Italian Navy Battleships

Class	Name	Keel Laid	Launched	First Commissioned	Builder	Last De- commissioned	Fate
Pre-Dreadnoughts
Dulio	Dulio	6 Jan 1873	8 May 1876	1880	Castellamare	1909	Converted to oil tank, scrapped
	Dandolo		1878				Rebuilt 1895-1898. Survived WWI....
Italia	Italia	Jul 1876	Sep 1880	1885	Castellamare	1921	Scrapped
	Lepanto
Ruggiero di Lauria	Ruggiero di Lauria	3 Aug 1881	9 Aug 1884	1888	Castellamare	1909	Converted to oil tank, scrapped c. 1943.
	Francesco Morosini				La Spezia		Sunk as a target 1909
	Andrea Doria				Venice		Scrapped c. 1929
Re Umberto	Re Umberto	10 Jul 1884	17 Oct 1888	1893	Castellamare		Scrapped c. 1920
	Sicilia		1891				Scrapped c. 1920
	Sardegna		1890				Scrapped c. 1920
Emanuele Filberto	Emanuele Filberto	5 Oct 1893	29 Sep 1897		Castellamare		Scrapped c. 1920
	Ammaraglio di Saint Bon		Apr 1897		Venice		Scrapped c. 1920
Regina Margherita	Regina Margherita	20 Nov 1898	30 May 1901	1901	La Spezia		War Loss: Sunk off Valona 11 Dec 1916 after hitting two German mines.
	Benedetto Brin	Feb 1899	Nov 1901	1904	Castellamare		War Loss: Exploded 27 Sep 1915 at Brindisi due to Austro-Hungarian sabotage.
Vittorio Emanuele	Vittorio Emanuele	18 Sep 1901	12 Oct 1904	1 Aug 1908	Castellamare	1923	Scrapped
	Regina Elena	27 Mar 1901	19 Jun 1904	11 Sep 1907	La Spezia	1923	Scrapped
	Napoli	21 Oct 1903	10 Sep 1905	1 Sep 1908	Castellamare	1927	Scrapped 1927-28
	Roma	20 Jul 1907	16 Jan 1909	1 Aug 1911	La Spezia	1927	Scrapped 1927-28
Dreadnoughts
Dante Alighieri	Dante Alighieri	6 Jun 1909	20 Aug 1910	15 Jan 1913	Castellamare	1928	Scrapped 1928
Conte di Cavour	Conte di Cavour	10 Aug 1910	10 Aug 1911	1 Apr 1915	LaSpezia		War Loss: Sunk 12 Nov 1940 at Taranto by HMS Illustrious. Raised 1 Jul 1941, partially repaired. Sunk 15 Feb 1945, raised and scrapped 1952
	Giulio Cesare	24 Jun 1910	15 Oct 1911	14 May 1914	Ansaldo		Awarded to USSR at the end of WWII. Sunk 29 Oct 1955 at Sevastopol
	Leonardo da Vinci	18 Jul 1910	14 Oct 1911	17 May 1915	Odero	23 Jan 1921	Exploded and sank 2 Aug 1916, raised 17 Nov 1919. Scrapped 1923
Caio Dullio	Caio Dullio	24 Feb 1912	24 Apr 1913	19 May 1915	Castellamare	15 Sep 1956	Scrapped 1957-58
	Andrea Doria	24 Mar 1912	30 Mar 1913	13 Jun 1916	LaSpezia	1 Nov 1956	Scrapped 1957-58
Francesco Caracciolo	Francesco Caracciolo	12 Oct 1914	12 May 1920	-	Castellamare	-	Scrapped incomplete 1921
	Francesco Morosini	27 Jun 1915	-	-	Orlando	-
	Cristoforo Colombo	14 Mar 1915	-	-	Ansaldo	-
	Marcantonio Colonna	3 Mar 1915	-	-	Odero	-
1928-1929 Project	unnamed	-	-	-	-
Vittorio Veneto	Vittorio Veneto	28 Oct 1934	25 Jul 1937	28 Apr 1940	Adriatico	1 Feb 1948	Scrapped 1948-1950 at La Spezia
	Littorio	28 Oct 1934	22 Aug 1937	6 May 1940	Ansaldo	1 Feb 1948	Scrapped 1948-1950 at La Spezia
	Roma	18 Sep 1938	9 Jun 1940	14 Jun 1942	Adriatico		War Loss: Sunk by German FX-1400 glide bomb while on her way to surrender at Malta, 9 Sep 1943.
	Impero	14 May 1938	15 Nov 1939	-	Ansaldo	-	Scrapped incomplete 1950

Key to builders:

Adriatico	Cantieri Riun. dell' Adriatico, Trieste
Ansaldo	Cantieri Ansaldo, Genoa
La Spezia	Arsenale di La Spezia
Odero	Cantieri Odero, Genoa
Orlando	Cantieri Orlando, Livorno
Castellamare	Cantieri di Castellamare di Stabia

Italian Navy Battleship Chronology

15 Feb 1913:Dante Alighieri, Italy's first dreadnought, commissioned.

27 Sep 1915 :Benedetto Brin exploded at Brindisi due to Austro-Hungarian sabotage.

2 Aug 1916:Leonardo da Vinci explodes and sinks.

11 Dec 1916:Regina Margherita sunk off Valona after hitting two German mines.

October 1918:Dante Alighieri, bombards Durazzo.

Washington Treaty

While the Japanese may have complained the loudest about the battleship "ratio" (for every 5 RN and 5 USN battleships, the IJN got 3) in the Treaty, France and Italy may have had more to complain about: Their "ratio" was 1.75! Like France, Italy was in a particularly bad starting position as well, having cancelled their World War I battleship project. Their existing battleships were already obsolescent.

• 12 Nov 1921-6 Feb 1922: Washington Conference on naval arms limitation.
• 6 Feb 1922: The Washington Treaty signed. New battleship construction stopped, many old battleships scrapped.

1 September 1939- Sep 1943: World War II. Defeat for Italy.

• 9 Jul 1940: Battle of Calabria: British battleships HMS Warspite, HMS Malaya and HMS Royal Sovereign fight Guilio Cesare and Conte di Cavour. Italian ships retreat.
• 12 Nov 1940: Attack on Taranto: British Swordfish torpedo bombers from HMS Illustrious attack Italian battleships in port. Conti di Cavour sunk, Caio Dullio damaged
• March 1941: Battle of Cape Matapan: British battleships HMS Warspite, HMS Barham, HMS Valiant and several other ships fight Italian forces. Three Italian heavy cruisers, Zara, Pola and Fiume, are sunk, but the battleship Vittorio Veneto escapes.
• 9 Sep 1943: Roma sunk by German FX-1400 glide bomb while on her way to surrender at Malta.
• Sep 1943: Italian fleet surrenders at Malta.

3 Feb 1949: Giulio Cesare commissioned into the Soviet Navy as Novorossisk,

29 Oct 1955: Soviet Novorossisk, formerly Giulio Cesare , sunk at Sevastapol. Some say it was a mine. Some say it was Italian frogmen....

1 Nov 1956: Andrea Doria, the last Italian battleship, is de-commissioned.

Copyright © 2000 Lawrence H. Wells and David R. Wells. All rights reserved.