Carlo Cattaneo (admiral)

Cattaneo was born in Sant'Anastasia, Naples, in 1883, and after attending the Naples Military College he entered the Italian Naval Academy at Livorno in 1902; he graduated in 1906, becoming an ensign. He joined the crew of the battleship Ammiraglio di Saint Bon, with which he took part in the rescue operations after the 1908 Messina earthquake. After becoming a sub-lieutenant, he served on the battleship Regina Elena. He took part in the Italo-Turkish War as commanding officer of a landing party which participated in the occupation of Tripoli; for this action, he was awarded a Silver Medal of Military Valor. In 1913 he was promoted to lieutenant, and during World War I he commanded the torpedo boat Orsa, which served intensely in the southern Adriatic Sea, gaining a Bronze Medal of Military Valor in July 1915, and later he served on board destroyers, including Carabiniere. In 1919 he was awarded a second Silver Medal. In January 1920, he was appointed Naval Attaché in Constantinople and later in the same year he was promoted to lieutenant commander. In 1929, he served at the Ministry of the Navy, and later he was promoted to commander and appointed Naval Attaché first in Romania and later in Jugoslavia. In 1932, he was promoted captain, commanding, between December 1933 and April 1935, the light cruiser Di Giussano. In 1937 he became rear admiral (Contrammiraglio) and in March 1938 he was promoted vice admiral (Ammiraglio di divisione). ==World War II==

After the beginning of World War II, on 26 May 1940, Cattaneo became commander of the 3rd Naval Division, with flag on the heavy cruiser Trento. He took part in this role in the Battle of Calabria on 9 July 1940, after which he was awarded the Silver Medal of Military Valour for the third time. Cattaneo's force did not manage to reach Iachino's squadron in time for joining the first engagement against the light cruisers of British Admiral Henry Pridham-Wippell, which took place off Gavdos in the morning of 27 March. Cattaneo was also criticised for the low speed at which he sailed his ships (16 to 22 knots); this was later explained with the destroyers being low on fuel. The hits immediately destroyed the 203 mm turrets before they could be readied to fire, started fires aboard, killed or wounded many crewmembers, disabled the engines and within a few minutes left the cruiser without power and dead in the water. As the crew abandoned the ship by jumping into the sea or lowering themselves down to the rafts, a small party of volunteers opened the seacocks and ignited the demolition charges placed in the cruiser's magazines. At the same time, HMS Jervis came near and torpedoed Zara; the cruiser went down at 2.40 on 29 March, after a final large explosion. Admiral Cattaneo, who according to survivors had abandoned the ship without a lifejacket as he had given it to a wounded sailor, disappeared in the sea during the night, like most of Zara's crew. Over 2,300 Italian officers and seamen from the five ships perished in Italy's worst naval defeat. Admiral Cattaneo was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor. ==Notes==