Italian Cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni

''Bartolomeo Colleoni'' was an Italian light cruiser, that served in the (Royal Navy) during World War II. She was named after Bartolomeo Colleoni, an Italian military leader of the 15th century.

She was sunk at the Battle of Cape Spada early in the war.

Design

In the aftermath of World War I, the Italian (Royal Navy) received a group of light cruisers from the defeated German and Austro-Hungarian fleets. At the time, the Italian naval command was satisfied with these vessels as a supplement to their existing scout cruisers in the immediate postwar era. After the French Navy began building twelve large destroyers of the and es, the Italian command responded by ordering the four s. The s were intended to overpower the new French destroyers with superior armament and very high speed, at the expense of most armor protection.

was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of . She displaced at standard displacement and up to at full load. The ship had a long forecastle deck that extended for the first third of the hull, before stepping down to the main deck that continued for the rest of the ship's length. Her hull was very lightly built to save weight. Her superstructure consisted of a large conning tower forward that incorporated a tripod mast and a smaller, secondary tower aft. She was fitted with an aircraft catapult on her forecastle, and could carry two reconnaissance aircraft; she initially carried CANT 25 seaplanes, but these were later replaced with IMAM Ro.43. She had a crew of 520 officers and enlisted men.

Her power plant consisted of two Belluzzo geared steam turbines powered by six oil-fired Yarrow boilers, which were ducted into two widely spaced funnels. The propulsion system was arranged on the unit system of machinery, which divided the engines and boilers into two separate pairs. Her engines were rated at and produced a top speed of . During her sea trials, she reached a top speed of from , though in service she could only maintain a speed of at sea.

was armed with a main battery of eight 152 mm/53 Italian naval gun Models 1926 and 1929, Mod 26 53-caliber (artillery), caliber guns in four gun turrets. The turrets were arranged in superfire, superfiring pairs forward and aft. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a battery of six Škoda 10 cm K10#OTO 100.2F47 History, 47-cal. guns in twin mounts, eight /54 guns in twin mounts, and eight guns in twin mounts. Her armament was rounded out by four torpedo tubes in two twin launchers on the main deck amidships.

The ship's armor belt was thick, extending only for the length of the hull that contained the propulsion machinery spaces and the ammunition magazine (artillery), magazines. The belt was closed on either end by transverse bulkhead (partition), bulkheads and was capped by an armor deck of the same thickness. Inboard of the belt, an thick inner bulkhead was intended to catch shell fragments that penetrated the main belt. The main battery turrets received of protection, and her conning tower received of armor plate.

Service history

was built by the Gio. Ansaldo & C. shipyard in Genoa, Italy. She was keel laying, laid down on 21 June 1928, and was named after the Bartolomeo Colleoni. Her completed hull was ceremonial ship launching, launched on 21 December 1930. She was completed on 10 February 1932, and upon entering service, she was assigned to the II Naval Squadron, which was based at La Spezia. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the fascist Italian government began aiding to their fellow fascists in the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist faction under Francisco Franco. departed Italy on 5 September and arrived in Barcelona on 3 October, where she protected Italian nationals in the area. Over the course of January and February 1937, she escorted four convoys carrying soldiers and supplies to support Franco's forces. During this period, she also patrolled off ports controlled by the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republican faction to block supply shipments going to Franco's opponents.

After the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Italy and other European powers began to strengthen their forces in East Asia. In November 1938, was dispatched to relieve the light cruiser . arrived in Shanghai on 23 December; the port there was under Japanese occupation. The ship cruised in Chinese waters for nearly a year, until October 1939, when she was recalled home in response to the start of World War II in September. She left behind the sloop of war, sloop to protect Italian interests in China arrived in Italy on 28 October.

World War II

On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on Britain and France, entering World War II on the side of Germany. At that time, was assigned to II Division of II Squadron, along with her sister ship . The two ships were moved to Palermo, Sicily, and on the evening of 10 June, they sortied to lay naval mine, mines in the Strait of Sicily. On 22 June, the two cruisers departed to search for French ships that were reportedly west of Sardinia, but they returned to port two days later, having failed to locate any French vessels. By the end of the month, France had signed the Franco-Italian Armistice, Armistice of Villa Incisa, ending their participation in the war. As a result, and were moved to Augusta, Sicily, Augusta in eastern Sicily. On 2–3 July, the ships carried another sweep that failed to locate any British ships, and the next day they covered a convoy from Tripoli, Libya, Tripoli in Italian Libya to Italy.

On 7 July, and sortied as part of the escort for a large convoy sailing to Benghazi in Libya. The convoy consisted of five Cargo ship, freighters and a passenger liner that were carrying some 2,200 men, 72 tanks, 237 other vehicles, and a large amount of supplies and fuel; these were intended to fortify the planned Italian invasion of Egypt, invasion of Egypt. II Division, along with the 10th Destroyer Squadron (which consisted of , , , and ) and the torpedo boats , , , , , and , formed the convoy's close escort. Significant elements of the Italian fleet were at sea as part of the convoy, which the British attempted to intercept. In the ensuing Battle of Calabria on 9 July, the ships of II Division were assigned to make sure the convoy arrived in port undamaged. The convoy arrived in Benghazi the next day, but and soon moved to Tripoli to avoid attacks from British aircraft based in Egypt. The Italian naval command considered sending the two cruisers to bombard British positions on the coast at Sollum, but decided against it; instead, they were to be sent to Portolago in the Dodecanese. From there, they were to attack British convoys in the Aegean Sea.

