existed until 1870. The steam corvette Immacolata Concezione , which was put into service in 1859 and was last in Toulon , was owned by Leo XIII. sold in 1878, eight years after the end of the Papal States.
From 1562 , Grand Duke Cosimo I de 'Medici entrusted the defense of the coasts and islands of Tuscany to the Knights of the Order of St. Stephen , as they were dissatisfied with the mercenary ships used before . The order had its seat in Pisa, the naval port was in Livorno . The small order fleet took part in 1565 with four ships in the defense of the island of Malta besieged by the Ottomans , with twelve ships (under the flag of the Pope) in the battle of Lepanto and with 15 ships in the battles for Tunis in 1573 In the 17th and 18th centuries the focus was on the fight against the Ottomans and North African corsairs. The small fleet was nationalized under the Habsburg Grand Dukes and moved to Portoferraio in 1751 , where it was established in 1562. In 1775, under John Acton , she saved the lives of numerous Spaniards during the failed invasion of Algiers. After the Napoleonic period, the Tuscan navy had a few brigantines, thrusters and gunboats that did not play a significant role until the unification of Italy.
Napoleon Bonaparte established the Cisalpine Republic in Northern Italy in 1797 , followed by the Italian Republic in 1802 and the Kingdom of Italy from 1805 to 1814 . These puppet states were under the direct or indirect rule of Napoleon, and thus also their armed forces. For the small republican navy, a naval directorate was set up in Milan in 1804 and used as the naval port of Ancona. After the Third Coalition War , Austria had to cede Veneto, Istria and Dalmatia to the Kingdom of Italy at the end of 1805. Venice and the arsenal there became the center of the Napoleonic-Italian naval forces in the Adriatic. The Arsenal built several ships of the line with up to 90 cannons and numerous smaller ships for both the French and Italian navies. In the Adriatic and Ionian Seas they fought primarily against the British, who had occupied the strategically important island of Lissa in 1807 and attacked the coasts of Italy and Dalmatia from there. In October 1810, around 700 Italian soldiers briefly occupied the main town on the island, with several British ships and boats being captured or set on fire together with French sailors. A definitive conquest of the island failed in March 1811 in the sea battle at Lissa against the British. Up until 1814 there were other small skirmishes with them. France annexed north-west Italy and large parts of the center of the country. Staff, shipyards and ships for Napoleon's navy had to be provided here. The southern Italian kingdom of Naples was occupied by Napoleonic troops in 1806. Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat ruled here until 1814 . The Napoleonic-Neapolitan Navy fought stubbornly against the British and their Bourbon allies on various occasions, for example under Giovanni Bausan in 1806 at Gaeta and in 1809 in the battles for Ischia and Procida . In addition, like elsewhere, the shipyards had to build ships for France. The legitimate king, who had fled Naples, stayed in Sicily at this time, as did the Savoy, who otherwise ruled in Turin , in Sardinia .
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples was part of Spain for a long time . From 1734 the Bourbon Crown Prince Karl ruled here , under whom the Kingdom of Naples gained a certain independence from Spain after the war of the Polish Succession . Because of the ongoing barbarian raids, Karl ordered the establishment of his own navy in 1734, which initially consisted of four old galleys, to which a ship of the line and a frigate were added in the following years. In 1735 he also founded a naval school in Naples . When in 1742, during the War of the Austrian Succession, a naval association of the Royal Navy forced the withdrawal of Neapolitan troops from northern Italy near Naples, Karl decided to expand his small navy. In 1759 it consisted of the ship of the line San Filippo la Reale (64 cannons), four frigates (40 to 50 cannons), four galleys and six sliding basins (20 cannons each). She carried out some larger operations against North African pirates, with the captured prisoners being used from 1751 in the construction of the Royal Palace of Caserta . Under Karl's successor Ferdinand and the regent Bernardo Tanucci , the navy was neglected. Ferdinand's wife Maria Karolina of Austria countered this by bringing the commander of the Tuscan Navy, John Acton , to Naples in 1778 , where he reorganized and expanded the local navy as Minister of the Navy. Acton sent Neapolitan officers for training on warships of other states, he founded the naval shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia and set up a marine infantry regiment. Between 1783 and 1785 warships from Malta, Spain, Portugal and Naples-Sicily shot at Algiers several times . In 1788, the fleet comprised four ships of the line, including the first 74-gun ships of the Partenope class , nine frigates (35 to 40 guns), six Schebecken (20) and six corvettes (12 to 20) and some smaller units.
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In the First Coalition War against revolutionary France , Naples supported the British from July 1793 with some warships that were involved in the unsuccessful siege of Toulon and then in 1795 in the naval battles near Genoa and the Îles d'Hyères under Admiral William Hotham . In 1799 French revolutionary troops occupied the Kingdom of Naples. The king fled with his royal household and loyal troops and ships to Sicily , which was protected by the Royal Navy . On the orders of Horatio Nelson , parts of the Neapolitan fleet had to sink themselves in Naples, which caused deep bitterness towards the British. The bourgeois elite were in favor of the revolution and founded the Parthenopean Republic in January 1799 , which was also joined by parts of the military. When coalition forces eliminated the republic six months after it was founded, Nelson had the Parthenopean Admiral Francesco Caracciolo executed for political and personal reasons. After the renewed occupation of Naples by Napoleonic troops in 1806, the Bourbons again withdrew to Sicily. There they were left with a ship of the line, three frigates, 13 smaller ships and 70 gunboats, which operated either alone or with the British Mediterranean fleet, including against Napoleonic-Neapolitan units near Gaeta and in the Gulf of Naples .
After the Napoleonic interlude and the return of the Neapolitan Bourbons at the beginning of 1815, the Navy initially took over almost all of the French innovations, until in 1818 a mixture of Bourbon and Napoleonic elements was introduced with new regulations. Otherwise, it was in the Kingdom of the Two Sicily , as it was called now, to the restoration of pre-revolutionary traditions, whereas 1820 first liberal officers were opposed, then much of the population. Sicily even wanted to split off, which is why Giovanni Bausan was sent there with some warships and soldiers under General Florestano Pepe to put down the uprisings. A similar approach was adopted during the revolution of 1848/1849 when Neapolitan warships fired at Palermo . By 1834, the navy had to take action against North African rulers who demanded tributes for peace. In 1828 the bombardment of Tripoli exposed structural weaknesses in smaller Neapolitan ships, but it served a political purpose, as did the operations against Tunis and Morocco in 1833 and 1834. In 1834 the first three steam-powered warships from British production were in Service provided. A few years later, this new drive led to the establishment of an engineering school and a steam engine factory in Pietrarsa , which also received a lot of attention abroad. In 1843 the liner Vesuvio and three frigates led Princess Teresa Maria Cristina from Naples-Sicily to Rio de Janeiro , where she was married to the Emperor of Brazil , Peter II . It was one of the rare occasions when Neapolitan warships left the Mediterranean. In 1848 seven Neapolitan ships briefly took part in the first Italian War of Independence in the northern Adriatic , until they were withdrawn for political reasons. The liberal struggle for freedom in northern Italy undermined the Bourbon absolutism in Naples, which could hardly oppose the politically equally reactionary Austrian Empire.
In 1860 the procession of the Thousand of Bourbon rule put an end to Naples. At that time, the navy of the two Sicilies had 14 sailing warships, including the two liners Vesuvio (3,500 tons, 87 cannons, practically out of service) and Monarca (3,600 tons, 86 cannons, conversion to steamship), four frigates, and a total of eight corvettes and Brigantines. There were also around 90 gunboats and smaller units. Among the steamships were 13 frigates (1,000 to 3,000 tons, 10 to 60 cannons), two corvettes, eleven Avisos and three tugs. Just before the unification of Italy, this navy was by far the largest of all Italian states.
Launch of the liner Vesuvio in Castellammare in 1824
Frigate Regina Isabella off Tripoli in 1828
Brigantine Principe Carlo 1833 off Tunis
Frigate Amalia in Rio de Janeiro in 1843
Frigate Partenope in Naples
Kingdom of Sardinia
The island of Sardinia and its crown fell to the House of Savoy in 1720 . The original territory of this old dynasty lay on both sides of the Western Alps , mainly in Savoy and Piedmont . Although the focus of the dominion with the capital Turin was on the mainland, from 1720 it was called the Kingdom of Sardinia . From 1848 onwards, the Savoy was at the forefront of the Italian unification movement . In 1861 they incorporated the old Italian states into the Kingdom of Sardinia, which from then on was called the Kingdom of Italy . The armed forces of the individual states were also subject to this unification process. Because of this, the direct forerunner of today's Italian Navy is the Savoy Navy.
The beginnings of this navy do not lie in the Mediterranean, but on parts of the Rhone and on Lake Geneva , whose south bank with the Chablais belonged to the Savoy. To protect their rights and interests there, they built a small armed inland fleet in the 13th century, which played a role in the siege and conquest of Gex in 1353 . The then ruler Amadeus VI. also led a campaign against the Ottomans and Bulgarians in 1366, for which he assembled a fleet of 15 ships. Several port cities were conquered on the Black Sea coast. In 1388, the Savoy and the county of Nice acquired direct access to the Mediterranean. In Villefranche (or Villafranca) they set up a small naval port for their tiny Mediterranean fleet. After the Italian wars, Emanuel Philibert of Savoy had it rebuilt by Andrea Provana from 1560 onwards . She took part in several battles against Ottomans and North African pirates, including at Vélez de la Gomera , Malta and Lepanto. In the 17th century the navy was again neglected as an organizational unit of the army.
With the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, the Savoy were given the island of Sicily and thus the long sought title of king. Although they had to exchange the island for Sardinia in 1720, the need for adequate naval forces to protect the new acquisition remained. The navy at that time consisted of four galleys and a few smaller units, plus the reorganized La Marina Marine Infantry Regiment . In the absence of a sufficient fleet, old and newly built watchtowers were used in Sardinia to warn the coastal towns of attacks by Muslim pirates. Every now and then it was possible to sink or capture an enemy ship, for example in 1757 off Orosei , 1764 off Isola Rossa or 1772 off Cagliari , where 28 ships from Bizerta attacked.
In the coalition war against revolutionary France that broke out in 1792, the county of Nice and with it the naval port of Villefranche were quickly lost. The La Marina regiment fought on the mainland until 1796 under the command of the army with distinction. A first French attempt to invade Sardinia failed at the beginning of 1793 in Cagliari due to resistance from the locals and a storm, a second attempt shortly afterwards in the battle near La Maddalena , in which the boatswain Domenico Millelire almost single-handedly the enemy unit to which Napoleon Bonaparte belonged distribution. In return, they were less fortunate in participating in the unsuccessful siege of Toulon , in which the frigate San Vittorio and then the loot ship Alceste were lost. After Napoleon first conquered the mainland possessions on his Italian campaign in 1796, the Savoyans withdrew to Sardinia in 1799, which they continued to control. The remainder of the navy and some bought ships continued under Giorgio Des Geneys the fight against the corsairs who attacked Carloforte in 1798 . It is worth mentioning an advance to Tunis with the capture of two pirate ships (1804, on the way back), the thwarting of a landing at Orosei (1806) and above all the small but very fierce battle at Capo Malfatano ( Teulada ), where on 28. July 1811 two more Tunisian ships were captured.
