ITALIAN NAVY BATTLESHIP RN "VITTORIO VENETO" 1940

Description

Vittorio Veneto was the lead ship of her class of battleships that served in the Regia Marina during World War II. She was named after the Italian victory at Vittorio Veneto, during World War I. Vittorio Veneto’s keel was laid in 1934 at Cantieri Riuniti dell’Adriatico, Trieste; she was launched on 25 July 1937, and her construction was completed in 1940, after Italy had entered in war against France and the United Kingdom. Vittorio Veneto was designed by General Umberto Pugliese, and was the first battleship to exceed the limits of the Washington Naval Treaty (35,000 long tons (36,000 t) of displacement). In 1942, Vittorio Veneto was the first Italian battleship to be equipped with a radar device, a "Gufo" E.C. 4. Vittorio Veneto took part in the battle of Cape Teulada (27 November 1940), where a barrage of 19 shells from her main guns, fired in seven salvos, forced the seven-cruiser British squadron to disengage. During a mission on 26–29 March 1941, Vittorio Veneto participated in the battle of Cape Matapan, fought along the south western coast of Crete, where she drove off a squadron of four Allied light cruisers and three destroyers near the island of Gavdos, inflicting minor splinter damage on them. She was in return damaged by a torpedo bomber and forced to sail back to Italy; the Italian fleet adopted an exceptional formation on five lines to protect the Vittorio Veneto, but a second aircraft attack — and a subsequent night battle — caused the sinking of three heavy cruisers and two destroyers to British battleship gunfire. Despite taking on 4,000 long tons (4,100 t) of water due to the extensive torpedo damage, the battleship was able to reach Taranto, but remained out of service for about five months. During the war in the Mediterranean Sea, Vittorio Veneto took part in 56 war missions, 11 of them sorties against enemy shipping. After the armistice of 8 September 1943, Vittorio Veneto was sent to Egypt, and was interned in the Great Bitter Lake, in the Suez Canal; a proposal to allow the battleship to fight side-by-side with the Allies in southern France and in the Pacific Ocean was dismissed because of political and operational considerations. After the war, she was taken by the U.K. as war compensation. Vittorio Veneto was eventually returned to Italy where she was dismantled, in 1948. (Scale : 1/700e)