Italian battleship Roma (1940)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This page is about the 1940 dreadnought battleship. For other Roma battleships of the Regia Marina, see Italian battleship Roma.

Career (Italy)

Laid down:	18 September 1938
Launched:	9 June 1940
Commissioned:	14 June 1942
Status:	Sunk 9 September 1943
General Characteristics
Displacement:	43,624 tons standard, 45,752 tons full load
Length:	224.5-237.8 m
Beam:	32.9 m
Draught:	10.5 m
Propulsion:	8 boilers, 4 shafts, 140,000 hp
Speed:	31.50 knots
Range:	3,920 miles at 20 knots
Complement:	1,830 (1,910 as flagship)
Armament:	3 × 3 381/50 mm 4 × 3 155/55 mm 12 × 90/50 mm AA 20 × 37/50 mm 30 × 20/65 mm
Aircraft carried:	3 aircraft

Roma was an Italian Vittorio Veneto class battleship that served in the Regia Marina during World War II. She was built in 1940.

Roma was sunk on 9 September 1943, one day after the Italian government surrendered to the Allies, by a German Fritz X bomb launched from a Dornier Do 217 aircraft. It was thus the first capital ship to be sunk by a guided missile. She was en route to the surrender point when she exploded after being hit by two Fritz X bombs. The first one hit amidship between 90 mm AA gun mounts, piercing deck and side, then exploded halving speed; the other one hit above deck between turret #2 and the conning tower. It caused an explosion that threw the turret outboard and affected the boilers, starting a major fire that detonated the main magazines. 1353 lives were lost; only 596 survivors, most badly burned, were rescued. Among those killed was the Italian Commander in Chief of Naval Battle Forces, Admiral Carlo Bergamini [1].

[edit] Gallery

RN Roma sliding down the launching ways at the CRDA shipyard in Trieste, Italy, 9. June 1940	RN Roma under final outfitting at CRDA in summer 1942	3D renderings

		RN Roma at La Spezia harbor in spring of 1943	The explosion of the Roma