Giacinto Carini (cacciatorpediniere) (840d La Masa class ) "Nell'aprile 1941 venne installato a bordo dell'unità la versione definitiva del radar EC3/ter «Gufo»," ttp://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacinto_Carini_(cacciatorpediniere)
静かに保守 >545の後半部分です 86 GRUPPO BM (Squadriglie 190,191. Stormo 35)
On 22 May 191 Sq was detached to Derna*1. In May the Gruppo moved to Barce*2 to begin reconnaissance and day bombing duties. 191 Sq was detached to Mersa Matruh on 15 July for reconnaissance missions. During July and Augast the unit carried out night escorts to convoys*3 and covered the areas that fighters could not reach. The British Special Air Service raided Barce on 14 September and destroyed seven of 35 Stormo's aircraft*4. On the 20th it still had eight aircraft at Mersa Matruh. Three were lost on the ground to bombing in October. Ten new aircraft were flown in that month to add to the sixteen 35 Stormo survivors. 191 Sq returned from its forward base on 6 November and the Gruppo then moved to Bir Dufan*5. In December the unit withdrew to Italy, taking only seven aircraft with it, but passing the rest to 95 Gruppo. Armament on the Z.1007bis was improved, with the two beam guns becoming 12.7mm in place of the original 7.7mm calibre. On 1 June 1943 the unit transferred to the Raggruppamento Bombardamento*6. 『 Courage Alone 〜 』 Chris Dunning 著 より
1942年5月22日に191スクアドリッリアはデルナへ分遣された。5月に86グルッポは、偵察任務と昼間爆撃任務を開始する ためにバルカへ移動した。191スクアドリッリアは7月15日に、偵察任務を命じられマルサマトルーフへ分遣された。7月から8に かけて191スクアドリッリアは輸送船団*3の夜間護衛任務を遂行した、また戦闘機の航続距離の範囲外の地域を援護した。 英軍 SAS (L.R.D.G.長距離砂漠挺身部隊)は、9月14日にバルカを急襲し、35ストルモの7機の航空機を破壊した*4。 9月20日にマルサマトルーフには、まだ8機の航空機があった。が、10月には3機が地上で、爆撃によって失われた。その 一方で、新しい航空機が10月に飛んできて35ストルモの16機の生存機に加わった。191スクアドリッリアは11月6日に前進基地 より戻ってきた、そして86グルッポは、『 Bir Dufan 』へ移動になった。
281 Squadriglia Sil*0 This unit formed from the second torpedotraining school, 2 NAS*1, with four aircraft under the command of Capitano Buscaglia*2, formerly with 278 Sq. it went to the Aegean for attacks on the east Mediterranean convoys, joining 34 Gruppo in April 1941. On the 21st the unit joined 279 Sq under 34 Gruppo. Between 5 March and 20 May it claimed five definite and nineteen probable torpedo hits during the battle of Crete. By 1 July the unit was Autonomo again and moved to Africa. Five pilots of this squadriglia were to receive their country's highest award, the Medaglia d'Oro*3, three of them posthumously. On the 4th four aircraft attacked ships in Famagusta Bay*4, Cyprus. During the attack engineer Sergente Maggiore*5 Nicola Gaesta was badly wounded by anti-aircraft fire from a destoroyer. After his crewmates applied dressings to his wounds, he continued to control the engines on the long flight back, for which he was awarded the Medaglia d'Argento*6. 『 Courage Alone 〜 』 Chris Dunning 著 より
私的注釈 *0 Sil=Silurante,もしくは silurare,の略。 魚雷の、魚雷艇、魚雷 *1 NAS が何の略なのか不明。 *2 カルロ・ブスカーリアについては「Viva! 知られざるイタリア軍」が詳しい。 *3 Medaglia d'oro al valor militare alla memoria 『戦功章金章』を指すと思われる。「Viva! 知られざるイタリア軍」p94を参照。 または Ricompense al valor militare を参照 ttp://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valor_militare *4 ファマグスタ湾 ttp://goo.gl/maps/zVdyS *5 Sergente Maggiore =(空軍)軍曹、「イタリア軍入門」p293. *6 *3に同じく、『戦功章銀章』を指すと思われる。
On 21 August*1, after operating against shipping west of Alexandria, the unit was temporarily reorganised, with new crews boosting the strength, and resumed operations soon after. On 13 October, a very clear day, three aircraft attacked the battleships Queen Elizabeth and Barham, but the defences were too strong, even though photographer 1a Aviere*2 Tommaso di Paolo managed to photograph the former from only feet away as they completed their attack run. During this he took several good close photographs of the action. On 23 November two aircraft were searching around Marsa Matruh when they were intercepted by three P-40s. The gunners claimed one 'probable'*3 『 Courage Alone 〜 』 Chris Dunning 著 より
「1940-1943年 ROYAL NAVY LOSSES BY Regia Marina and Regia Aeronautica」 2014.9.8 < >内は被害を与えたイタリア艦種
巡6(潜3、魚1、MTM-boat1、機1) HMS Calypso (C-class cruiser)〈潜〉,HMS Bonaventure ( Dido-class)〈潜〉, HMS Neptune (Leander-class)<機>, HMS York( York -class)<MTM-自沈>, HMS Cairo ( C-class)〈潜〉, HMS Manchester ( Town-class)〈魚−自沈〉
駆13(駆1、水雷1、潜3、機1、空7) HMS Khartoum (F45)( K-class Destroyer)〈潜−事故〉, HMS Escort ( E-class destroyer)〈潜〉, HMS Hostile (H 55)( H-class destroyer)〈機〉, HMS Hyperion ( The H-class)〈潜−自沈〉, HMS Mohawk ( Tribal-class)〈駆〉, HMS Juno (J-class)<空>, HMS Fearless (The F-class)<空-自沈>, HMS Bedouin (Tribal-class)〈空〉, HMS Foresight (F-class)〈空−自沈〉, HMS Zulu ( Tribal-class)〈空〉, HMS Quentin ( Q-class)<空>, HMS Derwent ( Hunt class Type III)<空−未修理>, HMS Pakenham ( P-class)〈水雷〉
潜34(駆3、水雷15、コ2、商船1、潜1、機11、空1) HMS Odin ( Odin-class submarine)〈駆〉, HMS Grampus ( The Grampus-class)〈水雷〉, HMS Orpheus ( The Odin-class),〈駆〉 HMS Phoenix ( Parthian-class)〈水雷〉, HMS Oswald ( Odin-class)〈駆〉, HMS Rainbow ( Rainbow-class)〈伊商船〉, HMS Triad ( T-class)〈潜〉, HMS Regulus ( Rainbow-class)〈機〉, HMS Triton ( The T-class)〈機〉, HMS Undaunted ( U class submarine)〈水雷/機〉, HMS Union ( The U-class)<水雷>, HMS Cachalot ( Grampus-class)<水雷>, HMS P33 ( U-class)<水雷>, HMS P32 ( U-class)<機?>, HMS Tetrarch (N77)( T-class)<機>, HMS Perseus ( Parthian-class)<機>, HMS Triumph N-18 ( T-class)<機>, HMS Tempest ( The T-class)<水雷>, HMS P38 ( U-class)<水雷>, HMS Pandora ( Parthian-class)<空−未修理>, HMS Upholder ( U-class)〈水雷〉, HMS Urge ( U-class)〈水雷〉, HMS Olympus ( Odin-class)〈機〉, HMS Thorn (T-class)〈水雷〉, HMS Talisman (N78) (T-class)〈機〉, HMS Utmost ( U-class)〈水雷〉, HMS P222 ( S-class)<水雷>, HMS P48 ( U-class)<水雷>, HMS Turbulent ( T-class)<機>, HMS Thunderbolt ( T-class)<コ>, HMS Regent ( Rainbow-class)〈機/コ〉, HMS Sahib ( S-class)<水雷>, HMS Parthian N-75 ( Parthian -class)<機>, HMS Saracen ( The S-class)<コ>,
*水雷=水雷艇、コ=コルベット、ス=スループ、魚=魚雷艇、機=機雷、空=空軍、武ト=武装トロール、
砲2 HMS Terror ( Erebus-class monitor)〈空〉, HMS Cricket (T 75) ( Gunboat)<空>
砲艦「リミニ」を、 Rimini (ex "G 16")で検索したら第一次世界大戦の掃海艇時代の記事がヒットしました、 旧船名の "G 16" が肝のようです… Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906-1921 ttp://books.google.co.jp/books?id=V2r_TBjR2TYC&pg=PA286&lpg=PA286&dq=Rimini+(ex+%22G+16%22)&source=bl&ots=wUt1BCeDLG&sig=MzxOL9x7dnC4f_oXd3alOZr4A9M&hl=ja&sa=X&ei=4z8SVOy3L4vk8AXwpoKgCg&ved =0CEUQ6AEwBjgK#v=onepage&q=Rimini%20(ex%20%22G%2016%22)&f=false
>ITALY >VEDETTE BOATS
>A total of 47 Japanese fishing boats ( built 1909-13 ) was bought by the Italian Navy in 1916. …{中略(船の諸元)}… >All commissioned in the Italian Navy in 1917 with one or two 3in guns. In the Italian Navy they were numbered >G1-G47 ( G = Giappone ).