Victor Emanuel I was able to return to Turin in 1814 . In 1815, the Congress of Vienna gave the Savoy not only their old land holdings back, but also Liguria , the area of the former Republic of Genoa. As in the case of the Austro-Venetian navy, the reconstruction of the Sardinian-Piedmontese-Genoese navy was facilitated by a good port and skilled seafarers. On the other hand, the War and Navy State Secretariat in Turin usually viewed the Navy as secondary and larger new buildings as a waste of money. Under these conditions, the naval commander Giorgio Des Geneys set to work. He moved the naval base from Villefranche to Genoa and renewed the naval school founded in Villefranche in 1762. Coastal commandos were established in Villefranche, Genoa and Cagliari. The outdated, heterogeneous fleet was expanded as far as possible by new builds, including the frigates Maria Teresa and Maria Cristina . A third frigate called Commercio di Genova was funded by Genoese merchants who needed more protection for their Levant trade . The officers came mainly from aristocratic families on the mainland, especially from Nice and Savoy, spoke mostly French and gave their orders as far as possible in this language. The teams were subject to very strict discipline, which is why only Sardinians (especially from La Maddalena ) soon committed themselves longer.
After another corsair attack on Sant'Antioco (October 1815), this seemingly endless struggle continued. In 1825 there were disputes with the Bey of Tripoli due to renewed claims for tribute, to which the three existing frigates and other ships were sent. Since negotiations on the spot remained unsuccessful and the weather did not permit an attack, boarding teams were sent on boats into the port on the night of September 27, 1825, where they set several warships of the Beys on fire. This operation ended the clashes and earned the Navy a lot of recognition, but above all additional funds for new buildings. There were five frigates (44 to 60 cannons) and one corvette (20). With the strengthened fleet, the flag was shown off North Africa and in the Levant in the following years, in particular to protect merchant shipping and the local diplomatic missions. From 1834, ships of the navy were also present off Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina , where many Genoese had settled and their foreign trade flourished. In 1838 a planned circumnavigation of the frigate Regina at Cape Horn failed ; the ship returned to Genoa via Rio. The brigantine Eridano fared better at Cape Horn , who sailed the Pacific in 1844 and 1845 and reached the Society Islands and Hawaii , among others .
In 1847 the Navy had four frigates, four corvettes, three brigantines, a schooner barque (Goletta), a freighter, ten gunboats, three Avisos and a few other units. As was common at the time, part of it was also steam-powered. A large part of this fleet was sent to the northern Adriatic in 1848 and 1849 during the first Italian War of Independence , where it was only briefly supported by Neapolitan and papal ships. Together with smaller Venetian associations it was possible to prevent an Austrian naval blockade of Venice, on the other hand the blockade of the Austrian Trieste brought nothing. After the armistice in March 1849, the fleet was withdrawn, leaving the Repubblica di San Marco to its fate. During the Crimean War , the Navy sent a total of 23 ships to the Black Sea in 1855 and 1856, which were not involved in any naval battles there, but supported the 19,000 Piedmontese soldiers in the Crimea as much as possible. In the decisive second Italian War of Independence in 1859, another naval force was sent to the northern Adriatic, where it remained as uneventful as in 1848. Giuseppe Garibaldi's Zug der Thousand and the Piedmontese campaign in southern Italy last supported the navy in late 1860 and early 1861 during the siege of Gaeta .
Marina Regia
From the foundation to the First World War
From November 1860, in the course of the unification of Italy, the last Piedmontese and first Italian Prime Minister and Navy Minister Camillo Benso von Cavour took on the task of merging the various Italian navies. Since the comparable process had gone markedly in favor of Piedmont in the case of the land forces , Cavour in return gave the Neapolitans the precedence in the case of the naval forces. Numerous customs and details were adopted from their navy, rarely to the enthusiasm of the Genoese and other officers and seamen from the north, who for historical and professional reasons had a very special self-image, which further fueled the rivalry between the two sides. Although there was now formally a unified Italian Navy, the actual merger was hindered, among other things, by the fact that the naval academies in Genoa and Naples continued to exist and continued to train separately. Cavour, who had advocated building a strong navy, died in June 1861. Various governments followed whose naval policy essentially consisted of ordering warships, especially abroad, without improving the internal structure of the navy.
In 1866, during the third Italian War of Independence , the battle of Lissa broke out in the Adriatic , in which the Austrian navy defeated the Italian navy. The Austrian success was based on the courageous, well-coordinated use of forces and ramming tactics , the Italian defeat on overestimation of oneself and blatant leadership errors. Parts of the superior Italian fleet were sidelined off Lissa because of the arbitrariness of the commanders, but also because of an interruption of the chain of command, which resulted in local inferiority and an overall chaotic operation. The loss of two Italian warships was not materially difficult, but psychologically the defeat left deep marks. It not only influenced the further development of the Navy, but also over a longer period its self-image and the self-confidence of its management personnel. One of the first consequences was a reorganization of the navy, especially in the area of training, and systematic fleet planning under the admirals and naval ministers Augusto Riboty , Simone Pacoret de Saint Bon , Benedetto Brin and Ferdinando Acton , and finally the founding of the Accademia Navale . With it, the training of officer candidates was further standardized in 1881 , after the first part of the four-year training had been concentrated in Naples and the second part in Genoa in 1868. The construction of a new naval base in La Spezia , which was decided in 1857 and better protected than Genoa, was largely completed by 1869, followed by the base in Taranto for the Strait of Otranto and the eastern Mediterranean from 1883 to 1889 . The arsenal in Venice and the base in La Maddalena on Sardinia were also being rebuilt and expanded at this time.
The Marina Regia was not in an easy strategic position at the time. In the east they saw themselves threatened by the Austrian navy and in the west by the French navy. In Malta , the was the headquarters of the British Mediterranean Fleet , with Gibraltar and in 1869 opened Suez Canal also controlled the Mediterranean approaches. France occupied Tunisia in 1881 and subsequently made Bizerta an important naval base there. Italy considered Tunisia, where over 10,000 Italians lived, to be part of its sphere of influence for geographical and economic reasons. The United Kingdom was accommodated by the French advance, since by occupying Tunisia, Italy would have controlled the British sea route to India, which had opened through the Suez Canal. In 1882 the United Kingdom occupied Egypt, where nearly 20,000 Italians lived, and brought the canal completely under its control. In order to get a better position in its Mediterranean policy, Italy allied itself in 1882 with the German Empire and Austria-Hungary in the Triple Alliance, a purely defensive alliance that would not impose any obligations on the other two in the event of a war of aggression. Despite this alliance, Austria-Hungary and Italy continued to compete in the Adriatic, especially from the turn of the century to the First World War . In view of these circumstances, Italy tried, as far as possible, to strengthen its fleet and pursue its own colonial policy .
The two tower ships of the Caio Duilio class , designed by Benedetto Brin and commissioned in 1880 and 1882, were intended to significantly improve Italy's role in the Mediterranean. With their 45 cm cannons, they were among the most powerful warships of their time. Their relatively weak armor was accepted as no other ship could take on their armament at the time. They aroused a lot of admiration abroad, but also the desire to surpass these ships. In Italy, these tower ships were followed by the two fast, barely armored battleships of the Italia class , which were again designed by Brin and were armed as much as their predecessors, but could also accommodate a large infantry formation . With them, the development of the battlecruiser was already apparent, in a certain way that of the later landing ships . Thanks to these ships alone (and also because of the ability to build them) Italy caught up with the leading sea powers around 1885, but soon lost this connection due to insufficient financial resources. At the turn of the century, Vittorio Cuniberti published his studies on a new battleship with the working title monocalibro (standard caliber ), which made him the spiritual father of the dreadnoughts and at the same time significantly devalued all capital ships built so far. On the other hand, the emerging submarines soon represented a great danger for the new ships too . Italy put the Delfino , the first submarine, into service in 1896 . In addition to Cuniberti's studies, the radio experiments that Guglielmo Marconi carried out on warships of the Italian Navy from 1897 onwards were of fundamental importance.
Regia Marina also continued to develop on an operational level . The South American squadron in Montevideo , which had existed since the 1830s, was temporarily expanded to include a Pacific squadron in 1879 because of the Saltpeter War. In 1894 the so-called Oceanic Squadron took over the protection of Italian interests along the coast of America. Some ships of these overseas associations undertook circumnavigations of the world, which served in particular scientific and diplomatic purposes. In 1866, visits by the steam corvette Magenta to Thailand , China and Japan led to the establishment of diplomatic or trade relations with these countries. In the 1880s, the Navy in the Red Sea supported the Italian colonization of Eritrea , which had been initiated by the Rubattino shipping company , and shortly afterwards also the colonization of Somalia . In 1897 there was an international intervention due to Greek-Ottoman disputes over Crete , in which the Regia Marina was also involved with ships under Admiral Canevaro, who was given the leadership of the "Admiral Council" because of his seniority. Italy was also involved in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900 and 1901, sending seven ships and around 2,000 soldiers. In the Italian concession of Tianjin , the Regia Marina maintained a base until 1943, which was protected by a marine infantry battalion . In the Italo-Turkish War , Italy from 1911 onwards still occupied part of North Africa with Tripolitania and Cyrenaica ( Libya ), but of dubious strategic and economic value. In early October 1911, Italian warships fired at Tripoli, which was then occupied by a landing force under Umberto Cagni . Several other coastal towns were occupied. The resistance of the local population and Ottoman troops soon forced an increased use of the fleet, with which the Sublime Porte should be forced to peace. So it came to the Italian occupation of the Dodecanese , from where in July 1912 five Italian torpedo boats under Enrico Millo launched a daring attack on the Dardanelles. Another small skirmish took place off Beirut , where two enemy boats were sunk, and in the Red Sea, where an Italian cruiser and two destroyers sank seven gunboats. During these years the construction of the Italian naval aviators began , which flew first missions in Libya.
