Weapons of prestige: Italian battleships in the First World War
After Great Britain acquired the battleship Dreadnought in 1905, ships of this class in the first half of the XNUMXth century were considered almost the main indicator of technical condition fleet.
As a result, every “self-respecting” country that had the appropriate technical potential, following the British, began building its own battleships.
Italy was no exception, and by the beginning of World War II the war managed to bring its Air Force to fourth place in the world. However, this country launched its first battleships back in 1911 and 1913.
We are talking about the ships “Julius Caesar”, “Prince Cavour”, “Leonardo da Vinci”, “Andrea Doria”, “Dante Alighieri” and “Caio Dulio”.
It is worth noting that Italy’s battleships at that time turned out to be quite good. Yes, they were inferior to their American and British “colleagues” in the power of their guns (343 and 356 mm versus 305 mm). However, their potential was quite sufficient for successful operations in the Mediterranean.
However, things never came to those very “actions”. Despite the fact that Italian battleships entered service before the outbreak of the First World War, they actually did not participate in it.
Until mid-1916, the ships did not fire a single shot at the enemy. Moreover, they didn’t even encounter him, since they spent most of their time in parking lots (the Italian authorities did not want to risk “expensive toys”).
Ironically, it was the aforementioned “frugality” that cost the Italians the loss of the battleship Leonardo da Vinci, which was reached by Austro-Hungarian intelligence in August 1916. The ship sank right in the parking lot.
In general, until the very end of the conflict, the surviving “five” did not notice anything.
Later, after an incident during a training exercise in 1925, the Cayo Dulio was out of commission for three years.
In turn, in 1928, “Dante Alighieri” was sold for scrap.
The Julius Caesar became an artillery training ship in the same year, and the Prince Cavour was taken out for modernization.
"Andrea Doria" and "Caio Dulio" went into reserve in 1932. However, both ships, like the Julius Caesar and the Prince Cavour, received a “second life” after France laid down the battleship Dunkirk in the early 30s.
Italian ships underwent deep modernization and then participated in World War II.
As for Italian battleships in the First World War, it was rather "weapon prestige”, created under the influence of the “fashion trend” of that era.
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