Italy 3.Antisubmarine Warfare Italian air force flying boats and floatplanes used a 160-kg depth charge bomb. This weapon damaged, according to Royal Navy sources, five boats and on numerous occasions helped Italian vessels to avoid subsurface threats sighted in the Mediterranean's clear waters.
一節読んでみた " On Seas Contested: The Seven Great Navies of teh Second World War " Vincent P. O'Hara, W. David Dickson, Richard Worth 著
Italy 3.Antisubmarine Warfare In considering the lessons of the First World War, navy staff concluded that submarines would be a minor threat in any future war. Consequently the Regia Marina was underprepared for modern antisubumarine warfare in terms of ships, equipment, and doctrine. The principal antisubmarine weapon was the depth charge, although towed torpedoes remained in use. In the 1930's a pneumatic depth charge thrower with a 100-m range appeared on destroyers and torpedo boats, but in action it proved too hard to reload and was replaced in late 1942 by a weapon with a shorter range and a faster relorad cycle. Other refinements included a multiple-launch rack system, called the scaricabombe Gatteschi*1, which appeared in late 1942 on the Gabbiano-class corvettes and permitted a saturation attack of up to forty-eight depth charges in a single pass. The later Gabbianos were scheduled to carry an automatic 12-inch antisubmarine mortar called the Menon, but none was actually fitted.
By 1939 Italy had developed, after an effort of almost fifteen years, an effective sonar (ecogoniometro)*2, but the small capacity of Italy's electoronics industry and its priority on consumer products led to the postponement of its production. Thus, in the war's early period, hydrophones, including the almost useless First World War "C" type, provided the majar tool for detecting submarines under water. Auxiliary escort vessels and MAS boats had to rely on the drift-and-listen technique. This required highly trained operators with sensitive ears. Specialized antisubmarine craft consisted of only the Albatros*3, equipped with one of the navy's two echo-detection sets available in June 1940, and the four Pegaso-class*4 escort torpedo boats. The navy acuired German sonars in late 1941, and Italian-made sets arrived the next year. However, even as late as September 1943, the Regia Marina possessed only thirty-six Italian and thirty-one German sets. For comparison, Great Britain entered the war with roughly two thousand Asdic.
Italian air force flying boats and floatplanes used a 160-kg depth charge bomb. This weapon damaged, according to Royal Navy sources, five boats and on numerous occasions helped Italian vessels to avoid subsurface threats sighted in the Mediterranean's clear waters. Some sources credit Regia Aeronautica fighters with sinking HMS Urge on 29 April 1942 off the Libyan coast, although the official statement of losses speculates that she was mined.*5
イタリア空軍の飛行艇と水上機は160s(航空)爆雷を使用していた。英海軍の出所によると、(伊空軍の使用した)160s爆雷は5隻の 英潜水艦に損害を与えた、そして海水の澄んだ地中海で、おびただしい機会においてイタリアの船を救ったのだった。海面下の脅威 (英潜水艦)の照準をイタリアの船から遠ざけることによって。 ある資料は英潜水艦『 HMS Urge 』は1942年4月29日にリビア海岸沖合にて伊空軍戦闘機によって撃沈と認めている。公式な声明は 熟考の上、機雷に因って沈没としてあるが。
Despite their lack of preparation and material deficiencies, Italian anti-submarine forces fought effectively against Great Britain's submarine offensive, accounting for thirty-three of the thirty-eight British submarines lost in the Mediterranean through September 1943 (excluding three boats sunk in Malta's Grand Harbor by Axis bombers). Italian depth charges sank at least twelve British submarines and probably another three; three British boats were rammed, and one was sunk in a surface action with an Italian submarine. Mines accounted for least eleven.
" On Seas Contested: The Seven Great Navies of teh Second World War " Vincent P. O'Hara, W. David Dickson, Richard Worth 著
ITALY C. WEAPON SYSTEMS 1. Gunnery 2. Torpedoes ←今日はここ 3. Antisubmarine Warfare >153-157 4. Mines
C. WEAPON SYSTEMS 2. Torpedoes Italian torpedoes were generally reliable and working detonators and low wander and malfunctioning values ( 5 percent and 1 percent, respectively, according to tests conducted in the summer of 1937 ). Germany imported nearly a thousand Italian aerial torpedoes*1, and the Japanese copied features of an Italian high-speed version*2. The fire-control systems introduced on the destroyers and the modern torpedo boats in 1937 determined solutions using directors in the bridge wings with a calculating apparatus, a rate-of-change-of-bearing<原文ママ> instrument ( teleniclinometro cinematico ) in the crow's nest, and binocular sights and tables fitted in each bank of tubes.*3 War experience would show, however, that the night fire-direction systems, which worked based on estimated range and target speeds, were ineffective, and many captains preferred to aim by eye. At the beginning of the war, Italy had an inventory of 3,660 torpedoes, including 1,689 modern 21-inch weapons, 648 modern, and 1,323 old 17.7-inch torpedoes ( see table 4・2 ). Production was 50 per month but increased to 120 per month by late 1941. Italian torpedoes sank or damaged 216 ships.
4. Mines Mine barriers were fundamental to Italy's strategy of closing the Sicilian Channel to British traffic between Gibraltar and Suez. In June 1940 the navy had an inventory of 25,000 mines, all moored contact types, and it laid 54,457 during the war. The best, the Pignone P.200, had 200kg of explosives, a mooring cable as long as 820m ( by 1943 ), and could be deployed in waters as deep as 100m. Most Italian production was based on World War T technology, however, and Italy, even if it adopted an efficient German acoustic device in 1941, lacked a magnetic mine, Throughout the course of the war. Italian mines sank one cruiser, three destroyers, at least eleven submarines, and twenty-six other vessels. Italy's greatest mine warfare success occurred in December 1941 when a field*1 off Tripoli eviscerated Force K, sinking a cruiser and a destroyer and damaging another two cruisers.
C. WEAPON SYSTEMS 1. Gunnery ←今回 2. Torpedoes >159-160 3. Antisubmarine Warfare >153-157 4. Mines >162
1. Gunnery Surface. Italy's high command regarded guns-the bigger the better ― as the navy's primary weapon. The accuracy of Italian guns and the quality of the ordnance they used has been much debated. For example, John Campbell*1, an authority on World War U naval weapons, has commented, "Italian shells of almost all types suffered from over wide manufacturing tolerances, which increased the often high dispersion."*13 This assertion echoes Admiral Angelo Iachino, a fleet commander, who wrote in 1959 that "[Our guns] had the defect of insufficient precision resulting obviously from excessive longitudial dispersion of the salvos ... because our prescribed norms for testing ammunition were less rigorous than those used in foreign navies. "*14 However, more recent Italian scholars such as Giuliano Colliva*2 have used contemporary documents and artillery trial results assert that the accuracy of Italian gunnery was similar to british and superior to French shooting.*15 However, more recent Italian scholars such as Giuliano Colliva have used contemporary documents and artillery trial results assert that the accuracy of Italian gunnery was similar to british and superior to French shooting.*15
The principal differnce between Italian and British gunnery was doctrinal. Many British wartime accounts report that Italian salvos seemed excessivly dispresed; that is, when the shells fired by a group of guns landed, they were scattered over a large area. The British goal was always to bunch salvos as tightly as possible on the principale that multiple hits might be scored if the aim was on. The Italians favored a deliberate rate of fire whie generally the British fired at about twice the Italian rate. The Italian Navy sought high muzzle velocities, which allowed their guns to outrange enemy weapons of identical bore. This, along with the traditionally higher speed of Italian warships, supported the Italian objective of gaining an early advantage in a surface action by outranging the enemy. Italian doctrine stated, " We have every interest in prolonging the shooting at maximum range seeking to hit the enemy before he can hit us, in order to provoke a tactical unbalance of forces that will assure our success in the later close-range phase of the fighting. "16 Also, high muzzle velocities resulted in lower shell trajectories because the angle at wich a shell fell from any height was determined by its velocity, and a lower trajectory resulted in a target having a larger danger space, which would offset some loss of accuracy resulting salvo dispersion at least at lower ranges. Ultimately, however, the Regia Marina decided that high muzzle velocities had too great an effect on barrel life―they could get only 110-130 rounds from their 15-inch weapon*3 before the barrel liner required replacement, and this led to some reductions.
*3 381/50 Modello 1934 最大射程42,260m (46,216 yd) 初速870m/sec (2,854 ft) 発射速度45秒(1.3/min) 最大仰角35°徹甲弾885s(1,951 lb) Italian Battleships of World War U /Mark Stille
Fire was controlled with a director system using a fire-control computer. The best rangefinders combined stereoscopic and coincidence instruments in one unit. The moderm battleships had 12-m rangefinders while those on the heavy cruisers measured 7.2-m. Italian fire-control systems also included instruments to continuously measure the variation of a target's bearing, which the Italian believed would be a decisive asset. Naval researchers developed prototype radars as early as October 1939, but because they had been conceived mainly for gunnery and the metric sets then available had an excessive goniometric error, they failed to generate much interest. In 1940 staff asked its small electronic branch to give precedence to the TPA Talk Between Ships system mentioned earlier, believing that radar was futuristic and that the British had not yet developed a naval set. The first Italian radar*4, a combined search and fire-control set, did not appear shipboard until August 1941―four month after intecepted radio communications persuaded naval staff that the British were employing radar to locate Italian ships from beyond visualrange.