Battle of Cape Spada

and left Tripoli on the evening of 17 July and sailed to the north of Crete, bound for the Aegean. On the 19th, the four British destroyers , , , and were sent on an anti-submarine patrol in the area, while the Australian light cruiser and the British destroyer searched the Gulf of Athens. At around 06:00 on 19 July, the Italians spotted the four British destroyers off Cape Spada of western Crete, which were some away; ''Sydney'' and ''Havock'' were around to the north. The British ships immediately signaled ''Sydney'' and turned to flee at high speed. The Italian commander, Rear Admiral Ferdinando Casardi aboard , ordered his ships to pursue the retreating British ships, believing them to be part of the escort for a convoy he hoped to attack. At 06:27, the Italian cruisers opened fire on the destroyers, but the faster destroyers were able to pull out of range without having been hit. At around this time, a Greek freighter passed between the formations but quickly withdrew from the area.

Casardi pursued the British blindly, deciding not to launch any of his reconnaissance aircraft (both because of the sea state and not wanting to slow down to launch them), and he was also not supported by any land based aircraft in the area. As a result, they had no way to know that ''Sydney'' was in the area, and when she arrived on the scene at around 07:30 and opened fire, it took the Italians completely by surprise. The Australian cruiser had opened fire from a range of about while in the middle of a fog bank; almost immediately, she hit near her aft funnel. The Italian cruisers quickly returned fire, but had difficulty locating the target in the fog, as they only had ''Sydney''s muzzle flashes to aim at. They also rolled badly in the heavy seas, which further hampered their gun laying. Captain Collins of ''Sydney'' detached ''Havock'' to join the other destroyers, Collins ordered to make a torpedo attack on the cruisers. Casardi responded by turning his ships south and then southwest to move to less restricted waters further from Crete. As the Italians withdrew, ''Sydney'' alternated fire between the two cruisers, depending on which was more visible, but she focused her fire on , as she was generally closer.

At 08:24, ''Sydney'' struck with a salvo of 152 mm shells; one of the rounds jammed her rudder in the neutral position. The ship was now unable to steer, but she remained on the course she had been steaming. Shortly thereafter, another salvo from ''Sydney'' hit the ship amidships, causing extensive damage and starting several fires. One shell struck her conning tower and killed much of the bridge crew. The ship lost speed, which allowed the British destroyers to come into range. Further hits disabled two of the boilers and destroyed the main steam condenser, which was used to feed water back into the boilers. Without water to boil, the engines quickly shut down, leaving dead in the water. The ammunition hoists for her main battery guns were also disabled. Her 100 mm guns kept firing, as they could be operated manually. Within six minutes of the first hit, the ship had been effectively neutralized and Captain Umberto Novaro issued the order to abandon ship.

At about that time, ''Ilex'' and ''Havock'' closed to launch torpedoes at the stricken cruiser, though their initial attacks missed. ''Hyperion'' joined the two destroyers, which had launched a further round of torpedoes, one of which hit . The torpedo, from ''Ilex'', struck forward and blew off the first of her bow. Casardi circled back at 08:50 to attempt to come to her aid, but quickly determined that the situation was hopeless, so he turned back to the west and fled at high speed. ''Hyperion'' then launched a torpedo that struck amidships. The second hit caused serious flooding, and quickly capsized and sank. ''Sydney'', ''Hero'', and ''Hasty'' continued the pursuit of ''Giovanni delle Bande Nere'', but ''Ilex'', ''Havock'', and ''Hyperion'' approached the area that survivors from were floating. They picked up 525 men, of whom eight died of their wounds and were buried at sea. The British had to suspend rescue efforts when Italian bombers appeared and attacked the ships. A further fifty men attempted to swim to the coast of Crete, but only seven survived to be picked up by a Greek fishing boat. Four more men, including captain Novaro, died aboard hospital ship Maine at Alexandria, Egypt. These men were buried there, and the captains of ''Sydney'' and the destroyers served as the pallbearers. In total, 121 out of a crew of 643 were killed in the sinking.

In their assessment of the battle, the naval historians Jack Greene and Alessandro Massignani note that Casardi had been too cautious in the initial stage of the battle, and that if he had closed to attack the destroyers, he might have defeated them. Instead, he chose to fire at long range to keep his cruisers far enough away that the destroyers would not be able to return fire. They also point out that Italian gunnery was less accurate than their British counterparts, which compounded Casardi's decision to fight at long range. Lastly, they suggested that the Italians might have had a better outcome if they had sent a stronger force, instead of just the two light cruisers. The naval historian Vincent O'Hara pointed out that the Italian cruisers fired some 500 shells between the two of them, scoring one hit on ''Sydney'', while the latter vessel had fired around 1,300 shells alone and scored five hits, noting that the better British shooting was the result of a much higher volume of fire.

Footnotes

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External links

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Bartolomeo Colleoni
Marina Militare website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartolomeo Colleoni
Giussano-class cruisers
Ships built in Genoa
1930 ships
World War II cruisers of Italy
World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
Maritime incidents in July 1940
Ships built by Gio. Ansaldo & C.