Italian battleship Impero

The Italian leader Benito Mussolini did not authorize any large naval rearmament until 1933. Once he did, two old battleships of the were sent to be modernized in the same year, and and were laid down in 1934. In May 1935, the Italian Naval Ministry began preparing for a five-year naval building program that would include four battleships, three aircraft carriers, four cruisers, fifty-four submarines, and forty smaller ships. In December 1935, Admiral Domenico Cavagnari proposed to Mussolini that, among other things, two more battleships of the Littorio class be built to attempt to counter a possible Franco-British alliance—if the two countries combined forces, they would easily outnumber the Italian fleet. Mussolini postponed his decision, but later authorized planning for the two ships in January 1937 for the 1938 Naval Expansion Program. In December, they were approved and money was appropriated for them; they were named and Impero. ==Description==

Impero was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of . She was designed with a standard displacement of ; at full combat loading, she displaced . The ship was to be powered by four Belluzo geared steam turbines rated at . Steam was provided by eight oil-fired Yarrow boilers. The engines provided a top speed of and a range of at . Impero would have had a crew of 1,830 to 1,950 if she had been completed. Imperos main armament would have consisted of nine 50-caliber Model 1934 guns in three triple turrets; two turrets were placed forward in a superfiring arrangement and the third was located aft. Her secondary anti-surface armament would have consisted of twelve 55-caliber Model 1934/35 guns in four triple turrets amidships. These were to be supplemented by four 40-caliber Model 1891/92 guns in single mounts; these guns were old weapons and were primarily intended to fire star shells. Impero was intended to be equipped with an anti-aircraft battery that comprised twelve Cannone da 90/53#Naval version| 50-caliber Model 1938 guns in single mounts, twenty Cannone-Mitragliera da 37/54 (Breda)| 54-caliber guns in eight twin and four single mounts, and sixteen Breda Model 35| 65-caliber guns in eight twin mounts. The ship was protected by a main armor belt that was with a second layer of steel that was thick. The main deck was thick in the central area of the ship and reduced to in less critical areas. The main battery turrets were thick and the lower turret structure was housed in barbettes that were also 350 mm thick. The secondary turrets had 280 mm thick faces and the conning tower had thick sides. ==History==

Authorized to be built by Ansaldo of Genoa, the new battleship's keel was laid down on 14 May 1938 and launched on 15 November 1939. At her launching, she was christened Impero, after Italy's empire in Africa. Fitted with small-caliber anti-aircraft and anti-surface weaponry, Impero was sailed—using her own propulsion—to Venice on 22 January 1942. At some later time, she was moved again to Trieste, though no further work was done on the ship. After Italy's capitulation to the Allies in September 1943, Impero was seized by the Germans, Impero was stricken from the naval register on 27 March 1947. The hulk was raised sometime that year and towed to Venice and beached, where she was scrapped from 1948 to 1950. ==Footnotes==