Antiaircraft. In the context of the 1930s, the regia Marina was as conscious as any of the world's major navies of the need to protect its warships from aerial attack. However, it lacked efficient fire control for close-range antiair weapons. Battleships and cruisers had dedicated 90-mm*5 or 100-mm*6 heavy antiaircraft batteries, with the accurate and reliable 100-mm weapon being most common. Italy had tested a 4.7-inch/46*7 dual-purpose weapon in 1938-1939, but the results were unsatisfactory. Consequently, destroyer main batteries lacked the elevation and fire control needed to serve as effective antiair weapons. The principal close-range antiaircraft weapons were the 37-mm/54 and 20-mm/65*8 Breda guns. Both were reliable, although early versions suffered from heavy vibration and required a strong supporting structure.
U. ORGANIZATION A. COMMAND STRUCTURE 1. Administration Benito Mussolini concentrated power in his own hands as the of head of government, the supreme commander of all armed forces, the minister of war, and the minister of the navy and air force. From 1934 the navy's undersecretary and chief of staff was Admiral Cavagnari. He reported directly to Mussolini while the army-dominated armed forces high command, the Stato Maggiore Generale*1 ( renamed Comand Supremo in May 1941 ) coordinated the various service commands. After May 1941, following reforms*2 undertaken by its new commander, General Ugo Cavallero, Comando Supremo gained more effective control over all the services. Even so, the Regia Marina always retained a large degree of autonomy.
U. 編成 A. 指揮系統 1. 統治 ベニート・ムッソリーニは権力を手中に収めた、首相として、全ての軍隊の最高司令官として、陸軍省、海軍省、空軍省の大臣と して。1934年から海軍(省)次官と海軍参謀長はカヴァニャーリ提督であった。陸軍が(全軍の)最高司令部を支配していた間は、 つまり(全軍の)参謀本部*1{1941年5月に(後述のカヴァッレーロによる参謀本部の改革により)(全軍の)最高司令部に変更になった} が様々な部隊の管理をしていた間は、カヴァニャーリ提督は直接ムッソリーニに(海軍の案件について)報告をしていた。 1941年5月以降、新しい(全軍の)司令官(参謀総長)であるウーゴ・カヴァッレーロ将軍が企図した改革*2 に従うことにより、 (全軍の)最高司令部はより効果的な軍全体に渡る支配を得た。それでもやはり、伊海軍は自治権の大部分を保持したままだった。
The supreme naval headquarters established shortly before hostilities was called Supermarina. Cavagnari commanded, but, because he was a government member and mainly occupied with strategic, political, and administrative matters, the supervision of day-to-day operations rested in the hands of his deputy, Admiral Odoardo Somigli, a Ciano protege appointed in August 1939 over Cavagnari's candidate, Admiral Luigi Sansonetti. Supermarina closely managed the subordinate naval commands. This centralization of authority, quite heavy until December 1940 when Admirals Arturo Riccardi and Inigo Campioni replaced Cavagnari and Somigli, affected the navy's performance throughout the war and discouraged tactical commanders from exercising initiative and ingenuity.
The navy's place in the Fascist pecking order was indicated by the division of military funds, over which Mussolini maintained ultimate control. The navy received a fairly consistent allotment totaling about a quarter of armed forces spending from 1925-1926 through 1935-1936 while the army, which had supported the Fascist movement even before Mussolini's seizure of power, averaged 56 percent. The air force ( Mussolini's own pet service ) received the balance ( 18 percent ) until 1935. Once war started, the army received 74 percent of appropriations and the navy's share plummeted to 12 percent. The military's total appropriations rose from 23 billion lire in 1925-1926 to 105 billion in 1940-1941. Just the same, appropriations remained limited. In 1939, even if it had grown rapidly since the 1920s, Italy's gross domestic product ( GDP ) measured half of Great Britain's and 42 percent of Germany's, yet Italy spent only 10 percent of its GDP on the military compared to Germany's 32 percent. Even democratic Britain spent 50 percent more on the military as a percentage of GDP than Fascist Italy.
U. ORGANIZATION A. COMMAND STRUCTURE 2. Personnel The Regia Marina numbered 4,180 officers and 70,500 ratings prior to mobilization and quickly expanded to 168,800 upon the outbreak of war. In September 1943 the navy had 259,100 men under arms. Of all the Italian armed forces, the Regia Marina enjoyed the highest quality personnel; 53 percent of ratings were volunteers serving a four-year enlistment while draftees served two years. None the less, there existed a large social gap between officers, noncommissioned officers ( NCO ), and enlisted men. Italy had low literacy rates and life expectancies compared to its northern European neighbors. As one historian noted, " Society's peasant base, relatively small industrial sector and narrowly selective educational system ( 85,535 university students, of whom only 13.56 percent were studying engineering, out of a total population of just under 44 million in 1939-40 ) meant a pervasive shortage of technical talent that placed severe limits on the extent to which the Italian armed forces could imagine, commission, operate and maintain complex machinery. "*5
The navy's officers were generally more conservative and monarchical in outlook than were their army or air force peers. The only ex-naval officer high in the Fascist hierarchy was Costanzo Ciano, the father of the more famous foreign minister who married one of Mussolini's daughters. Based on his personal and professional observations, the French admiral and historian Raymond de Belot described the officer corps as " well-informed, well-trained, and competent."*6 However, the navy suffered from a relative shortage of officers " who made up only 5.4 percent of total personnel, as opposed to 7.5 percent in the French Navy and the Royal 9.2 percent. "*7
At the lower levels, Italian officers proved aggressive and often independent-minded. At higher levels, doctrine required strict adherence to orders. There were occasions when division admirals exercised their judgment, such as when Rear Admiral Pellegrino Matteucci opened fire against his commander's orders during the battle of Cape Spartivento, but such actions were atypical, and independent-minded commanders did not prosper in the Italian system. Vice Admiral Eberhard Weichold, the German navy liaison officer in Rome for most of the war, and commander of Kriegsmarine forces in the Mediterranean from 1941 until 1943, noted that " every decision resting on personal initiative had to be submitted to the officer in change of the operations. "*8 Other factors affecting the higher naval leadership included a well-founded lack of confidence in aerial reconnaissance and support as well as the belief, since November 1941*11, that British night- fighting doctrine and equipment were superior.
Italian naval personnel generally performed well in combat. The torpedo boats and destroyers completed thousands of wartime missions, and even near the end, fighting supplies through on the notorious Tunisian " Route of Death,*12 " morale never cracked. Admiral Weichold wrote after the war, " the caution shown in high places was not caused by lack of courage among the men. "*9 Admiral de Belot endorsed this assessment as early as 1951 and noted that " history ... will correct the impression of wartime propaganda which attributed the defeats of the Italian Navy to a general lack of fighting spirit. "*10 When Italy signed an armistice in September 1943, the navy was only service that remained intact and effective. The lower decks never revolted or refused to serve as did Austro-Hungarian, German, and Russian sailors during the First World War, British sailors between the wars, and elements of the French navy after the 1940 armistice.
*9*10 原文注釈、おそらく出典の明示 *12 『 From the first day of December, however, the Italian suffered continual losses on the route frome Naples to Tunis, a route that was only 361 miles long ( allowing 10 percent for zigzag ) but was checkered with minefields, which used Ultra decrypts to decipher Axis signals about convoy routing. According to Italian naval historian Marc Antonio Bragadin, " Dozens of Allied aircraft would pounce on each target " and the case was not rare " where 40 or 50 bombers were working over a single poor lighter. " As a result, in December 1942 the Italians lost eleven merchantmen, four naval vessels, and 28.6 percent of the tonnage on the newly opened Tunisan route. As more Italian merchantmen and escorts were sunk or damaged, Italian seamen began calling convoy route the " rotta della morte, " or the route of death. 』 ( With Utmost Spirit: Allied Naval Operations in the Mediterranean, 1942-1945 / Barbara Tomblin )
Training of officers : Naval Academies. Naval officers were long-term professionals. The Accademia Navale di Livorno was established in 1881. Its curriculum stressed mathematics and ballistics, and every graduate was expected to be a sailor first and foremost. The instructional day commenced at 0530 and continued until 2130. Students were allowed just one opportunity to make up a failed exam. In 1940 its enrollment was 697 students ( up from 222 in 1934 ), and it graduated about 150 officers a year who entered service as midshipmen*14.