In 1914 the Italian Navy had three dreadnoughts, three more of the Caio Duilio and Conte di Cavour classes were under construction. In addition, there were six conceptually outdated battleships or ships of the line , nine armored cruisers (five of them old) and a number of small cruisers, colonial and auxiliary cruisers as well as around 60 destroyers (some of which were more like torpedo boats) and 20 submarines. On May 23, 1915 Italy joined the First World War on the side of the Entente , to which the Austrian fleet reacted immediately by shelling Ancona and other Adriatic locations. On June 5, warships from Italy and the Entente responded by shelling targets in Dalmatia, whereupon Austrian ships attacked Rimini and Fano. On 18 July 1915, the Austrian submarine sank U 4 the Italian armored cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi , as this rail route between Ragusa and Cattaro shelled. On July 7th, the German submarine UB 14 sank the armored cruiser Amalfi off Venice . Since Italy was not yet at war with Germany in 1915, the boat sailed under the Austrian flag as the SM U 26 . In September 1915, the Italian list of casualties was renewed when the battleship Benedetto Brin sank in the port of Brindisi , probably due to sabotage. Allegedly for the same reason, the battleship Leonardo da Vinci was lost in the port of Taranto in August 1916 . In December the battleship Regina Margherita ran into a German sea mine near Valona and sank. Because of the obvious danger posed by mines and submarines, the Regia Marina switched to the use of lighter vehicles. Together with the allies, the Otranto barrier was built, with which the Austrian surface fleet was locked in the Adriatic. This attempted to break through in 1917 and 1918 in particular, but did not succeed despite local successes. In contrast, Austrian and German submarines continued to achieve remarkable successes both inside and outside the Adriatic, despite the network closures by Otranto.
The Italian Navy succeeded in sinking three Austrian battleships during the war. The SMS Wien was sunk by a MAS torpedo boat off Trieste on December 10, 1917 , the SMS Szent István on June 10, 1918 in the same way off the island of Premuda . In both cases, the Italian boats, MAS 9 and MAS 15, were under the command of Luigi Rizzo . The SMS Viribus Unitis fell victim to Italian combat swimmers in the port of Pola in the early morning of November 1, 1918 . The loss of large and expensive warships through relatively modest and less personnel-intensive means such as submarines, small torpedo boats, mines and small weapons clearly showed that the construction of oversized ships was hardly profitable, especially when a fleet had to operate in an inland sea and its essential supply routes were not were open. Both the Austrian and Italian battleships stayed in port most of the time. The Austrian navy achieved a number of tactical successes in the Adriatic, but strategically the Otranto barrier made a significant contribution to the defeat of Austria-Hungary in the First World War.
One of the largest operations of the Regia Marina in the First World War was the evacuation of the defeated Serbian army, refugees and also Austrian prisoners of war from Albania to Corfu and on to other places, whereby, among other things, artificial ports had to be built. Between December 1915 and February 1916, around 180,000 people were evacuated, also with the support of the allies, and in March and April the Serbian cavalry with around 13,000 men and 10,000 horses. In return, Italian troops were brought to Albania and held the south coast there. During the operation, some Austrian warships attacked, for example at Durazzo at the end of December 1915 , but without much success. Otherwise Italian warships participated in the protection of supply convoys in the rest of the Mediterranean. Also worth mentioning are the navy's twelve armed railroad trains , which defended coasts and harbors against attacks with their medium-caliber naval guns and anti-aircraft cannons, especially in 1916 and 1917.
Between the world wars
The period between the two world wars was marked by the Franco-Italian naval rivalry and the aggressive foreign policy of the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini . The rivalry between France and Italy already existed in the decades before the First World War; During the war the two states were allies, but the Italian claim to lead naval operations in the Adriatic and otherwise to have open cooperation between the allied navies in the Mediterranean was undermined or openly rejected by the French. Fear that France could establish itself in Dalmatia and Albania immediately after the end of the war and that Italy could also threaten Italy in the east led to a large-scale Italian operation in November 1918 in which the strategically most important ports and islands on the eastern coast of the Adriatic were occupied. After the end of Austria-Hungary and its navy, Italy definitely wanted to secure its better strategic position. With the Peace Treaty of St. Germain in 1919, Italy received the two important port cities of Trieste and Pola , and with the Treaty of Rome in 1924, the previous Free State of Fiume . Apart from Zara and a few small islands, the rest of the area fell to the new Yugoslav state , which was temporarily supported by France in the further course, but never built a larger navy.
From June 1919 to July 1921, Admiral Giovanni Sechi headed the Ministry of the Navy under liberal Prime Minister . The difficult economic situation immediately after the war forced him to radically downsize the navy in the course of general demobilization . Their workforce fell from around 130,000 to around 40,000. The construction of four Caracciolo-class super dreadnoughts, which began during the war and was discontinued in 1916, was definitely discontinued, four old battleships and 15 cruisers of various types were decommissioned, and only a few destroyers and other light units were completed or newly commissioned. Admiral Sechi's pragmatic attitude, which was influenced by the lessons of the war, in particular by the successes of torpedoes and submarines against battleships and cruisers, as well as by the French Jeune École , met with fierce resistance from parts of the naval establishment. This conservative faction called for new battleships to be built, arguing that other states were also building them, that they were therefore imperative to protect sea routes and supplies, and that they formed the basis for a wide variety of political, economic and military undertakings. In her opinion, the six remaining Italian battleships (all dreadnoughts, including the upscale Da Vinci ) were not or no longer good enough for this.
In July 1921 , US Secretary of State Hughes invited representatives of the United Kingdom, Japan, France and Italy to a naval conference in Washington in order to prevent a new naval battle . Italy particularly accepted the invitation, as it had to struggle with the financial aftermath of the war even more than other countries and an arms limitation provided a welcome respite. Nevertheless, the Italian delegation under Senator Carlo Schanzer and Admiral Alfredo Acton had been instructed to seek parity with France for the tonnage limit. It was known that France would defend itself by pointing out the division of its fleet between the Atlantic and Mediterranean and the need to protect its extensive colonial territories , which is why the Italian delegation received the additional instruction to accept 80 percent of France's tonnage if necessary, but only based on the total tonnage of the entire fleet and not on individual ship types. Italy wanted to maintain freedom in the composition of its fleet and avoid systematic disadvantage for all ship types. At the conference, the Italian delegation then argued with the long coastline and the scarcity of raw materials, which made Italy even more dependent on open sea routes, which were more threatened in the Mediterranean than in countries with free access to the oceans. The Italian delegation achieved equality with France for battleships with a total of 175,000 tons each and for aircraft carriers with a total of 60,000 tons each and thus a remarkable diplomatic success, which however permanently damaged relations with France, also because the fascists who came to power at the end of 1922 in 1930 insisted again on parity at the naval conference in London and shortly afterwards in the Franco-Italian negotiations.
After the Washington Conference, France reacted with the transfer of warships to the Mediterranean and with an expansion of the fleet, as far as the Washington resolutions allowed, in particular for cruisers, destroyers and other unregulated units. Italy followed suit within the scope of the financial possibilities so as not to leave parity on paper. Both sides observed each other and tried to outperform the other's newbuildings without having a clear overall strategic concept and precise ideas about the alignment and composition of the respective fleet. In the Italian Navy there have been internal disputes since the beginning of the 1920s about the usefulness of aircraft carriers, disputes between the Navy and the Air Force formed in 1923 over naval aviation , disagreements about the need for battleships, widespread consensus on the uselessness of 10,000-ton cruisers, But despite their inadequate armor, they were built because France also built them, as well as contradicting views about the possible use of the fleet, which for some should attack the enemy fleet, but for others should only take over the security of the sea routes. These discussions took place in a similar way in the navies of other countries.
The Italian Leone-class sparked the arms race among the destroyers , although construction had already begun in 1917. After an interruption, only three of the five planned large destroyers were completed from 1920, which led France to build the Chacal and Guépard classes . Italy responded, among other things, with the Navigatori class , France in return with the Aigle and Vauquelin classes . As the French destroyers got bigger and bigger over time, Italy went over to building the light cruisers of the Alberto di Giussano class and their successors, the Condottieri series (a total of twelve ships) and later the Capitani Romani class . The destroyers grew noticeably beyond their original role, the light Italian cruisers, however, were initially not planned as real cruisers, but were simply supposed to be even more powerful than the previous destroyers. The seven heavy Italian cruisers of the Trento and Zara classes were used like battleships, mainly because the latter remained in reserve due to the high operating costs. After the battleships Leonardo Da Vinci and Dante Alighieri had been decommissioned in the 1920s and France built the Dunkerque class as an answer to the Germany class from 1932 , Italy decided in 1933 on the one hand to use the four remaining battleships of the Caio-Duilio - and Conte-di-Cavour -class to modernize comprehensively, with which only two ships were available until 1940, and on the other hand to lay the first two battleships of the very powerful Littorio-class on the keel. France responded with the Richelieu class , Italy finally with two more enlarged Littorios. In the case of aircraft carriers, however, Italy made the fateful decision to do without them entirely. The politically motivated claim to unconditional parity with France led to a naval policy that overstrained Italy financially and at the expense of other branches of the armed forces, especially the army, that was poorly thought out and left no room for original solutions, in which quantity was usually more important than quality which was particularly counterproductive because of the Italian poverty of raw materials and the economic self-sufficiency propagated by Mussolini .
In 1935, Mussolini ordered the submission of Ethiopia , which met with sharp international criticism. The British Royal Navy relocated parts of its Home Fleet to Gibraltar and the Mediterranean and, together with the local Mediterranean Fleet, built a threatening backdrop that should show Italy the limits of its options for action. With the closure of the Suez Canal, the United Kingdom could doom Italian operations in East Africa at any time, which is why Mussolini had troops concentrated in Libya on the border with Egypt. On this occasion, criticism and sanctions by the League of Nations remained . But because of Mussolini's policies, a scenario developed for the Marina Regia that the Italian naval command never wanted to seriously consider: a confrontation with the Royal Navy and, in extreme cases, joint British-French action against Italy. This scenario became even more likely when Fascist Italy, and with it its navy, supported the nationalists in the Spanish Civil War and thus brought itself even closer to confrontation with Paris and London. On the other hand, the situation for Italy eased somewhat, because National Socialist Germany also rearmed up at sea and thus directed the attention of the British and French naval command more to the North Sea and the Atlantic.
