Italian battleship Roma (1940)

The Italian dictator 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. In December, they were approved and money was allocated for them; they were named Roma and ("Empire"). Laid down nearly four years after Vittorio Veneto and Littorio, Roma was able to incorporate a few design improvements. Her bow was noticeably redesigned to give Roma additional freeboard; partway into construction, it was modified on the basis of experience with Vittorio Veneto so that it had had a finer end at the waterline. She was also equipped with thirty-two rather than twenty-four /65 caliber Breda guns. ==Description==

Roma was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of . She was designed with a standard displacement of , a figure that like other Italian warships of the period would have violated the restriction of the Washington Naval Treaty if it had not expired shortly before Romas keel laying. At full combat loading, she displaced . The ship was 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 . Roma had a crew of 1,830 to 1,950. Roma was fitted with a catapult on her stern and equipped with three IMAM Ro.43 reconnaissance float planes or Reggiane Re.2000 fighters. Romas main armament 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 consisted of twelve /55 Model 1934/35 guns in four triple turrets amidships. These were supplemented by four /40 Model 1891/92 guns in single mounts; these guns were old weapons and were primarily intended to fire star shells. Roma was equipped with an anti-aircraft battery that comprised twelve Cannone da 90/53#Naval version| /50 Model 1938 guns in single mounts, twenty Cannone-Mitragliera da 37/54 (Breda)| /54 guns in eight twin and four single mounts, and sixteen Breda Model 35| /65 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. ==Service history==

Romas keel was laid down by the Italian shipbuilder ''Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico on 18 September 1938, and she was launched on 9 June 1940. After just over two years of fitting-out, the new battleship was commissioned into the Regia Marina on 14 June 1942. She arrived in the major naval base of Taranto on 21 August, and was assigned to the Ninth Naval Division. On 4 December, the United States launched a major air raid on Naples in an attempt to destroy the Italian fleet; one cruiser was destroyed and two others were damaged in the attack, as were four destroyers. Two days later, Roma was transferred with Vittorio Veneto and Littorio to La Spezia, where she became the flagship of the Regia Marina''. They remained here through the first half of 1943, without going on any operations. During this time, La Spezia was attacked many times by Allied bomber groups. Attacks on 14 and 19 April 1943, did not hit Roma, but an American raid on 5 June, severely damaged both Vittorio Veneto and Roma. B-17 aircraft carrying armor-piercing bombs damaged the stationary battleships with two bombs each. Roma suffered from two near hits on either side of her bow. The starboard-side bomb hit the ship but passed through the side of the hull before exploding. The ship began taking on water through leaks from frames 221 to 226—an area covering about —and through flooding from the bow to frame 212. The second bomb missed but exploded in the water near the hull. Leaks were discovered over a area ranging from frames 198 and 207. Approximately of water entered the ship. Roma was damaged again by two bombs in another raid on 23–24 June. One hit the ship aft and to starboard of the rear main battery turret and obliterated several staterooms, which were promptly flooded from broken piping. The second landed atop the rear turret itself, but little damage was suffered due to the heavy armor in that location. This attack did not seriously damage Roma or cause any flooding, but she nevertheless sailed to Genoa for repairs. Roma reached the city on 1 July, and returned to La Spezia, on 13 August, once repairs were complete. radio-controlled bomb The Do 217s trailed the fleet for some time, but the Italian fleet did not open fire upon sighting them; they were trailing the fleet at such a distance that it was impossible to identify them as Allied or Axis, and Bergamini believed that they were the air cover promised to them by the Allies. However, an attack upon Italia and Roma at 15:37 spurred the fleet into action, as the anti-aircraft batteries onboard opened fire and all ships began evasive maneuvers. About fifteen minutes after this, Italia was hit on the starboard side underneath her fore main turrets, while Roma was hit on the same side somewhere between frames 100 and 108. This bomb passed through the ship and exploded beneath the keel, damaging the hull girder and allowing water to flood the after engine room and two boiler rooms. The flooding caused the inboard propellers to stop for want of power and started a large amount of arcing, which itself caused many electrical fires in the aft half of the ship. According to naval historian Francesco Mattesini, who cites the research of Pier Paolo Bergamini, the son of Admiral Bergamini, around two hundred men from Bergamini's staff were aboard Roma, and were mistakenly not included in the official inquiry. These men increased the total number aboard to 2,021 and the total fatalities to 1,393. Rear Admiral Stanislao Caraciotti was also killed. In her 15-month service life, Roma made 20 sorties, mostly in transfers between bases (none were to go into combat), covering and using of fuel oil in 133 hours of sailing. ==Wreck discovery==

The sunken vessel was found in June 2012, by the underwater robot Pluto Palla, designed by Italian engineer Guido Gay. It was discovered about off the northern coast of Sardinia, at a depth of around . On 10 September 2012, a memorial ceremony was held on an Italian frigate over the spot where Roma went down. Giampaolo Di Paola, himself a former naval officer and at the time defence minister, at the ceremony described the dead sailors as "unwitting heroes who found their place in history because they carried out their duty right until the end". The last living Roma crewman who was on board during the attack died in May 2025. ==See also==