Training. The Regia Marina's fleet exercises followed the classic big-gun standard prevalent in the major navies during the 1930s and evolved little during the war. Men and officers were taught to rigidly follow detailed procedures designed to cover conceivable situation. For example, on 22 May 1941 when attacking a British surface force, the torpedo boat Sagittario raised the flag " J, " meaning " I am launching, " because this was the procedure, even though she was a one-ship flotilla and there was no one to read her signal.
*15 Sagittario Convoy Action Early on 22 May the 2nd German Motor-Sailing Flotilla, thirty small steamers and caiques loaded with four thousand German troops, departed Milos escorted by the torpedo boat Sagittario. At 0830, when the convoy had reached a point thirty miles south of Milos, Admiral Schuster ordered a retreat due to reports of British ships in the area, this time correctly ― Force C, under Rear Admiral E. L. S. King, was indeed hunting the convoy. King was not to have much to show for his risky excursion north. At 0830 Perth bagged a straggler from the 1st Motor-Sailing Flotilla, and Mack's destroyers sank a small steamer not involved in the invasion. Then King ran into the convoy's tail end.
Allied ships ― Force C ( Rear Admiral E. L. S. King ) : CL : Naiad, Perth(AU) ; CLA : Calcutta, Carlisle ; DD : Kandahar, Kingston, Nubian
Italian ship ― ( Lieutenant Giuseppe Cigala Fulgosi ) : TB : Sagittario
The withdrawal order found the flotilla somewhat scattered. Sagittario was collecting stragglers when, at 0847, she spotted the unwelcome sight of smoke and then masts on the southeastern horizon. Lieutenant Fulgosi ordered the transports to disperse while he laid smoke in their wakes. Then, to buy more time, Sagittario charged the British formation, opening fire at 0904 from thirteen thousand yards. Kingston, sailing in the British van, traded salvos with Sagittario, and the torpedo boat tagged the large British destroyer twice on the bridge with 3.9-inch shells. Even Perth and Naiad engaged the Italian pressed on, closing, to eight thousand yards and then launching four torpedoes at the cruisers. At 0914 Italian observers reported brown smoke rising from the second cruiser in the enemy line ( Naiad ), and this caused Fulgosi to claim that one of his torpedoes had scored a hit.
At 0914, with the enemy hidden by smoke, Admiral King decided to withdraw west ― he did not realized how many small transports were nearby, Carlisle had unrepaired damage that limited his squadron's speed to twenty knots, and antiair ammunition was running low. Every mile north brought him a mile closer to German airfields. Cunningham later condemned this decision, writing that King's " failure to polish off the caique convoy " was the principal mistake made during the entire operation off Greece. Churchill sniffed : " The Rear-Admiral's retirement did not save his squadron from the air attack. He probably suffered as much loss in his withdrawal as he would have done in destroying the convoy. " In retrospect, these harsh judgments seem unfair and to have been inspired by the losses subsequently suffered throughout the campaign without a naval victory to balance them.
この後、同日22日、サジタリオは損害は無かったが独空軍の誤爆を受けている 『 World War II Sea War, Volume 3: The Royal Navy is Bloodied in the Mediterranean 』: Donald A Bertke、Gordon Smith、 Don Kindell 著
Practice shoots were limited until 1939 when gunnery exercises became more frequent ( and the results demonstrated that increased drills yielded better accuracy ). Lack of antiaircraft ammunition hampered training ; in 1942, for example, the machine-gun personnel at the Pola*16 naval school could fire only two magazines ( less than four seconds' worth ) befor being qualified for war. The Regia Marina's training regimen, however, also had its strong points. In the 1930s, concerned about the largely theoretical threat presented by torpedo aircraft, the fleet practiced defending against torpedo plane attacks, and these exercises prefigured the general success that Italian warships would enjoy avoiding aerial torpedoes during the war.
3. Intelligence Italian naval intelligence, originally Reparto Informazioni then Servizio Informazione Segreto (SIS) after 1941, had the task of gathering technical and operational naval information while keeping an eye out for political, economic, and military information that might affect the navy. It was organized into four sections ; section B intercepted and deciphered enemy radio communications ; section C evaluated and distributed information supplied to it by sections B and D ; and section E engaged in counterespionage and police work in conjunction with a specialized branch of the Reali*20 Carabinieri. Between 1940 and 1943, section B deciphered 13.3 percent of British radio traffic ― slightly less than the 13.75 percent British code breakers achieved against Italian traffic. These efforts often generated actionable information. In July 1940, for example, the penetration of enemy codes disclosed British intentions leading up to the action off Calabria and that the navy's submarine and fleet codes had been compromised. Sighting reports of Italian submarines and convoys were routinely intercepted, allowing the threatened units to take avoiding action. Intelligence also compromised many British minelaying mission ― at least five of the twelve barrages laid by Manxman and Abdiel in November 1942 through February 1943 were revealed within hours by signal intelligence and left intact so the British would not realize their codes were being read.
On the night of 8 Junuary Nubian and Kelvin reported sinking three motor sailing vessels off the Kuriat Island, but they had actually engaged floating barrels of gasoline dropped by a small Italian convoy, which reached Tripoli safely. More deadly was a minefield laid by Abdiel that sank the destroyer Corsaro and damaged Maestrale the next night northeast of Bizerta. The deadly and largely silent mining efforts conducted by both sides determined the geography of the convoy war. By early December massive Italian fields fenced in a fifty-mile-wide corridor supposedly safe from surface intervention between Sicily and Tunisia. However, the fast British minelayers Abdiel and Welshman slipped into the corridor, a tricky and dangerous business, and laid counter fields. Besides Corsaro, these fields sank the corvette Procellaria on 31 January, the torpedo boat Uragano and the destroyer Saetta on 3 February, Ciclone on 7 March, and the destroyers Malocello and Ascari on 24 March. Short on minesweepers, the Italian soon gave up trying to sweep these fields, and by March the route between the Aegades[原文ママ]*23 and Tunisia was " reduced to the point where, for a distance of forty miles, the ships had to pass through a narrow ‘ alley ' that was... scarcely more than a mile wide. " 『 Struggle for the Middle Sea 』: Vincent O'Hara
B. DOCTRINE 1. Surface Warfare Going into the war Italy's surface warfare doctrine envisioned an opening long-range gunnery phase with well-spaced salvos to permit observation of the fall of shot. Once the shells had bracketed the target, rapid fire would commence. The intent was to inflict damage at the maximum possible range to weaken the enemy force before the decisive short-range phase. The ability to hit with effective, long-range gunfire proved far more difficult than all navies envisioned prewar, but Italian performance in this area equaled that of any preradar navy.
Although the navy conducted some big-gun night exercises in 1920s, the high command decided that the battle fleet would fight only day actions. Thus, major warships had almost no night training with their main armament and had inadequate doctrine should circumstances force a night battle, especially against a British enemy that diligently exercised night combat in the 1920s and 1930s. Destroyers and torpedo boats, conversely, practiced an offensive night doctrine that called for ships to operate individually in extended lines of bearing ( " rake " formations ) with up to four miles between units. Upon sighting a target, the torpedo boats would immediately attack, aiming by eye single tubes at short range, like a hunter sighting and shooting, meanwhile signaling their position to the flotilla. This doctrine did not envision coordinated or mass night torpedo attacks. At the begining of the war, Italian doctrine for the fleet destroyers specified that no more than two-thirds of a ship's load should be expended in any one attack. This practice arose from training exercises that indicated a second opportunity to fire torpedoes could occur during naval actions. The navy also doubted whether its fleet destroyers would be able to close to effective torpedo range during daylight actions.
The navy continually studied its wartime experiences and updated doctrine to specify the action to be taken under most circumstances. For example, the fleet tactical instructions distributed in January 1942 specified under the subsection, Combattimento in caccia ( Combat in pursuit ), " If the enemy is attempting to disengage at maximum speed, our formations will pursue while always seeking to close range and engage. As our ships' speed is generally superior to that of the enemy's, it should be easy to maintain contract. In every case, it is better that our pursuers divide in two groups, one to port, one to starboard of the enemy's course, in order to prevent him from suddenly turning into a smoke screen. "*11
B. DOCTRINE 2.Aviation The Regia Marina was the largest World War U navy to not operate an aircraft carrier. From 1931 everything that flew, except for reconnaissance floatplanes, operated under Regia Aeronautica ( air force ) control. Experience gained in the Spanish Civil War heavily affected offensive air force doctrine relating to naval cooperation ― including a claimed success against the Republican dreadnought Jaime T. By 1939 the Regia Aeronautica had developed horizontal bombing tactics that called for inundating anchored targets with 50-kg and 100-kg bombs because the air force staff considered the chances of getting a hit at sea using larger but less numerous bombs to be almost zero.
The air force believed that dive bombing held the best promise for attacking ships under way, but attempts to develop an indigenous, twin engined dive bomber, the S.85, and its follow-up, the S.86, failed, which forced Italy to purchase and import German Ju87s. These aircraft were not operational until September 1940. Efforts to develop a torpedo bomber likewise fell afoul of air force requirements that called for a plane capable of dropping a torpedo at 500km/h and from a height of 300m ― extremely ambitious specifications for the mid-1930s. The air force finally activated torpedo bombers squadrons in July 1940 after the action off Calabria confirmed to all the ineffectiveness of high-altitude bombing and British Swordfish torpedo bombers demonstrated the aerial torpedo's practicality and potential.