In World War II
See also: Italian naval units in World War II
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During the Second World War , Italy, allied with Germany, remained neutral from September 1939 to June 1940 in view of its geostrategic and economic situation, or “non-belligerent”, as Mussolini put it, and observed the inconclusive war in Central Europe. When the defeat of France became apparent during the German campaign in the west , my Mussolini, it would need a few thousand dead in order to be able to take part in the peace negotiations after the end of the war. Since the expected end of the war did not happen, he began, as an ally of his political rival Adolf Hitler, a so-called “parallel war” for reasons of prestige, for which Italy was morally unprepared and not materially prepared. The Regia Marina had been greatly expanded for political reasons, but always with a view to a conflict at sea that was limited to France. Since France was no longer a risk factor in June 1940, a short-term confrontation with the British Mediterranean fleet seemed possible in view of the peace negotiations that were believed to be imminent. These short-sighted considerations by Mussolini led to the fact that the Italian armed forces were deployed in the summer of 1940 without a clear strategic concept and that attacks on Malta and Suez did not take place in the first few months. In the further course, the continued British control of the Mediterranean approaches and Malta had a fatal effect on the Italian supplies. From 1941 onwards, the Italian fleet lacked fuel for large-scale operations and raw materials to replace lost ships. Contrary to original assumptions, the Italian Air Force was unable to adequately protect the fleet on the high seas, on the one hand because reaction times were too long despite strategically located airfields, and on the other hand because the rivalries between the two armed forces and the structures created as a result did not allow smooth cooperation . The construction of the aircraft carriers Aquila and Sparviero came too late. In the absence of radar , the Italian fleet was almost blind at night or in bad weather. Since the British were generally informed in advance about Italian fleet movements thanks to " Ultra " from 1941 onwards, they were able to attack with radar support, especially at night.
With the start of the Italian “parallel war” in North Africa, the war scenario at sea quickly emerged. While the Italians had to handle and secure supplies from Italy to North Africa in a north-south direction, the British supply lines ran in a west-east direction between Gibraltar, Malta and Egypt , unless they bypassed the Cape of Good Hope . So it came to individual clashes between naval units, which served to protect convoys. The Italian naval command did not want to get involved in the concept of a fleet-in-being during the war. The Regia Marina tried again and again, taking into account its own fuel supplies and at least potential air support, to intercept and attack British convoys , provided it was done in daylight and with sufficient strength, since losses could hardly be replaced. In these cases it became clear that Italian naval formations with comparable formations of the British or their allies could easily take on, although the Italian naval command in Rome almost never gave the commanders at sea the freedom of decision necessary for successful operations.
When the war broke out, the submarine fleet initially took over the surveillance of the Mediterranean area. In 1940 she was not up to date in terms of technology, operational doctrine and the level of training of the crews. Nevertheless, the boat Bagnolini managed to sink the British cruiser HMS Calypso on June 12, 1940 near Crete . Between June 1940 and September 1943, Italian submarines sank 132 merchant ships (665,317 GRT) and 18 warships or boats (28,950 ts) in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic (where they operated from Bordeaux ) and the Indian Ocean. Of a total of 172 Italian boats, 128 were lost, ten of them in June 1940 alone.
On July 9, 1940, the sea battle at Punta Stilo took place off Calabria , in which the Regia Marina held up well against the British and Australians even without the two modern battleships of the Littorio class. What did not work, however, was the cooperation with the Italian Air Force , which intervened too late and then mistakenly bombed its own ships. Serious doubts arose in the German naval command about the competence and willingness to take risks of the Italian command. Inadequate aerial reconnaissance and communication, but also a lack of determination on the part of the naval command, were the reasons why the Regia Marina was unable to attack British escorts MB 5 and Hats , who were reinforcing those from Gibraltar and Alexandria , at the end of August and beginning of September 1940, despite their clear superiority Malta brought. Four battleships (including the two Littorios), seven heavy and six light cruisers and 39 destroyers were involved in the unsuccessful Italian attack attempt in the central Mediterranean.
On the night of October 11th to 12th, 1940, several Italian destroyers and torpedo boats attacked a British naval formation at Capo Passero , southeast of Sicily, which was covering another escort to Malta. The destroyer Artigliere and two torpedo boats of the Spica class were lost without any sign of success. The loss of three modern light units in a textbook attack led to great uncertainty among the crews and the naval command. What they could not have known was that the British cruiser HMS Ajax was equipped with radar and could easily repel the Italian attack. The night battle at Capo Passero was a turning point, as the Regia Marina began to doubt its training and deployment principles as well as its resources in general and behaved even more passively than before. As a result, she concentrated on protecting her North African convoys.
Another turning point was the British attack on Taranto . The Italian battle fleet, anchored in Mar Grande, attacked a total of 20 Swordfish biplanes of the carrier Illustrious with torpedoes on the night of 11 to 12 November 1940 , with the three Italian battleships Littorio , Duilio and Cavour being so badly damaged that their crews were damaged a few hours after the attack. The Littorio remained out of action until March 1941, the Duilio until May 1941, and the Cavour, which had sunk to the superstructure, could not be completed by the end of the war. The Regia Marina lost half of its battleships in one fell swoop, the other half was withdrawn to Naples for security reasons . Immediately after Taranto, the Royal Navy wanted to take the opportunity to supply Alexandria directly from Gibraltar. On November 25, 1940, Italian naval formations left Naples and Messina to intercept the British escort. On November 27th, south of Sardinia, the sea battle at Cape Teulada occurred, in which the Italian weaknesses (albeit without consequences) showed up again: a lack of cooperation between the air force and the navy as well as unnecessary interference and hesitation by the naval command in Rome. The previous head of the Admiralty's staff , Domenico Cavagnari , was replaced by Admiral Arturo Riccardi , and shortly afterwards also the fleet chief Inigo Campioni , whose post was given to Admiral Angelo Iachino , who had distinguished himself with his cruiser squadron at Cape Teulada.
After Mussolini's war calculation had turned out to be a catastrophic misjudgment and the Italian armed forces had only recorded defeats in Greece , North and East Africa , the German allies had to be asked for support. Admiral Riccardi met his German counterpart Erich Raeder in Merano in February 1941 for talks. In return for the German support, Raeder demanded more offensive action by the Italian Navy, especially against British escorts from Egypt to Greece, but without going into details. As a rule, these British convoys were only protected by light units and so a constant use of submarines, destroyers and cruisers would have been sufficient to combat them. Nevertheless, the Italian naval command decided for political reasons to undertake a large-scale operation between Africa and Greece in order to signal the allies will to act, although the Italian fuel supply was only sufficient for a few major operations of this kind and at the same time the possibilities for lighter units on site were further limited.
When a battleship, six heavy and two light cruisers and 13 destroyers under Admiral Iachino set sail for Crete on the evening of March 26, 1941 , the British were largely informed of the intentions of the Italian naval association and sent them, among other things, an aircraft carrier and three battleships . Parts of the Italian fleet took up combat with British cruisers south of Crete on March 28. As with Punta Stilo and Teulada, the British did not succeed against the Italians in daylight. But when HMS Formidable's torpedo bombers attacked, Iachino broke off the fight for lack of air support of his own and withdrew in the direction of Taranto, also because planned attacks on British escorts were unnecessary under these conditions and he did not want to engage in night-time fighting. In pursuit, British torpedo bombers damaged the battleship Vittorio Veneto and the heavy cruiser Pola . To protect the immobile Pola , some Italian warships returned, which were then sunk by the British fleet with radar support within four minutes at night in the battle of Cape Matapan without the Italian crews even having seen their opponents. Over 2,300 Italian sailors died, three heavy cruisers and two destroyers sank. It was only after this tragic defeat that Italy seriously began to develop and manufacture radars. Mussolini now also ordered the conversion of two passenger ships into aircraft carriers. The Italians largely blamed the defeat on the Germans, from whom they had been under pressure since the Merano talks, i.e. H. felt compelled to take the offensive. The willingness to make agreements with the axis partner sank rapidly. Attempts by the naval war command to influence the Italian naval command from then on met with rejection.
The nightly British successes made the Italian naval command even more cautious in the meantime. The remaining heavy units were left in the ports if possible. The protection of the convoys to North Africa was mainly done by destroyers and torpedo boats, with which British cruisers and destroyers were used, which continued to achieve considerable success at night. In November 1941, over 60 percent of the supplies to North Africa were lost. In the case of the cruisers Giussano and Barbiano , the attempt to transport fuel on cruisers to North Africa ended in an inferno of flames on the night of December 12th to 13th, 1941. The increased use of submarines for transport purposes could only provide a very limited remedy. In December 1941 the Regia Marina went back to using the entire fleet for escort protection, with the first sea battle in the Gulf of Syrte on December 17, 1941 . Once again it turned out that the Italian Navy had nothing to fear during the day.
On the night of December 18-19, 1941, the Marina Regia succeeded in reciprocating the British attack on Taranto with an attack on Alexandria : A combat swimmer unit from the 10ª Flottiglia MAS was taken off the submarine Scirè off Alexandria Deposed, then penetrated the British naval port on manned torpedoes and put the battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant out of action with explosive charges. In addition, a tanker and a destroyer were damaged. The Queen Elizabeth was repaired until June 1943, the Valiant could be provisionally repaired until July 1942, but remained inactive until May 1943. This shifted the balance of power in the Mediterranean back in favor of the Axis powers , also because a number of British ships had been sunk by mines and German air raids and submarines in the previous months. In the case of the North Africa escorts the situation improved in the first months of 1942; the low fuel supplies remained problematic.
In March 1942 Admiral Iachino intercepted a British escort to Malta with a superior naval force. The second naval battle fought in heavy seas in the Gulf of Syrte (actually north of the gulf) was largely unsuccessful despite the efforts of both sides and only subsequently led to losses for the British and Italians for other reasons. Violent German and Italian air strikes on Malta were intended to eliminate the island as a disruptive factor and create the conditions for its planned invasion ( Operation Hercules , C.3), which was then not carried out. To improve the catastrophic supply situation on Malta, the British sent convoys to Malta from Egypt and Gibraltar in June 1942 under the code names Vigorous and Harpoon . They left almost simultaneously to share the forces of the Axis powers in the central Mediterranean. In the Strait of Sicily , Admiral Alberto da Zara and his 7th cruiser division took up the fight with the Harpoon escort from Gibraltar and was able to record some successes. In the course of the battle at Pantelleria , two British destroyers were put out of action and a tanker and two freighters, which had previously been badly damaged by air raids, were sunk. Italian torpedo bombers had previously sunk a freighter and badly damaged a cruiser, after which they sank one of the destroyers damaged by da Zara. The Vigorous escort coming from the east was first again the target of air strikes and then a large Italian naval unit from Taranto. The latter consisted of two battleships, four cruisers and several destroyers. During the fighting on June 15, 1942, the Italian cruiser Trento was first damaged and then sunk by a submarine. The further British advance to Malta failed due to air raids and the Italian fleet, which is why the Vigorous convoy had to turn around. Of a total of 17 freighters and tankers on the two Malta escorts, only two reached their destination. For this reason, the Allies started another attempt to supply Malta on August 9, 1942 with Operation Pedestal from Gibraltar. The Regia Marina had to leave its battleships in port for lack of fuel and could only muster six cruisers, light units and submarines. On the other hand, almost 800 German and Italian planes were ready on Sardinia and Sicily, as well as German speedboats and submarines. The Regia Marina intervened on August 12 and 13 in the fighting, which was costly for the Allies , and sank the cruisers HMS Cairo and HMS Manchester as well as five cargo ships with light units and submarines . In addition, two other cruisers and one tanker were damaged. The Italian losses amounted to two submarines. In the absence of air support, the Italian cruisers, of which Albert Kesselring did not think much, withdrew to Messina, two of them being badly damaged by British torpedoes. The Allied reinforcements that got through to Malta were sufficient to secure the island's military role in the central Mediterranean.