The deployment of the S.79 in this role improved the Regia Aeronautica's effectiveness as they torpedoed the cruisers Kent on 19 September, Liverpool on 14 October, and Glasgow on 3 December 1940. There were never enough torpedo or dive-bomber squadrons, however, to make a decisive difference. By September 1943 Italian torpedo bombers had sunk three destroyers ; one sloop ; one corvette ; one landing ship tank ( LST ) ; and fifteen freighters and had damaged one battleship ; one carrier ; six cruisers ; one destroyer ; one LST ; three auxiliary ships ; and six freighters. The high-altitude level bombers sank three destroyers, and the dive-bombers sank two destroyers and one Greek torped boat.
*1 The years 1937 and 1938 passed without any major developments. Cavagnari made a speech to the Senate declaring, study, that Mussolini had stated the carriers were not necessary for the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean but that beyond the Red Sea and Gibraltar they were indispensable, and that according to Mussolini's imperial policy the Regia Marina expected to project power into the Italian and Atlantic oceans. Nonetheless, the Navy's request for two 15,000t carriers was rebuffed, and the torpedo bombers remained experimental curiosities ; the only progress made was to upgrade the plans for Roma's emergency conversion. In the meantime the Regia Aeronautica claimed to have destroyed the Spanish Republican dreadnought Jaime T in Almeira harbour on 21 May 1937 ( in fact five S.79 bombers landed only a few small 50kg bombs which did inconsequential damage ― it was an accidental internal explosion which put the ship out service on 17 Jun 1937 ). Between April and July 1938, however, the vaunted Italian bombers failed to hit a single Republican freighter at sea despite hundreds of sorties and attacks. This failure, together with the results finally obtained in 1939 by Italian bombers based in the Balearic Islands against the merchant and military vessels in the last Mediterranean ports held by the Spanish Republic, induced the Regia Aeronautica to develop a new horizontal bombing doctorine against ships which specified the need to inundate anchored targets with 50kg and 100kg bombs, as the chances of getting a hit at sea were almost zero using the bigger and less numerous 250kg, 500kg and 800kg bombs.
『 Search for a Flattop:THE ITALIAN NAVY AND THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER 1907-2007 Vincent O'Hara and Enrico Cernuschi 』
B. DOCTRINE 3.Antisubmarine During the First World War, Italy conducted antisubmarine warfare with a variety of small coastal craft armed with 47mm guns, depth charges, and towed torpedoes. By 1918 the navy deployed some three hundred vessels supported by more than a hundred flying boats, seven airships, and a system of defended anchorages. By the eve of the Second World War, Italy's antisubmarine capabilities had regressed. The hydrophone remained the principal means of locating a submarine underwater; the navy lacked a specialized corvettesized warship and a modern coastal craft and seaplanes available two decades before.
This situation existed because of a lack of funds, not a lack of vision. After a solitary and expensive 1929 prototype ( the aptly named Albatros ) and four long-range escorts of the Pegaso class laid down in 1934, and facing the planned retirement of many of the old torpedo boats and destroyers, Regia Marina staff requested sixty economic, 500-t corvettes and a division of twelve floatplane-equipped antisubmarine sloops. However, the money was not there. Moreover, the government's belief in a short war encouraged the notion that existing units ( which in 1940 totaled thirty-six old destroyers and torpedo boats and two dozen armed merchant cruisers*6 ) would suffice, even if they were hardly ideal for the task. Fortunately for the Regia Marina, the modern torpedo boats proved adequate antisubmarine vessels, despite the much different intentions behind their design. With the modern destroyers, they sank three of the twelve British submarines present in the Mediterranean in the war's first weeks.
Nonetheless, by October 1940 it was clear to the navy's leadership that they needed to drastically improve the navy's antisubmarine capabilities. That month the Italian yards received the order for the first twelve ( later sixteen ) specialized antiair / antisubmarine ( AA/ASW ) escorts of the Ciclone class. On 1 August 1941 an ASW command, Ispettorato Antisom, began operation. This led to plans to construct sixty subchasers and sixty corvettes. The new command also greatly increased the number of personnel trained to use the hydrophones and sonar equipment and began to draft Italy's first modern tactical antisubmarine doctrine.
B. DOCTRINE 4.Submarine In 1940 Italy possessed 115 submarines ( 84 operational, 29 undergoing repairs, and 2 working-up ). Of the subs, 39 were oceangoing while 69 were " Mediterranean " boats. Italy's submarine Operations during the First World War wer limited to the Adriatic's narrow waters where targets were few. The Regia Marina, moreover, diligently studied the German experience and concluded that antisubmarine forces and new technology had defeated the conventional submarine. Based on this conclusion, Italy explored the concept of a snorkel and later a workable single engine, air-independent*13原文ママ submarine during the 1920s and 1930s but failed to develop an effective prototype. Therefore, the Regia Marina relied on numbers.
Italy envisioned its oceanic submarine cruisers operating alone. Their number demonstrated an intention to project power on the high seas and plans existed to construct naval bases on the Indian Ocean in Italian East Africa. However, the advent of war found Italy's oceanic access constricted by choke points at Gibraltar and Aden. Moreover, the Regia Marina's lack of experience in oceanic warfare led to unrealistic training and unsatisfactory technical characteristics. Italy's interwar boats were designed for cruiser tactics and did not compare favorably to the smaller and faster German boats adapted for wolf-pack tactics.
Comand Supremo*16 tasked the submarine force with launching an immediate offensive, and when war began, fifty-five boats lurked in ambush positions or in multiboat patrol lines throughout the Middle Sea. However, the Allies had stopped all Mediterranean traffic beginning 30 April 1940, and from 23 May in the Red Sea, which left few targets. Italian submarines only sank one light cruiser, one steamship, and two tankers in the war's first two weeks and damaged a tanker and a freighter. Moreover, because the British had penetrated some Italian naval codes, the undersea force took a beating, losing by all causes ten boats in the first weeks. Once the Regia Marina switched codes, however, losses, fell sharply.
Italy generally maintained twenty to twenty-five boats at sea at any given time until late 1941 when a new doctrine went into effect whereby Supermarina withheld submarines until it detected a large operation. Mediterranean conditions, unrealistic training, inadequate tactics, a shortage of targets, and British antisubmarine expertise prevented Italy from realizing significant advantages from its large submarine force. Most of the successes achieved by Italy's " dolphins*18 " came in the Atlantic.
39隻+69隻=108…第一次大戦時建造のH級5隻とX級2隻を除いた数字。 さらに識者によっては総計を115隻ではなく117隻とする場合があるが、恐らくはCA級のポケット潜水艦2隻を含めるか否か。 *13 Air-Independent Propulsion *14 イタリア領ソマリランドのキスマヨ、[伊] Chisimaio, [英] Kismayo, 『 Assab and Chismaio ― A small naval and submarine base had been planned for both of these ports in East Africa but on 10 June 1940 construction had not yet begun. ―― Mussolini’s Navy: A Reference Guide to the Regia Marina 1930-1945 / Maurizio Brescia ―― 』 (アッサブは紅海の港) *15 レオナルド・ダ・ヴィンチ:グリエルモ・マルコーニ級 1,171t/1,446t 18.0kt/8.0kt(/h) 8ktで10,500海里 U-47:ZB型 753t/ 857t 17.9kt/8.0kt(/h) 10ktで8,500海里
*16 >171 従来 Stato Maggiore Generale 1941年5月以降 Comand Supremo なので、ここは Stato Maggiore Generale (参謀本部) のはず… *17 1940年6月12日英軽巡カリプソ(バニョリーニ<Bagnolini>リウッツィ級、の攻撃により)、同ノルウエー油槽船オルカンゲル (ナイアード<Naiade>シレナ級、の攻撃により)、6月16日ルウエー油槽船 James Stove (ガリレオ・ガリレイ:アルキメデ級 の攻撃により)、6月22日スウエーデン貨物船 Elgo (ピエール・カッポーニ<Pier Capponi>ゴフレド・マメリ級、の攻撃に より)、James Stove のみ紅海にて、他は地中海にて。 *18 伊潜水艦搭乗員の徽章がイルカがモチーフであることに掛けていると思われる、つまりはイタリア潜水艦乗りの意味。 もしくは、伊海軍最初の潜水艦が " Delfino " デルフィーノ(イルカ)1895年就役、だったことか。
B. DOCTRINE 5.Amphibious Operations Prewar Italian amphibious doctrine was based on the concept of the coup de main. Planners envisioned operations against Corsica, Yugoslavia's Dalmatian coast, and the Greek Ionian island. The Regia Marina maintained a flotilla of semispecialized amphibious units in June 1940 ( a prototype and four ships of about 1,000tons, which doubled as water carriers ) and the San Marco marine infantry brigade 原文ママ.
After a failed March 1939 assault against Cartagena, Spain, delivered by two Nationalist merchant vessels adapted as amphibious ships, Italian staff concluded that many small landing craft would stand a better chance of success in an opposed landing that a few large ones. In May 1939 they projected a 20-ton craft capable of landing a 13-ton tank from a forward ramp. However, the program for a batch of fifty such units was cancelled in November 1939. Although the army and some young admirals argued that an assault against Malta in the war's first month was feasible, Cavagnari rejected the idea believing that such an enterprise would require the battle force ― which at the time consisted of only two rebuilt battleships ― to concentrate in a predictable place and time where it would be exposed to an overwhelming Franco / British counterattack.
In the end, the navy did not undertake any large-scale amphibious operations. On 28 October 1940 bad weather foiled an operation to land the San Marco Regiment and the Bari Infantry Division on Corfu on the opening day of the invasion of Greece. There were, however, many small actions including a successful counterinvasion of Castellorizzo in February 1941, landing on the Dalmatian islands in April and on Greek islands in May 1941 ( including Crete ), and unopposed landings on Tunisia and Corsica in November 1942.
*22 『 22 OCTOBER 1940 The Italian " Special Naval Force " was formed with old light cruisers BARI(バーリ、竣工1914年)‡ and TARANTO(ターラント、竣工1911年)‡; 《 destroyers MIRABELLO(1916年就役)† and RIBOTY(1917年)†; torpedo boats CALATAFIMI(1924年)§, CASTEL FIDARDO(1924年)§, CURATONE(1923年)§, MONZAMBANO(1924年)§, CONFIENZA(1923年)♯, SOLFERINO(1921年)♯, PRESTINARI(1922年)♭, CANTORE(1921年)♭, FABRIZI(1918年)†, MEDICI(1918年)†,and STOCCO(1917年)‡; AMCs RAMBV, CAPITANO A, CECCHI, LAGO TANA, and LAGO ZUAI; four MAS boats of the 13th Flotilla§;》 and three landing ships of the SESIA type‡. Italian torpedo boats ANTARES, ALTAIR, ANDROMEDA and ARETUSA of the 12th Torpedo Boat Division were assigned as a fighting force to support the operation. This force was formed for a landing on Corfu and departed on the 31st, but 1 November, the orders were changed to land troops at Valona instead, and the Corfu operation was cancelled. ―― World War U Sea War, Volume 3 / Donald A Bertke、Gordon Smith、Don Kindell ――』
§:Dipartimento militare marittimo "Alto Tirreno" Base: La Spezia ♯:Comando militare marittimo autonomo "Alto Adriatico" Base: Venezia ♭:Dipartimento militare marittimo "Basso Tirreno" Base: Napoli
『 21 OCTOBER 1940 Italian MARITRAFALBA command ( CV Polacchini ) was formed in Brindisi, Italy, to escort troop and supply convoys to Albania. The escort group included 《 destroyers MIRABELLO……the 13th Flotilla 》(上のカッコ《 》内). ―― World War U Sea War, Vol…―― 』
B. DOCTRINE 6. Trade Protection The Regia Marina maintained a dedicated escort command to protect the sea routes to Spain, France, and the Balkans. Communications with Libya and the Dodecanese were responsibilities of Supermarina. Because the North African and Balkan harbors were generally small with limited facilities, Italy favored small convoys and frequent departures. Torpedo boats and old destroyers performed most routine escort duties, but in special cases fleet destroyers, cruisers, and even battleships would put to sea to shepherd a convoy through. Up until the fall of Greece in April 1941, Supermarina supplied the Dodecanese using submarines and solitary merchant ships, which made six successful voyages between August 1940 and January 1941; the fast sloop Diana, when she became available, made two decisive trips in February and March 1941.
・ Comand Motonavi Veloci (‘ Mariconvo', i.e.‘ Fast Merchant Vessels Command' ), that began operating in Naples in March 1942; Comand Motonavi Veloci (‘ Mariconvo'、すなわち高速商船隊司令部)は1942年3月にナポリで運用を開始した。
・ Comando Gruppo incrociatori Ausiliari e Navi Trasporto (‘ Maritrasporti' ), with jurisdiction over auxiliary cruisers; 補助巡洋艦群及び輸送船司令部( Maritrasporti )は補助巡洋艦を管轄する権限を持つ。
・ Comando Superiore del Dragaggio (‘ Maridrag ' ) co-ordinating the very large number of minesweeper groups scattered throughout home waters as well as in the Aegean and North Africa. 掃海最高司令部( Maridrag )は、近海と同様にエーゲ海と北アフリカ沿岸までをも含めた海域へ、非常に多数の掃海艇群を 分散させる調整をとる。 ( ―― Mussolini’s Navy: A Reference Guide to the Regia Marina 1930-1945 ―― )
B. DOCTRINE 7. Communications The tight control exercised by Supermarina and the officer in tactical command required quick and reliable communications. Italy considered its ship-to-shore links to be reasonably efficient from the beginning, and these improved with war experience. For tactical communication, the Regia Marina introduced in Spring 1940 the TPA ( telefono per ammiragli ), equivalent to the American TBS ( Talk Between Ships ). At the same time, navy doctrine, sensitive to security requirements, minimized radio traffic. One ongoing problem for nearly the entire war was the lack of direct ship-to-plane radio links ( except for the floatplanes catapulted by the cruisers and battleships ). Finally, in August 1943, after about eighteen months of study and experiments, certain ships finally received a fighter-direction capability that was considered efficient and affordable.
*28 (―― The Littorio Class: Italy\'s Last and Largest Battleships / Ermingo Bagnasco ――) 『 Fighter direction station The need to provide direct shipboard control of fighter aircraft for the defence of the ship, or of the formation of which it was part, against enemy air attack became apparent once the war had started, but was partially resolved from late summer of 1942 and was more firmly established from the spring of 1943. The solution was to create a station from which an air force officer could continuously direct the air defence fighters, in a position with the greatest possible view of the sky over the ship, that was also equipped with the necessary radio-telephone systems.
Almost inevitably, the choice of site for this station was the main top, the platform that connected the lower section of the mast itself with the near of the primary fire-direction station. Initially the installation consisted of a small space given shelter by covering the existing railing with a waterproof canvas cover; although it was well suited to overhead observation, it nevertheless provided insufficient protection from the weather for the radio gear and internal telephone lines connecting with the command bridge and the anti-aircraft control stations.
…from late spring-summer of 1943 small sheet-metal shelters were built on the Littorio class, partially open to the sky and partially covered by transparent squares of rigid plastic of the type used in aircraft, of slightly different sizes on each of the ships. These constituted the‘ fighter control \' stations where, in addition to the‘ fighter controller \' seated on a platform-mounted stool, another ten or so lookouts and communications personnel were also stationed. When Luftwaffe fighters were to be present as part of the air cover, a German air controller and communications personnel were also often embarked.
B. DOCTRINE 8. Special Forces The Regia Marina was the only navy to enter the Second World War with a coherent special forces doctrine and a specialized unit with the training and weapons to carry it out: Decima Flottiglia MAS ( Tenth MTB 原文ママ*29 Flotilla ).
The idea of forcing enemy harbors is as old as naval warfare, but in the First World War Italy took the next step of using specialized personnel, tactics, and weapons to penetrate Austro-Hungarian harbors on numerous occasions. The sinking of the dreadnought Viribus Unitis by frogmen confirmed that special forces could obtain great results. During the 1935 Ethiopian crisis, the old doctrine crystallized under Admiral Cavagnari’s leadership, who, in November 1916, had himself penetrated the main enemy base of Pola with his torpedo boat during a combined operation. In brief, this doctrine called for hand-picked and highly trained personnel and carefully planned operations using hitherto unknown weapons. The first prototypes of new weapons, the SLC for siluro a lenta corsa ( slow speed torpedo ), a manned torpedo called the “pig”for its horrible sailing qualities, and the MT, an explosive motor boat, appeared at this time.
In 1937, while testing a mechanical system to let the SLC pass under a protective boom, an accident revealed that, contrary to medical literature, human beings could breath pure oxygen from their respirators for more than an hour. This discovery, tested over the next two years, opened new opportunities because the Italian frogmen could undertake a longer underwater approach to their target.
Although surprise attacks do not win wars, the Regia Marina\'s leadership considered a strong blow by their secret weapons a good way to commence hostilities against Great Britain and France. However, the rush to war as well as teething problems experienced by SLC frustrated this intention. A plan, studied and tested since 1936, to attack Alexandria using a regularly scheduled liner to ram the booms at dawn while four MAS boats, previously launched by that same ship, followed and attacked the enemy battleships and carriers was frustrated in early June 1940 by the elementary British precaution of interdicting Italian vessels entering the harbor. The idea of forcing Malta\'s highly fortified base with a pair of old and expendable MAS boats was cancelled in late May due to a lack of targets; the contemporary plan to send an old submarine, the Bausan, with a party of frogmen armed with compressed air scissors to cut a passage through Alexandria\'s booms did not materialize either as it was considered too desperate and would jeopardize more realistic SLC attacks once those weapons were combat ready, presumably before the end of the next summer.