After the Axis' defeat at El Alamein and the Allied landings in Morocco and Algeria ( Operation Torch ), the Germans and Italians gradually withdrew to Tunisia . The remaining Italian naval units could hardly do anything against the Allied naval forces in the Mediterranean, which now consisted of six battleships, twelve aircraft carriers, 15 cruisers and over 80 destroyers. Although the new Italian battleship Roma reached operational readiness in September 1942, apart from a last iron reserve, there has been a lack of fuel for this type of ship for months. The Regia Marina lost numerous ships, boats and submarines in an attempt to support the forces in Tunisia and in various other isolated missions . After the Axis' defeat in Tunisia and the Allied landing in Sicily ( Operation Husky ), the end of the war for Italy became clear. Though there were considerations about a last great naval battle against the Allies to defend Italy, in view of its more symbolic effect and practical uselessness, it was decided against. The instead ordered use of the remaining submarines against the several hundred ships of the Allied forces off Sicily achieved nothing.
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The Cassibile armistice between the Allies and Italy , which was publicly announced on September 8, 1943 , contained a provision according to which the Italian fleet was to be surrendered to the Allies. The fleet chief Carlo Bergamini , who had replaced Iachino in April 1943, planned the self-sinking of the Italian battle fleet on September 8, 1943 . The admiralty's staff initially approved this decision. Because of the order of the king and his new government to observe the armistice regulations, the admiral's staff had to persuade Bergamini, who was determined to scuttling, to leave. Bergamini, who was kept in the dark, was initially instructed to go with his fleet from La Spezia and Genoa to La Maddalena . In the meantime the German Wehrmacht had started to occupy Italy ( Axis case ), which is why the base on Sardinia was no longer a suitable target. Bergamini was to go to Bône in Algeria with his three modern battleships and the other ships . Shortly after the course change, German fighter planes attacked the Italian unit and sank Bergamini's flagship Roma with a new type of guided missile . Over 1300 crew members (including Bergamini) went down with the Roma . Despite various internal resistances that had previously reached the border to mutiny in Genoa and La Spezia , the rest of the battle fleet continued in the direction of Bône and then to Malta, where it was handed over. Similar scenes took place in Taranto as in Genoa and La Spezia. Rear Admiral Giovanni Galati categorically refused to hand over his cruisers and was therefore in fortress detention. It was not until the evening of September 9 that Admiral da Zara left for Malta with his two battleships Doria and Duilio and the rest of the fleet there. In Pola there was a mutiny on the battleship Giulio Cesare . The Italian ships and boats that remained in the ports and shipyards due to a lack of operational readiness were captured by the Wehrmacht or, in many cases, conquered against the resistance of their crews, some of which lasted several weeks and costly. Successful resistance actions like that of the well-known submarine commander Carlo Fecia di Cossato in Bastia remained exceptions. In other cases, Italian units interned in the Balearic Islands or sank themselves there. Fecia di Cossato, who committed suicide in Naples in 1944, wrote in his farewell letter that the navy had given itself up as a pledge of peace and to preserve the monarchy had been sold and betrayed.
The idea that the fleet surrendered in Malta could contribute to the liberation of Italy and Europe as part of the kingdom that continued to exist in southern Italy under Allied protection under Italian command and Allied supreme command and thus achieve more favorable peace conditions after the war, proved to be excessive. Although there was a cooperation agreement, the role of the Regia Marina remained that of an extra . Of the five remaining battleships, the Allies interned the two most modern in the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal by 1947 ; the three older ones returned to Taranto from Malta in mid-1944 to take on mainly training tasks. The eight remaining cruisers, however, were used both in the Mediterranean and in the mid-Atlantic, destroyers, torpedo boats and corvettes to protect convoys. Special Allied interest aroused the combat swimmer unit, which supported or carried out numerous sabotage actions, including against the cruiser Bolzano in La Spezia and against the unfinished aircraft carrier Aquila in Genoa. The marine infantry of the San Marco Regiment fought on the mainland in an Italian army combat group under Allied command. She was involved in the capture of Venice in 1945.
The navy of the fascist Italian Social Republic in Northern Italy was a negligible entity compared to its army and air force , with the exception of Junio Valerio Borghese's marine division . Parts of this division fought in the Goths and against Tito's Yugoslav People 's Liberation Army in Julisch Veneto .
Marina Militare
With the referendum of June 2, 1946, the monarchy was abolished in Italy . In the names of all state institutions, the attribute "royal" was then dropped or completely renamed without causing a historical break. In the case of the Regia Marina , the name Marina Militare was chosen, referring to Piedmontese and Italian documents from the Risorgimento period . The Luftwaffe, now called Aeronautica Militare , proceeded in a similar manner . The extended name Marina Militare Italiana, short MMI, was never officially and was based on the adjustment to the NATO standard -space Italian Navy . At times the extended name and its abbreviation predominated in common parlance, then they returned to the origins.
On February 2, 1947, the Italian Ministry of Defense was created , in which the old ministries for war, navy and aviation were dissolved. In fact, until 1965 it was only an umbrella organization, as the three ministerial administrations continued to exist in their respective service buildings. There were initially no profound changes in the area of naval command either.
Despite all the military and political efforts of the anti-fascist forces in Italy, the peace treaty signed in Paris on February 10, 1947, turned out to be far less lenient than expected. The Italian armed forces , including the carabinieri, were not allowed to have more than 300,000 soldiers. The navy , reduced to 25,000 men, had to accept a total tonnage limit of 67,500 tons for the combat ships. Nuclear weapons and missiles as well as guns with a range of more than 30 km were banned . Italy was no longer allowed to manufacture or own battleships, aircraft carriers, submarines, MAS torpedo boats and small weapons for special forces such as manned torpedoes . The construction of military installations on Pianosa , Pantelleria and the Pelagie Islands was also prohibited. Three battleships ( Italia , Vittorio Veneto , Giulio Cesare ), five cruisers, seven destroyers, six torpedo boats, eight submarines and a training ship had to be handed over to the victorious powers as reparations , which significantly restricted the remaining Italian fleet. The then naval chief Raffaele de Courten resigned from his post at the end of 1946, i.e. before the peace treaty was signed, because he felt that the emerging provisions of the peace treaty were unfair in view of the agreements of 1943 and the Italian contribution to the war of liberation up to 1945.
In 1947 the Italian Navy had two old battleships ( Caio Duilio , Andrea Doria ), which due to their condition did not fall under the restrictive provisions of the peace treaty, four cruisers ( Duca degli Abruzzi , Garibaldi , Montecuccoli , Cadorna ), four destroyers and 36 torpedo boats and Corvettes. There were also around 20 anti-mine vehicles , around 100 auxiliary vehicles and the sailing training ship Amerigo Vespucci, which is still in service today . While the larger units were mainly assigned training tasks, some of the smaller vehicles and the unofficially still available combat swimmers were used to clear the numerous mines and the war damage in Italian ports.
Reconstruction in the Cold War
The beginning of the Cold War and the first attempts by the Soviet Union to set up naval bases in the Mediterranean with allied or friendly states prompted the Western powers relatively quickly to abandon their tough stance on Italy. After the country became part of NATO on April 4, 1949 , and the United States gave military equipment to the Italian armed forces free of charge as part of the Mutual Defense Assistance Program (MDAP) and Off-Shore Procurement (OSP), even by circumventing the peace treaty, or gave it too much had offered favorable procurement conditions, the arms restrictions of the peace treaty were completely lifted in December 1951. For the two battleships Vittorio Veneto and Italia, which the United Kingdom and the USA had waived as reparations, these political changes came too late; They were scrapped in La Spezia from 1948, despite Italian protests. The same fate befell the two old battleships Duilio and Doria from 1956 onwards .
For the other types of ship, due to a lack of financial resources and because of the limited capacities of the Italian shipbuilding industry due to the war, one remained dependent on US support. As early as 1949, NATO had deemed it necessary to equip the Italian Navy with two light aircraft carriers, four cruisers, twelve destroyers and 16 frigates. In the case of the flying components required for aircraft carriers, the Italian Air Force insisted on a rule from the time of fascism, which largely prohibited the navy of its own aircraft, which is why the carrier project was nipped in the bud despite US willingness to help due to internal power struggles. After the unusable cruiser Cadorna had been scrapped, three very good cruisers remained, which almost covered the demand in this area. In addition, two light cruisers of the Capitani Romani class , which had been ordered during the war, were to be completed or converted into destroyers and two new destroyers ( Indomito class (1955) ) were to be commissioned. With the four destroyers from the war mass and the two units (Artigliere, Aviere) of the classes Benson and Gleaves / Livermore taken over by the USA in 1951, a satisfactory solution was also found here. Furthermore, Italy received three under the MDAP escort destroyer of the Cannon-class (Aldebaran, Altair, Andromeda), the 1957 frigates were reclassified and 1962 Corvettes. The construction of four new Centauro- class frigates and the Albatros-class corvettes still benefited from the MDAP. These frigates and corvettes complemented the still existing units of the Gabbiano , Spica and Orsa classes . From the mid-1950s onwards, Italy was largely able to meet the original NATO requirements.
The submarines were dependent on more support. Despite the peace treaty, the Navy had kept the two boats Vortice and Giada secret by designating them as “battery loading pontoons ”, but used them de facto for training submarine crews, especially at night. There was also the Bario boat , which could only be reactivated later. This facilitated the introduction of two used US Gato-class boats in 1955 , which were followed over time by three units of the Balao-class , two of the Tench-class and finally two of the Tang-class . Some of the boats had undergone GUPPY modernization or were built according to GUPPY standards. It was not until the mid-1960s that Italy put submarines back on its own with the four small Toti-class units . The naval combat swimmer unit , which in spite of the provisions of the peace treaty existed in Venice until 1951 and provided mine clearance personnel, was officially reactivated in Varignano near La Spezia.
The need to remove dangerous sea mines resulted in the Marina Militare having a relatively large anti-mine component with around 100 boats in the 1950s. Among these boats were 37 of the Adjutant class , 19 of which were built in Italy, 20 units of the Aragosta Ham class, also built in Italy under the MDAP framework, and 17 units of the BYMS class . A number of these boats were not decommissioned until the 1990s or converted for support, monitoring or training purposes.