Finally, rivalry with the air force also affected use of the commandos. Plans to insert a force on seaplanes existed, but in May 1940 the Regia Aeronautica refused to release the necessary aircraft on the basis that they had a superior plan. This was a surprise low-altitude strike against Gibraltar by twenty S.79s flying out of a Spanish field at Cartagena. The group arrived in Spain on the last day of June, but the raid was cancelled on 4 July, the day after the attack on Mers el-kebir, when Generalissimo Franco suddenly revoked permission for the raid.
V. MATERIEL A. SHIPS Between 1922 and 1939 Italy laid down 126 surface warships displacing more than 600 tons and armed with at least a 100-mm gun, and 108 submarines. By 10 June 1940 the Regia Marina possessed a modern fleet with its World War T holdovers consisting of just four ( reconstructed ) battle ships, two light cruisers, and a collection of second-line destroyers and torpedo boats ( see table 4・1 ).
Battleships 0 2 2 pre-1922 recomissioned and 3 new construction Hevy cruisers 7 0 0 Light cruisers 12 2 3 new construction Destroyers 57 2 5 new construction 7 captured Torpedo boats 34 33 16 new consutruction and 1 recommissioned Sloops 1 0 1 new consutruction and 1 captured Corvetts 1 0 29 new consutruction and 2 captured Submarines 115 0 38 new consutruction and 3 captured
The four old battleships of the Cavour and Doria classes were extensively reconstructed, having their main batteries rebored from 12-inch to 12.6-inch, losing a turret, adding new secondary batteries, super structures, machinery, fire control, and some protection. They emerged as useful, twenty-eight-knot ships, although hardly the equal of the French Dunkerque class. Their protection proved vulnerable when tested in action; a single 15-inch shell caused Giulio Cesare to terminate a surface action, and at Taranto one Torpedo sank Conte di Cavour. The three commissioned battle ships of the Littorio class, conversely, were arguably equal to any design in the world with powerful guns, adequate protection, and a good turn of speed.
>252の続きいきますよ Italian heavy“ treaty ”cruisers, like all warships built under the Washington Treaty limitations, were compromises because it was impossible to incorporate high speed, protection, and eight 8-inch guns on a 10,000 ton displacement. The first two ships, Trento and Trieste, at 500 tons over limit, were fast and well armed. Their belt could not defeat an 8-inch shell outright but was effective against smaller rounds, and had decent deck protection. They also validated many post-World War T machinery and fire-control solutions adopted by the navy. The Zara class, nearly 2,000 tons over treaty limits, had better protection ( 1,500 tons devoted to armor compared to 888 tons in the earlier class ). Moreover, their 8-inch / 53 guns represented a major improvement over the Trento class's 8-inch / 50 weapons.
Italian light cruisers have the reputation of being fast and fragile. One historian went so far as to write;“ Most of Italy's light cruisers were foreseeable disasters; they achieved trial speeds in the vicinity of 40 knots in calm seas, but sometimes disintegrated when hit and lacked protection against heavy weather. ”*12 In fact, the so-called Condottieri classes of six light cruisers were originally designated large scouts: heavily armed, unprotected, and expendable units designed to hit and run. They had little role in the war of attrition Italy ended up having to fight. The subsequent light cruisers of the Montecuccoli, Duca d’Aosta, and Abruzzi classes incorporated progressive improvements, particulary in their protection. Giuseppe Garibaldi was among the world’s best 6-inch cruisers up through the late 1930s and served in the Italian navy until 1972, after a reconstruction in the 1950s, as Europe’s first missile cruiser.
>261の続き All of Italy’s destroyers launched after 1924 had twin mounts that lacked the elevation and fire control to double as antiaircraft weapons. They suffered from poor stability ( particularly the thirty-six ships launched up through 1931 ) and carried only two triple torpedo mounts. They were short-ranged, which limited the fleet’s effective intervention zone to an area between Bone in eastern Algeria and Gavdos Island south of Crete. Their antiair armament was good by prewar standards because it was based on the effective Breda 20-mm, while the British relied, until 1942, on their 0.5-inch machine guns and the old, slow-firing, and short-range 40-mm pom-pom, and the French on the 13.2-mm machine gun. By the 1942, however, the Breda was inadequate in the face of growing Allied air power. The last class, the Soldati, saw hard war duty and proved tough and capable fleet units notwithstanding the faults described above.
Italy built thirty-two 600-ton torpedo boats prewar ( including two for Sweden ). This did not reflect a true commitment to torpedo warfare because these boats carried feeble broadsides of only two small, short-range torpedoes. Instead, they represented an inexpensive class of ships that Rome could construct without regard to treaty limits; as such, they were truly expendable vessels. Although they turned out to be disappointments in their intended role of nighttime interceptors, they proved adequate escorts.
On 10 June 1940 the Supermarina’s fleet units were mostly assigned to two formations: the 1st Fleet ( Squadra ) based at Tranto under Vice Admiral Ingo Campioni and the 2nd Fleet under Vice Admiral Vittorio Paladini at La Spezia until late May 1940 and then transferred to Taranto. When both fleets were at sea, Campioni, the senior officer, held commands*4. The two fleets did not train together, except for a few annual exercises. The navy also maintained various regional commands, called dipartimenti, responsible for the interior sea communications and coastal warfare. A special escort command named Comando Difesa Traffico MARICOTRAF, under Vice Admiral Arturo Riccardi, was responsible for the defense of sea lanes with Albania and of the civilian traffic with Spain ( and, after the armistice, France and Tunis ). Supermarina considered traffic with Libya and the Dodecanese a strategic matter and the responsibility of the battle force.
V. MATERIEL B.AVIATION 1.Ship-based At the start of the war, Italy's ship-based aviation consisted of catapult-launched floatplanes that were used for reconnaissance and spotting. In the autumn of 1942 some Re.2000 fighters aboard the modern battleships gave an extremely limited ship-borne air defense capability, but in the only occasion it was really required, in the battle force's voyage south following the armistice with the Allies, the one fighter catapulted off Roma did not have time to climb to altitude before Luftwaffe bombers sank the battleship.
2.Shore-based In 1923 most of the Regia Marina's considerable aviation assets, along with about one hundred officers and its most air-minded personnel, transferred to the newly established Regia Aeronautica. Air force control over maritime aviation solidified during the following decade until, in 1931, a law decreed that the navy would retain control over only the land-based and catapulted reconnaissance floatplanes and flying boats. An even stricter version of this law followed in 1937. Thus, the Regia marina went to war with no control over its aviation except for reconnaissance planes that, although flown by air force personnel, However, there were in June 1940 only twenty-four such squadriglie as opposed to the navy's stated requirement for forty-five, and there was no effective increase throughout the conflict.
Not surprisingly, coordination with aerial units controlled by separate commands and subject to different doctrines and priorities was poor. Cooperation at its best consisted of a naval asset requesting air support, which local naval command would pass the request along to the appropriate local air command for execution. In the dynamic environment of naval warfare, this tortuous process seldom resulted in prompt and effective support.
*10 †(COURAGE ALONE The Italian Air Force 1940-1943 / Chris Dunning) 2 Command Structure Commands Regia Marina (RM) This was a similar organisation to RAF Coastal Command and was equipped with squadriglie using Cant Z501, Z506B, and later Fiat RS14B flying boats and seaplanes. Two individual commands covered the different areas. The Adriatic, Ionian and Tyrrhenian Seas were all under Comandi Dipartimenti Marittimi, while Sardinia, Sicily and the Aegean islands were under Comandi Militari Marittimi. Shortly after the start of hostilities, the two commands were reformed into the Comandi Aviazione for easier administration. The squadriglie carried out anti-shipping, anti-submarine, convoy escort, air-sea-rescue, and maritime reconnaissance duties. The Z506Bs flying boats(原文ママ) were initially used to bomb land targets too.
On 10 June 1940 the commands also controlled several coastal sections, which were all equipped with Z501s and were based as follows:
1 Sezione Costiera at Cadimare. Became 140 Sq from 1 August 1942 2 Sezione Costiera at Messina?<原文ママ> Became 138 Sq from 1 August 1942 3 Sezione Costiera at Taranto. Became 139 Sq from 1 August 1942 4 Sezione Costiera at Pola. Became 149 Sq from 1 August 1942 5 Sezione Costiera at Olbia. Became 193 Sq from 3 March 1941
By November 1942 the Regia Marina had 190 out of 290 aircraft serviceable. On 20 May 1943 eleven ‘Sezioni Aerei di Soccorso’replaced all ASR units.