After the construction of a flying component failed at the end of 1950 due to the inflexible attitude of the Italian Air Force , the Navy began testing helicopters in the summer of 1953. This took place in Augusta in Sicily and on the modified deck of the cruiser Garibaldi . The encouraging results led to the founding of the Italian naval aviators in 1956 , which were exclusively equipped with helicopters until the law was changed in 1989. The maritime scouts reached a compromise, according to which the aircraft remained part of the air force, but their operational control was with the navy.
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With the so-called "Program 1958" the aim was to improve the quality of the fleet by replacing older ships with new ones. The positive experiences that had been made with helicopters played an important role in this. The four frigates of the new Bergamini class were the first of their kind with a flight deck and hangar for helicopters. They complemented the four frigates of the Centauro class and the three ships of the Cannon or Aldebaran class. The "1958 program" also provided for two destroyers of the new Impavido class , which were the first in Italy to be equipped with guided missiles . Like all other newbuildings, they too had a helicopter deck. The picture completed in this area, the two ships put in service with the Indomito class that originate from the US destroyer Artigliere and aviere and the two former "Romans" of Capitani Romani class that you are in San Giorgio and San Marco renamed would have. For the cruisers, three units of the new Doria class were planned, of which only two were built, as well as a comprehensive modernization of the cruiser Garibaldi . After units of the army and air force had been assigned missiles and nuclear warheads as part of the nuclear participation of the USA, the navy also sought such equipment. Silos for launching Polaris missiles were installed on the cruiser Garibaldi . In addition, the construction of a class of nuclear submarines , the type of which was to be named after the scientist Guglielmo Marconi , and a nuclear-powered supplier named after Enrico Fermi were also considered . Due to political reservations, the missile silos on the Garibaldi finally became material stores and the other nuclear projects of the Navy remained on paper except for research facilities near Pisa. In the case of the submarines, the construction of the four small boats of the Toti class began as planned .
In the mid-1960s, the Italian Navy had three cruisers, eight destroyers, eleven frigates, eight submarines, over 20 corvettes, six speedboats, around 60 anti-mine vehicles and around 180 support and auxiliary vehicles of various types. They also had from the USA Dropships and boats taken in support of the San Marco Marine Infantry Battalion, which was re-established in Brindisi . At the end of the 1960s, instead of the planned but not built third cruiser of the Doria class, the larger Vittorio Veneto was laid on Kiel, which was also known as a flight deck cruiser or helicopter carrier because of its 50 meter long helicopter deck with a hangar below . At the same time, Italy took over three Fletcher-class destroyers from the USA as replacements for the two old Benson destroyers Artigliere and Aviere , but they were in such poor condition that only two ships were put into service and after about five years also on them renounced. Two new Audace-class guided missile destroyers took their place . In 1968, the frigates were joined by two ships of the Alpino class , which were built as a further improvement on the Bergamini class. At the beginning of the 1970s, almost all warships from the time of the Second World War were eliminated. There remained three new cruisers, six destroyers of the Indomito, Impavido and Audace classes (the San Giorgio also remained in service as a training ship until 1980) and ten frigates of the Centauro, Bergamini and Alpino classes.
Organizationally, too, the situation had consolidated by this time. The territorial organization of the navy consisted of coastal section commands ( Dipartimento militare marittimo ) in La Spezia for the northern Tyrrhenian Sea, in Naples for the southern part, in Cagliari and Messina for Sardinia and Sicily, in Taranto for the Ionian Sea and the southern Adriatic and in Ancona for the rest of the Adriatic. These commands included naval bases, arsenals and airfields, telecommunication facilities, ammunition depots and hospitals, administrative offices, training facilities, security forces, auxiliary vehicles and, in some cases, anti-mine vehicles. The naval command ( Comando della Squadra Navale ) in Santa Rosa near Rome, however, was subordinate to four naval divisions (Divisione Navale) with their subordinate squadrons. The 1st and 2nd divisions in La Spezia and Taranto were subordinate to the cruisers, destroyers and frigates, the 3rd division in Brindisi led the amphibious forces and the speedboats, the 4th division in Augusta the corvettes. There was a separate command for the submarines with bases in Taranto and Augusta. The Navy had a total of over 50,000 soldiers.
The 1975 Naval Act
At the beginning of the 1970s, the Soviet fleet in the Mediterranean ( 5th Squadron ) had grown to over 80 warships, most of which could fire cruise missiles . When Israel advanced as far as the Suez Canal in the 1973 Yom Kippur War , the Soviet Union prepared an intervention there with airborne units and amphibious forces. There were hostile encounters in the Eastern Mediterranean between the Soviet 5th Squadron and the 6th US Fleet, which were among the highlights of the Cold War. Further west, in Libya , Muammar al-Gaddafi took power in 1969 and expelled all Italians living there. In October 1972 there was even a brief exchange of fire when a Libyan fighter plane attacked an Italian corvette off the Libyan coast in international waters. At the same time, economic development in Italy slackened, especially after the 1973 oil crisis , which meant that Italian defense spending was even less in line with needs than before. The few resources were concentrated in the other two branches of the armed forces, which were preparing for a continental war in northeast Italy. After a number of older warships were decommissioned, the navy not only lacked funds for new builds, but also lacked money for the maintenance of the existing fleet. For example, only two units of the Alpino and Audace classes were built each instead of the planned four. The remaining ships of the Centauro and Indomito classes were technically outdated. The Fletcher destroyers had made a very bad impression, and the fact that the submarines were again dependent on two used Tang boats in the early 1970s did not improve general morale. On the contrary, it had sunk so low that around 800 naval officers signed a letter of protest to the chief of the Admiralty's staff. The commander of the fleet, Admiral Gino Birindelli , complained about the state of the navy at a press conference in February 1970. He even went so far that when parliamentarians from the Defense Committee visited the cruiser Garibaldi , he had them locked in the engine room at sea in order to show them the working conditions of the soldiers. An initial, superficial response from politics was to appoint Eugenio Henke , an admiral, to the post of Chief of Staff of the armed forces for the first time. In view of the political and military situation mentioned, Parliament finally passed a naval law on March 22, 1975, with which the Navy received additional financial resources for a long-term modernization program.
Before the law was passed, four Lupo-class frigates had been commissioned, as well as the first two Sauro-class submarines , a Stromboli-class supplier , some smaller units and helicopters. With the additional funds of the Fleet Act, a modern and balanced fleet was built up over a period of 15 years. The construction program included another supplier, a landing ship (later two more of the San Giorgio class ), ten minesweepers (there were twelve of the Lerici and Gaeta classes ), six hydrofoils of the Sparviero class , and two more submarines of the Sauro -Class (finally eight), eight frigates of the Maestrale-class , two destroyers of the De-la-Penne-class and the light aircraft carrier Garibaldi , which was classified as a flight deck cruiser due to the current legal situation and which was initially only used as a helicopter carrier for submarine hunting - Tasks until an agreement was finally reached with the Air Force and in 1991 the first AV-8 + Harrier II of the Aviazione Navale could be put into service. In the course of the introduction of the Garibaldi carrier , new fleet plans also came up. According to the Admiral's staff, the Italian fleet should consist of at least two (ideally three) offshore formations, each with a light aircraft carrier, two destroyers and six frigates. In view of the fact that basic military service was also reduced to twelve months in the Navy in 1987, this should enable optimal rotation between maintenance, training and operational readiness at sea. The ideal consistency was therefore a total of three carriers, six destroyers and 18 frigates and 14 submarines. In the absence of political will and because of the inadequate defense budget, an aircraft carrier (Garibaldi) and a helicopter carrier ( Vittorio Veneto), two light cruisers of the Doria class and four destroyers of the Audace and Impavido classes, sixteen frigates of the Maestrale, Lupo, Alpino and classes remained Bergamini and twelve submarines of the Sauro, Toti and Tang classes. In addition, eight new corvettes of the Minerva class and four patrol ships of the Cassiopea class were added towards the end of the 1980s . With these ships and in the previous organization, the Italian Navy came to the end of the Cold War.
During the east-west confrontation, the Italian Navy took part in various other missions. In 1979 the cruisers Vittorio Veneto and Andrea Doria were sent to the South China Sea together with the utility Stromboli , where they rescued a total of around 1000 so-called boat people . After the end of the war in Vietnam , countless people fled the arbitrariness of the new rulers by sea. In the spring of 1982, the Marina Militare patrol boats as part of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in the Gulf of Aqaba began their surveillance tasks to ensure peace between Egypt and Israel. The mission continues to this day. After the Lebanon War of 1982 , Italy took part in an international protection force, including the San Marco Battalion. Parts of the fleet secured the transport and support of the Italian contingent, which remained on site under General Franco Angioni until 1984. In 1984 a mine defense association was sent to the Red Sea , where sea mines near the Suez Canal endangered merchant shipping. In 1985, the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship almost led to intervention by the COMSUBIN combat swimmers . The matter eventually ended in a critical confrontation between Italian and American soldiers in Sigonella . In the following year there were military clashes between the USA and Libya ( Operation Attain Document ), during which the Libyans fired a Scud rocket at Lampedusa without hitting the target. The Italian Navy then dispatched some warships to the sea area, which were supposed to serve as deterrence and air surveillance (Operation Girasole). When fighting in the Iranian-Iraqi war encroached on civilian merchant shipping in the Persian Gulf , especially on oil tankers , several states dispatched warships to the region. After the Italian merchant ship Jolly Rubino was attacked there in early September 1987, two frigates of the Maestrale class, one of the Lupo class, three mine sweepers of the Lerici class, a supplier and a tender were given marching orders. This composition of the task force was maintained for around a year even in the wake of replacements. In retrospect, the decisions that had been made in 1975 with the Fleet Act were considered to be correct; only the utilities had an obvious need for another ship.
The longer training trips of Italian warships between 1950 and 1990 should only be mentioned in passing. The cruiser Raimondo Montecuccoli circumnavigated the globe as a training ship in 1956/1957 and the African continent in 1963. The journeys of other ships had Japan , Australia , South America , the USA and Canada as destinations. Some ships also made contributions to disaster relief at home and abroad .
After 1990
After 1990, the fleet began to be reduced in size, but also modernized. In the early 1990s, the two Doria-class cruisers, the two Impavido-class destroyers and the last two Bergamini frigates retired from active service. The two Alpino-class frigates were converted into a test ship and a tender in 1995 . Finally, the last corvettes of the de Cristofaro and Albatros classes as well as the Sparviero hydrofoils were taken out of service. The two Tang-class submarines had already left the fleet in the late 1980s, the four small Toti boats followed in the mid-1990s.
With some delay, the two De-la-Penne-class destroyers joined the fleet in 1992 as the last large units of the 1975 fleet-building program, which then supplemented the two remaining Audace destroyers for over ten years. In the case of the frigates, the Marina Militare was forced to take over four more Lupo-class ships that were originally built for Iraq but were then subject to an international arms embargo. This left 16 frigates of the Maestrale and Lupo classes until the older four Lupos were sold to the Peruvian Navy around 2004 . A total of 18 units of the classes Minerva, Cassiopea , Sirio and Comandanti were procured for the corvettes and patrol ships . Two more submarines of the Sauro class brought their total stock to eight.
In 1997, under the Chief of Staff Admiral Guido Venturoni , a profound overall reform of the Italian armed forces took place, which particularly affected the management structures. In 1999 the Fleet Command was given a number of training tasks and facilities in addition to operational tasks. The previous organization of the fleet was replaced by a more functional organization with type commands and mixed task forces. In the further planning of the fleet, the focus was on international cooperation that reduced development costs and unit costs. With France and temporarily with the United Kingdom, the destroyers of the Horizon class were developed , two of which were ordered to replace the two Audace destroyers. Based on the Horizon class, France and Italy then developed the FREMM frigates . Italy had lost ground in submarine construction in the 1990s, especially with propulsion that is independent of the outside air , which is why the German U212 project was joined in this case .
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In the 1980s, financial reasons had prevented the construction of a sister ship of the carrier Garibaldi , which would have allowed the completion and better protection of a second offshore association as well as the coverage of the docking times of the other carrier. More than 20 years passed before a second aircraft carrier, the Cavour , was built, which replaced the helicopter carrier Vittorio Veneto . Since the three named carriers were single ships for financial reasons , the Italian trade press soon spoke disparagingly of the “prototype navy” and criticized the inefficiency of this approach. With the Etna in 1998 , the navy also received a single ship from the suppliers . The gradual introduction of new helicopters of the types AW101 and NH90 was important , with the latter leading to unpleasant delays. Due to the increasing number of foreign deployments, it was decided in the 1990s to expand the marine infantry to regimental strength and later institutionalized cooperation with the amphibious Lagunari regiment and other army units .
Because of the Iraqi attack on Kuwait , Italian warships returned to the Persian Gulf for a year in August 1990, where they participated in the implementation of the embargo on Iraq , the protection of US carrier combat groups and finally in the clearing of mines. As before, frigates of the Maestrale and Lupo classes as well as utilities and minesweepers were used, but now also destroyers and corvettes of the Audace and Minerva classes. On their way back to Italy, two ships evacuated European civilians from civil war-torn Somalia , where a military contingent was sent in December 1993 as part of operations UNOSOM I and II , which included the San Marco battalion. This unsuccessful mission ended for Italy and other countries in March 1994. Other contingents had to be evacuated a year later as part of Operation United Shield, for which Italy provided the carrier Garibaldi (among other things with attack helicopters of the Army), a frigate, two landing ships and a supply ship as well as nearly 600 marines and army soldiers sent. At the same time, the Navy also had to support the Italian ONUMOZ contingent in Mozambique . Another trouble spot arose in Albania , from where a massive flow of refugees to Italy began. After the so-called lottery uprising , military interventions also had to be made in Albania (Operation Alba), whereby two Italian ships attracted negative attention: the cruiser Vittorio Veneto, which ran aground off Vlora , and the corvette Sibilla , which collided with an Albanian refugee boat, whereby at least 80 Refugees drowned. On the other hand, the countless refugees who were brought out of the sea over the years spoke for the Navy and the coast guard that belonged to it . Until the turn of the millennium, the Navy also supported operations in or in front of the former Yugoslavia (including Sharp Guard , Allied Force ), in Eritrea and also in East Timor , where the landing ship San Giusto had been sent, including with soldiers from COMSUBIN.
After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , the Marina Militare took part in Operation Enduring Freedom , with Harrier fighter planes from the carrier Garibaldi taking off for missions over Afghanistan . Parts of the San Marco Regiment, COMSUBIN teams and naval aviation helicopters were also deployed there. At the same time, NATO naval formations with Italian participation began Operation Active Endeavor in the eastern Mediterranean . From 2003 to 2006 the Navy supported an Italian military contingent in Iraq, then another in Lebanon , which strengthened the UNIFIL force there after the 2006 war . On this occasion, the joint amphibious force of the army and navy was deployed for the first time, for their transport, in addition to the Garibaldi, all three landing ships of the San Giorgio class were necessary. In the years that followed, the fight against piracy off the Somali coast came to the fore, for which Italian ships were subordinated to NATO or EU associations on site, which were also managed by Italian admirals, including Giovanni Gumiero . In 2011, Admiral Rinaldo Veri commanded the NATO naval forces during the international military operation in Libya , which implemented an arms embargo against Libya as part of Operation Unified Protector . The aircraft carrier Garibaldi returned to Taranto after four months at sea, as its Harrier had robbed the naval aviators of the entire stock of precision bombs in the attacks on targets in Libya . In the same year, the Monti government decided to take drastic austerity measures due to the national debt crisis in Italy , which did not spare the Italian navy.
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Important bases and offices of the Marina Militare in 2012 |
Marine museums and tradition maintenance
The Museo storico navale in Venice documents the history of seafaring in general and that of the naval forces of the Republic of Venice and Italy in particular. The original inventory of ship models and weapons, as well as the magnificent Venetian state ship Bucintoro , fell victim to plundering Napoleonic soldiers in December 1797 and January 1798. The Museo tecnico navale in La Spezia is particularly focused on technical aspects and the special units of the Italian Navy. In 1943, Allied air raids on La Spezia also destroyed parts of the original inventory in this case, the exhibits of which documented the Battle of Lepanto, among other things. The naval flags of decommissioned warships are kept in the Vittoriano in Rome, where there is also a small naval exhibition. In addition to the naval museums mentioned, there are a number of other museums that also have military shipping as their theme. The Monumento al Marinaio d'Italia in Brindisi, which is not unlike the German naval memorial, Laboe, is dedicated to the fallen of the two world wars . The four old maritime republics play an important role in maintaining tradition , although the Italian navy is only very indirectly behind them. However , there is no historical break between the Regia Marina and the Marina Militare . The proclamation of the republic in 1946 required a name change, which in fact opened a new chapter. The individual military achievements of warships and marines of the Regia Marina are honored by the Marina Militare , which is underlined by the names of the ships and military facilities, but otherwise it is even more evident than with the army and air force that the year 1946 is seen as a real new beginning .
The Enrico Toti submarine in the
Museum of Technology in Milan
Manned torpedo in urban green area in Taormina, Sicily
Naval war flag of the cruiser Duca degli Abruzzi, Vittoriano, Rome
Venetian ship with camels , 17th century, Museo storico navale
The Nazario Sauro museum submarine in the Galata Maritime Museum , Genoa
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References
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- Gino Galuppini: La bandiera tricolore della marina sarda . USMM, Rome 1971.
- Gino Galuppini: Guida alle navi d'Italia - la marina da guerra dal 1861 ad oggi . Mondadori, Milan 1982.
- Giorgio Giorgerini, Andrea Tani: Aspetti marittimi della guerra fredda . Rivista Marittima (Supplemento), Rome 2001.
- Giorgio Giorgerini: La guerra italiana sul mare . Mondadori, Milan 2002.
- Giorgio Giorgerini: Da Matapan al Golfo Persico - La Marina Militare Italiana dal fascismo alla repubblica . Mondadori, Milan 2003.
- John Gooch: Mussolini and his Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922-1940. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- Alberto Guglielmotti : Storia della marina pontificia dal secolo ottavo al secolo decimonono . Tipografia vaticana, Rome 1886-1893 (10 volumes).
- Angelo Iachino : Tramonto di una grande marina . Mondadori, Milan 1965.
- Thomas A. Kirk: Genoa and the Sea: policy and power in an early modern maritime republic 1559–1684. Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2005.
- Frederic C. Lane: Venice - A Maritime Republic. Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1973.
- Camillo Manfroni: Storia della marina italiana . Forzani, Rome 1897–1902 (3 volumes).
- Pierangelo Manuele: Il Piemonte sul mare . L'Arciere, Cuneo 1997.
- Federico Moro: Venice at war. The great battles of the Serenissima. Studio LT2, Venice 2007.
- Arrigo Petacco : Le battaglie navali nel Mediterraneo nella seconda guerra mondiale. Mondadori, Milan 1976.
- Lamberto Radogna: Cronistoria delle unità da guerra delle Marine preunitarie . USMM, Rome 1981.
- Lamberto Radogna: Storia della Marina militare delle Due Sicilie 1734-1860 . Mursia, Milan 1978.
- Carlo Randaccio: Storia delle Marine militari italiane dal 1750 al 1860 e della Marina militare italiana dal 1860 al 1870 . Forzani, Rome 1880 (2 volumes).
- Gianni Rocca : Fucilate gli ammiragli. Mondadori, Milan 1987.
- Sante Romiti: Le marine militari italiane nel Risorgimento, 1748–1861 . USMM, Rome 1950.
- James J. Sadkovich: The Italian Navy in World War II . Greenwood Press, Westport (CT, USA), 1994.
- Ferdinando Sanfelice di Monteforte: I Savoia e il mare . Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli 2009.
- Alberto Santoni: Da Lepanto ad Hampton Roads . Mursia, Milan 2006.
- Geoffrey V. Scammell: The World Encompassed - The first European maritime empires 800–1650. University of California Press, Berkeley 1981.
- I. Sigismondi: Gli arsenali della regia marina . Roux e Viarengo 1903 ( full text on Archive.org ).
- Augusto Vittorio Vecchi (Jack La Bolina): Storia Generale della Marina Militare . Giusti, Livorno 1895.
- Alberto da Zara : Pelle di ammiraglio . Mondadori, Milan 1949.
Web links
- History portal of the Italian Navy
- Ship almanac of the Italian Navy
- regiamarina.net about the Italian Navy in World War II
See also
- List of ship classes in the Italian Navy
- History of the Italian Army
- History of the Italian Air Force
- History of seafaring
References and comments
- ^ The Etruscans and the Sea, mysteriousetruscans.com
- ↑ galleriaroma.it on the arsenal of Syracuse
- ↑ romaeterna.org on Anzio vs. Rome
- ^ Francesco Corazzini: Storia della marina militare italiana antica. Giusti, Livorno 1882. ( full text on Archive.org )
- ^ Marc'Antonio Bragadin: Histoire des républiques maritimes italiennes: Venise, Amalfi, Pise, Gênes . Payot, Paris 1955.
- ↑ Alberto Guglielmotti : Storia della marina pontificia dal secolo ottavo al secolo decimonono . Tipografia vaticana, Rome 1886-1893 (10 volumes).