1940年6月10日に、司令部はまた、いくつかの沿岸<航空隊>分隊<1個分隊定数3機>をも統制していた、それら分隊は 全てZ501を装備しており、拠点は次のごとく。(Sezione Costiera=沿岸分隊) 1942年11月には、伊海軍は290機のうち190機の使用可能な機体を持っていた。1943年5月20日に、11個の“Sezioni Aerei di Soccorso”(航空救難分隊)は全てASR<Air-Sea-Rescue>部隊に置き換えられた。
イタリア軍入門/吉川和篤/山野治夫 の巻末に見開きで推薦書が2冊(全15冊のうち)紹介されてます。 ・GLI AUTOVEICOLI DA COMBATTIMENTO DELL’ESERCITO ITALIANO VOL. 1 と2 (伊?) ・Italian Armour in German Service 1943-1945 (独軍の伊車輌、対英訳付)
D.INFRASTRUCTURE 1.Logistics The Italian navy began the war with 2 million tons of oil stockpiled, reduce to 1.7 million when Mussolini ordered Cavagnari to surrender 300,000 tons to industry in June 1940. Operations during the war's first seven months consumed 676,560 tons, and the navy burned another 1,123,148 tons through 1941. By late September 1941 the Regia Marina's fuel supply was dependent on the Italian oil concession in Romania and on German charity.
Italian ships were designed to operate in the Mediterranean and tended to have short ranges and high fuel consumption. For example, the light cruiser Da Barbiano could steam 3,800 nautical miles at economical speeds consuming 6.1 tons of oil an hour. In contrast, a British Leander-class cruiser could travel 5,730 miles at 3.9 tons / hour. An Italian Soldati- class destroyer had a range of 2,340 miles 3.0 tons / hour compared to a larger British Tribal-class vessel, which could range 5,700 miles at a rate of 1.4 tons / hour.
The limited endurance of their destroyers defined the battle fleet's radius of action. To the east, the fleet's practical limit was the waters off central Crete, and to the west, operations never extended past Majorca and Bone. Although it practiced underway replenishment in prewar exercises, Italy considered this technique too dangerous under wartime conditions, especially in waters subject to submarine attack, and did not use it operationally.
D.INFRASTRUCTURE 2.Bases The Regia Marina had an extensive network of strong naval bases. The principal fleet anchorages, Taranto and La Spezia, could maintain and repair all warship classes. Secondary bases included Naples ( with yards capable of repairing up to cruiser-sized warships ), La Maddalena in Sardinia, Venice ( with a naval arsenal*1 ), and Brindisi and Pola on the Adriatic Sea, all of which could receive ships of up to battleship size. Genoa's port was mainly commercial, but it could also receive and repair any class of warship.
Tertiary-level bases included Cagliari in Sardinia, Messina, and Augusta in Sicily, which had harbors that could host cruisers but limited repair facilities. Leros in the Aegean Sea and Tripoli and Tobruk in Libya could briefly base cruisers. Massawa, on the Red Sea, had a five-thousand-ton floating dock. Fuel, water, and ammunition could be supplied at Elba's Portoferraio; Gaeta, Reggio Calabria, and Ancona on the peninsula; Valona in Albania; Sicily's Palermo; Benghazi and Toripoli in Libya; and Kysimaiu<原文ママ>*3 in Somalia. Palermo and Ancona also had limited repair facilities in private yards.
>303の続き Until the Taranto attack in November 1940, harbor defenses were designed to permit warships to swiftly sortie. After the attack, net boxes that reached to the bottom were adopted and deployed in Taranto beginning in March 1941, and at the others harbors as quickly thereafter as materials could be manufactured. After October 1942 harbors also incorporated anti-small-attack-craft defenses.
An important defensive development was a smoke curtain system that, from January 1941, proved able to protect harbors from enemy bombers ( La Maddalena was the exception because the wind there was generally too strong ). The system was so effective that five army smoke battalions were sent to Germany in 1942 following a Kriegsmarine request. Antiair defenses were also improved, although the general lack of effective fire directors mandated the use of a barrage system. By July 1943 only 23 of the 121 batteries armed with the excellent 90-mm/53 AA gun and 11 of the 31 batteries equipped with the modern 75-mm/46 gun had directors. Italian antiaircraft artillery employed a collection of Italian, German, Hungarian, and French fire directors. Italian fighter protection was always numerically and qualitatively modest ( two Fiat CR.42 biplanes with the navy controlled 1st Squadriglia Riserva Navale at Spezia during the spring of 1943 ) and able, at best, to interdict reconnaissance flights.
*5 Courage ALONE The Italian Air Force 1940-1943 / Chris Dunning 4 Unit histories
1 GRUPPO FF.NN Squadriglie 1,2,3 This unit consisted of three naval squadriglie, which used floatplanes aboard warships for reconnaissance, gunnery spotting and escort duties. The aircraft were allocated between the nine naval divisions in two Naval Squadra. On 10 June 1940, 2 and 3 Squadriglie had forty-nine Ro 43s and Ro 44s embarked, of which forty-two were serviceable. The Ro 44s were gradually relegated to training duties. No confirmed reference to the status of 1 Squadriglia at this time has been found, although it appears to have operated some Ro 43s by 1941.
…… Eventually it was agreed that 1 Sq would be equipped with the Re 2000 for the defence of the naval bases, and for embarking on board the major warships. After launch the fighters were to fly to the nearest land-base, which was not a problem for them, as they were equipped with larger fuel tanks than the land-based version. 1 Sq may also have received some MC 200s and G 50s for comparison trials and local defence. It certainly used CR 42s, forming at Grottaglie, then moving to Taranto to work with the Naval Squadra there, then on to Capodichino when the Naval Squadra transferred to Naples. Finally it settled in Sarzana from January 1943, to cover La Spezia naval base.
…(中略)… ついに、意見が一致した、第1飛行隊が海軍基地の防衛のために、そして主要な軍艦の船上に搭載するために Re 2000 を 装備しようという事で。 <船上より>射出の後で、戦闘機達は最も近い陸上基地へ飛んで行くことになっていた、そこの基地は戦闘機にとっては 問題はなかった、戦闘機達は地上基地配備型よりも、より大きな燃料タンクを装備していたので。 第1飛行隊は、またおそらく、比較検討のためと、地方の<基地の>防衛のためにいくらかの MC 200 と G 50 を受領していた のかもしれない。 間違いなくCR 42 も使用されていた、グロッターリエ<タラント近郊>で編成されて、タタントの艦隊と行動する時はタラント に移動した、海軍の艦隊がナポリに転任になった時はカポディキーノに移動した。 最後に、1943年の1月からはサルザーナ<ラ・スペイツィア近郊>に落ち着いた、ラ・スペイツィアの海軍基地を守るために。
>309の続き The shore batteries that defended Italian ports were tested on several occasions. The first British operation of the war a brief cruiser bombardment of Tobruk. The French conducted crusier bombardments of Vado and Savona on 14 June; British battleships hit Genoa on 9 February 1941, which was defended by a two 15-inch guns, two 7.5-inch guns, and eight 6-inch guns; Valona on 19 December 1940; and Tripoli on 21 April 1941, which had eight 7.5-inch/39 guns. Some ports enjoyed an apparently lavish scale of defense. In 1940 six batteries ringed Massawa with nineteen 4.7-inch and three 6-inch guns. By March 1941 another seven 4.7-inch and four 4-inch guns had been added. Even Kysimaiu and Mogadishu in Somalia each had a battery of four 4.7-inch cannons. However, a serious lack of munitions counterbalanced this impressive infrastructure. The Sicilian coastal batteries, for example, met the Allied invasion with enough ammunition for a quarter hour of fire, according to a court convened by Mussolini\'s social republic in 1944 that tried the admiral commanding Augusta for treason.
*7 Regio Esercito; The Italian Royal Army in Mussolini's Wars, 1935-1943 / Patrick Cloutier The Retreat through Sicily Begins 12 July saw the firmly-established Americans expanding from their beachheads, as the flow of supplies and reinforcements increased; the British consolidated their gains south of Syracuse, and prepared for offensive action toward the ports of Augusta and Catania. The latter had attempted to get a landing force past the harbor defenses of August on the night of 11/12 July, but those members of the 246th Coastal Battalion who remained at their guns turned back the effort, which was made by one Greek and two British destroyers. Rear-Admiral Leonardi, who had not shown strong leadership, and perhaps more neglect the past two days, manned a deserted gun with members of his staff, perhaps in hopes of restoring his personal honor, or in hopes of avoiding a court-martial with an act of duty. In any event, the shore batteries delayed a British takeover of Augusta by two days. They perhaps also prevented the British from turning the seaward Axis flank at an inconvenient moment, and making a rush for Catania. At this time, Colonel Schmalz of Battle Group Schmalz was concerned with the British to his south. He did not have enough soldiers to cover Augusta in his rear and the British to his front, so he had taken a chance in leaving Augusta largely unguarded. Fortunately for the Axis, gun crews were present.
‡ (With Utmost Spirit: Allied Naval Operations in the Mediterranean, 1942-1945 : Barbara Tomblin) six coastal batteries and fifteen antiaircraft batteries. (†Mussolini s Navy: A Reference Guide to the Regia Marina 1930-1945 : Maurizio Brescia) 上記沿岸砲台6基の内1基は、15インチ<381_>砲<381/40 Mod. 1914>の連装砲で砲台は“Opera A”と呼ばれていた。 1基は8インチ<203_>50口径長砲<203/50 Mod. 1924>が2門。