- ^ Fernando Sanfelice di Monteforte: I Savoia e il mare . Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli 2009.
- ^ Gino Benvenuti: Le repubbliche marinare: Amalfi, Pisa, Genova e Venezia. Newton Compton, Rome 1989.
- ^ Gino Benvenuti: Storia della Repubblica di Amalfi. Giardini, Pisa 1984.
- ↑ According to Ibn Hauqal, the wealthiest, noblest and most glamorous city of Longobardia . Kitāb al-masālik wa l-mamālik, 977.
- ^ Rudolf Borchardt : Pisa - solitudine di un impero. Nistri Lischi, Pisa 1977.
- ↑ Silvia Orvietani Busch: Medieval Mediterranean Ports: The Catalan and Tuscan Coats, 1100 to 1235. Brill, Leiden, Boston, Cologne 2001. P. 179 ff.
- ↑ The siege towers of the Genoese troops of Guglielmo Embriaco enabled the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 . Gottfried von Bouillon had the writing PRÆPOTENS GENUENSIUM PRÆSIDIUM affixed to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
- ^ Geoffrey V. Scammell: The World Encompassed - The first European maritime empires 800–1650. University of California Press, Berkeley 1981. pp. 155 ff.
- ^ Edward Windsor, 2nd Duke of Kent on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. HRH The Duke of Kent, British Pavilion at Columbus 92
- ^ Frederic C. Lane: Venice - A Maritime Republic.
- ↑ Giovan Battista Fanucci: Storia dei tre celebri popoli marittimi dell'Italia: Veneziani, Genovesi e Pisani, e delle loro navigazioni e commeri nei bassi secoli. Pieraccini, Pisa 1817 to 1822 (4 volumes).
- ^ Franz Kurowski: But Genoa was more powerful. History of a sea power. Universitas, Munich 1986.
- ^ A b Federico Moro: Venice at war. The great battles of the Serenissima. Studio LT2, Venice 2007.
- ↑ The so-called "Turkish lock" of the Levant trade and the Silk Road is considered to be the main reason for the search for new sea routes to India and China. However, political or military reasons played less of a role, but rather the intention to eliminate middlemen. See: Peter Feldbauer: From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic: The Medieval Beginnings of European Expansion. Oldenbourg, Munich 2001.
- ↑ The fact that Genoese warships were usually family-owned not infrequently had an impact on operational management, since the damage to other Genoese families or Italian trade competitors brought at least as many advantages as the damage inflicted on Muslim fleets. Geoffrey V. Scammell: The World Encompassed - The first European maritime empires 800–1650. University of California Press, Berkeley 1981. pp. 201 ff.
- ↑ Thomas A. Kirk: Genoa and the Sea . P. 29 ff.
- ^ Thomas A. Kirk: Genoa and the Sea: Policy and Power in an Early Modern Maritime Republic 1559-1684. Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2005.
- ^ Frederic C. Lane: Venice - A Maritime Republic. Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1973.
- ^ Roger Charles Anderson: Naval Wars in the Levant 1559-1853. University Press, Liverpool 1952.
- ^ Scuola di studi fisico-matematici relativi alla naval architettura
- ↑ Founded in 1619 as the Collegio dei giovani nobili , renewed under the Habsburgs as Cesarea scuola dei cadetti di marina in 1802, reactivated in 1810 as the Napoleonic Collegio di Marina di Venezia , again Austrian from 1814 to 1848, then as the Naval Academy in Fiume . The naval school of Francesco Morosini, a cadet institute in Venice , is the successor to the college of 1619 . www.assomorosini.it ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Le armi di San Marco. Società Italiana di Storia Militare - atti del convegno del 2011, Rome 2012. p. 256.
- ^ The minutes of the Austrian Council of Ministers 1848/1867. Österreichischer Bundesverlag for Education, Science and Art, Vienna 1971, p. 297.
- ↑ Alberto Guglielmotti: Storia della marina pontificia dal secolo ottavo al secolo decimonono. Tipografia vaticana, Rome 1886-1893.
- ↑ a b Carlo Randaccio: Le marine militari italiane nei tempi moderni (1750-1850). Artero e Cotta, Turin 1864.
- ↑ Lamberto Radogna: Storia della Marina militare delle Due Sicilie 1734-1860. Mursia, Milan 1978.
- ^ Antonio Formicola, Claudio Romano: Storia della Marina da Guerra dei Borbone di Napoli. USMM, Rome 2005.
- ^ Ferdinando Sanfelice di Monteforte: I Savoia e il mare. Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli 2009.
- ^ Pierangelo Manuele: Il Piemonte sul mare. L'Arciere, Cuneo 1997.
- ↑ Gino Galuppini: La bandiera tricolore della marina sarda. USMM, Rome 1971.
- ^ 17 November 1860, nasce la Marina Militare. Noteiario della Marina, November 17, 2015, marina.difesa.it
- ^ Mariano Gabriele: La politica navale italiana dall'Unità alla vigilia di Lissa. Giuffrè, Milan 1958.
- ^ Daniele Natili: Le collettività italiane in Africa nel XIX e XX secolo . www.interno.it ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 186 kB).
- ↑ At the end of 1882 the irredentist Guglielmo Oberdan was executed in Trieste for attempting to assassinate the emperor. Oberdan's death led to resentment and protests in Italy.
- ^ Mariano Gabriele, Giuliano Friz: La politica navale italiana dal 1885 al 1915. USMM, Rome 1982.
- ^ Ferruccio Botti: Il pensiero militare e navale italiano dalla rivoluzione francese alla prima guerra mondiale (1789-1915). USSME, Rome 1995.
- ^ Franco Favre: La Marina nella Grande Guerra. Gaspari, Udine 2008.
- ^ John Gooch: Mussolini and his Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922-1940. Cambridge University Press, 2007. pp. 28 ff.
- ↑ Pier Paolo Ramoino: La Regia Marina tra le due guerre mondiali. marina.difesa.it (PDF; 384 kB), accessed November 2012.
- ^ Franco Bargoni: La Participación Naval Italiana en la Guerra Civil Española (1936-1939). Instituto de Historia y Cultura Naval, Madrid 1995.
- ^ Indro Montanelli in the Corriere della Sera on January 9, 2001, viewed in June 2011.
- ↑ The war against the Sanusiya in Libya, the war in East Africa and the Spanish Civil War had drained the Italian armed forces, as the armaments chief Carlo Favagrossa stated in an alarming report in 1940. The Chief of Staff Pietro Badoglio countered Mussolini's hasty war plans in June 1940 with the remark, among other things, that there were over 200 Italian merchant ships outside the Mediterranean, which, in the event of war, had to be written off with their cargo. In addition, Italy sold modern war equipment abroad because it was dependent on foreign exchange income . In 1940, Indro Montanelli described Italy's moral state in L'Italia della disfatta .
- ↑ James J. Sadkovich: The Italian Navy in World War II. Greenwood Press, Westport (CT, USA), 1994.
- ↑ Pier Paolo Ramoino: L'impiego delle grandi navi della Regia Marina nella seconda guerra mondiale . Una rilettura critica. marina.difesa.it (PDF; 940 kB), accessed November 2011.
- ↑ On July 13, 1940, a few days after Punta Stilo, the Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano wrote in his diary: “The real polemic in the field of naval warfare is not that between us and the British, but between the Air Force and the Navy. Admiral Cavagnari claims that air support was completely absent in the first phase of the battle. When it finally came, its destination was our own ships, which were bombarded by SM.79 for six hours . ”Ciano, Galeazzo: Diaries, 1939–1943. Scherz Verlag , Bern 1946.
- ↑ Malte König: Cooperation as a power struggle. The fascist axis alliance Berlin-Rome in the war 1940/41 , Cologne 2007, p. 29 f .; Gerhard Schreiber : Revisionism and Striving for World Power. Naval command and German-Italian relations 1919 to 1944 , Stuttgart 1978, pp. 281–284.
- ↑ Cronology, regiamarina.net accessed in December 2012.
- ↑ It should be noted that Italy was not completely inactive in the area of radar development. In 1916 a naval research institute was established in Livorno (Regio Istituto Elettrotecnico e delle Comunicazioni della Marina), which in 1936 presented the prototype of a radar device (Radiotelemetro EC1). The EC2 and EC3 radars followed by 1941, but due to insufficient financial resources and lack of interest from the naval command (Adm. Cavagnari ), they did not get beyond the prototype stage. After the Battle of Matapan had allayed any doubts about British capabilities in this area, the necessary money was made available; however, there was a lack of additional developers. The Navy then commissioned 50 of the series-ready version EC3 / ter Gufo (Eule) , of which only twelve had been installed on ships of the Regia Marina by September 1943 . Comprehensive presentation on regiamarina.net (English); Presentation on marina.difesa.it (Italian).
- ↑ König: Cooperation as a Power Struggle , p. 61 u. 82 f.
- ^ Arrigo Petacco: Le battaglie navali nel Mediterraneo nella seconda guerra mondiale. Mondadori, Milan 1976.
- ↑ Gianni Rocca: Fucilate gli Ammiragli. Mondadori, Milan 1987.
- ↑ suicide note Fecia di Cossatos to his mother
- ^ Giorgio Giorgerini: Da Matapan al Golfo Persico - La Marina Militare Italiana dal fascismo alla repubblica. Mondadori, Milan 2003.
- ↑ Excepted from this were the two battleships of the Caio Duilio class that were classified as no longer fit for use in the war . The tonnage limit only referred to actually usable "combat ships" and not to warships in general (Art. 59). Contract text in the French original on CVCE, accessed in August 2013.
- ^ Il Trattato di Pace e le sue conseguenze. marina.difesa.it
- ^ La Regia Marina alla fine del conflitto. marina.difesa.it
- ↑ Accord par échange de notes exonérant l'Italie des obligations prévues aux articles 15 à 18 et 46 à 70 du traité de paix du 10 février 1947 (recognized by other states) Archives, French Foreign Ministry (fr.), Viewed in June 2011 .
- ↑ L'adesione dell'Italia alla NATO. marina.difesa.it
- ↑ La Marina negli Anni '50. marina.difesa.it
- ↑ Il Programma 1958 e le forze navali integrate. marina.difesa.it
- ↑ I programmi e le unità negli Anni '60. marina.difesa.it
- ↑ Superpower Showdown in the Mediterranean, 1973. navyleague.org ( Memento of the original from November 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Giorgio Giorgerini, Andrea Tani: Aspetti marittimi della guerra fredda. Rivista Marittima (Supplemento), Rome 2001.
- ↑ La crisi degli Anni '70. marina.difesa.it
- ↑ La portaerei Garibaldi al ritorno dalla guerra libica . panorama.it, July 20, 2011.
