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“A simply magnificent book describing the Italian Navy of the Second World War, profiling all classes of vessels, from battleships . . . [to] submarines.” —Pegasus Archive This book is a complete guide to the Regia Marina, the navy with which Italy fought the Second World War. Starting with the historical background, it describes how the navy developed, how it was organized, the facilities that supported it, and the operations it conducted both before and after the armistice in 1943. It also details all its ships, with full technical particulars, plans and photos. Furthermore, there are chapters on special topics like camouflage; uniforms, decorations and insignia; and a “who’s who” of important naval personalities; and the reference value of the book is enhanced by a comprehensive bibliography and guide to sources. The illustration is a noteworthy feature of the book as the author’s collection of naval photographs is one of the best in Italy. He is also a fine draughtsman, and his ship plans and color illustrations are both detailed and accurate, adding a particular appeal for modelmakers. Of all the main combatant navies of this era, the Italian is probably the most poorly represented in English publications, so this comprehensive handbook will be especially welcomed by the naval community. “An overview of the wartime Italian Navy, including its bases and organization, ships and aircraft . . . an enjoyable book.” —Warships International Fleet Review “A major achievement and a milestone in the renaissance of Italian Naval history . . . [the] book is a gem and is thoroughly recommended.” —The Navy Vol 75
The Italian Navy and Fascist Expansionism, 1935-1940 by Robert Mallett Pdf
Robert Mallett argues that the Duce's aggressive war against the Mediterranean powers, Britain and France, was to secure access to the world's oceans. Mussolini actively pursued the Italo-German alliance to gain a Fascist empire stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.
The Italian Navy and Fascist Expansionism, 1935-40 by Robert Mallett Pdf
This book argues that the Duce's aggressive war against the predominant Mediterranean powers, Britain and France, was the only means whereby Italy might secure access to the world's oceans.
In July 1943 Benito Mussolini, Italy's warlord and the father of fascism fell from power in a hastily arranged plot, the details of which even today remain controversial. A cabal of generals took the nation's reins and bungled their way toward an accommodation with the Allies. When General Eisenhower announced an armistice with Italy on the evening of 8 September he believed he had struck a deal that included Italian military cooperation against the Germans. In fact, the generals had promised more than they could deliver and Germany's terrible, swift reprisal shattered Italy's confused air force and army. The armistice likewise caught the navy by surprise, with its battleships raising steam to attack the Allied fleet landing at Salerno. Nonetheless, the Regia Marina obeyed its government's orders and honored the pact the generals had negotiated. Rather than evaporating like Italy's other services, however, it proceeded to fight a three-week campaign against Germany, without Allied support, and in the process retained complete control of its ships, regardless of the ports necessity forced them to seek refuge in. This is the story of the Regia Marina and the Italian armistice of September 1943. It is a deeply-researched and highly readable exploration of this confusing and fascinating corner of history. It refutes the conventional notion that Italy's fleet abjectly surrendered to Allied power. It shows how the navy paved Italy's path from enemy to co-belligerent with the blood and unconquered spirit of its men. Despite German and Allied intentions to secure Italy's fleet for their own uses, it remained Italian to the end: a dark navy - not victorious, but undefeated. Vincent P. O'Hara and Enrico Cernuschi have collaborated for publications including Warship, World War II Magazine, World War II Quarterly, and the new Seaforth Naval Review. Mr. O'Hara has written several books including Struggle for the Middle Sea: the Great Navies at War in the Mediterranean 1939-1945 (Annapolis, 2009). Mr. Cernuschi is a regular contributor to Rivista Marittima and Storia Militare. He has published a dozen books including Le navi da guerra italiane 1940-1945 (Parma, 2003) and Domenico Cavagnari: Storia di un Ammiraglio (Rome, 2001) About DARK NAVY The huge tragedy suffered by the Italian navy and nation has been reduced, until today, to a brief mention in the very few books available abroad about the Regia Marina's war between 1940 and 1945. It is thus quite important that a new essay directed toward English speaking readers is dedicated, at last, to these events, allowing them to sortie beyond the confines of Italian naval historiography--which has long debated these themes--and beyond the scanty circulation abroad of the Italian language.--Erminio Bagnasco, editor of STORIA Militare DARK NAVY is a masterful account of the Regia Marina's role in the Armistice of September 1943. The authors are to be commended for overturning the propagandist mythology which has often marred English-language histories of this difficult period in Italian history. A riveting story.--John Jordan, editor of WARSHIP DARK NAVY gives an excellent overview of the naval, air, and land impact on the Italian military at the time of the 8 September 1943 Armistice. It clearly shows the hesitancy of various leaders, on both sides, as they grappled with "what to do?" in this radically changed wartime environment and gives solid detail on the actions that resulted.--Jack Greene, author (with Alessandro Massigiani) of NAVAL WAR IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 1940-1943.
The Italian Navy in World War II by James J. Sadkovich Pdf
This revisionist history convincingly argues that the Regia Marina Italiana (the Royal Italian Navy) has been neglected and maligned in assessments of its contributions to the Axis effort in World War II. After all, Italy was the major Axis player in the Mediterranean, and it was the Italian navy and air force, with only sporadic help from their German ally, that stymied the British navy and air force for most of the thirty-nine months that Italy was a belligerent. It was the Royal Italian Navy that provided the many convoys that kept the Axis war effort in Africa alive by repeatedly braving attack by aircraft, submarine, and surface vessels. If doomed by its own technical weaknesses and Ultra (the top-secret British decoding device), the Italian navy still fought a tenacious and gallant war; and if it did not win that war, it avoided defeat for thirty-nine, long, frustrating months.
Italian Battle Fleet 1940–43 by Enrico Cernuschi Pdf
A comprehensive. illustrated account of the wartime Italian battle fleet, from its ships and technology to command structure, logistics, codebreaking and more. In the 1920s, the Italian Navy faced great challenges. Mussolini's ambitious Italy turned away from its alliance with Britain and France, and the Regia Marina faced the prospect of confronting both the French Navy and the Mediterranean Fleet of the Royal Navy. In the years leading up to World War II, the Regia Marina built and deployed a powerful battleship-led fleet – known in Italy as 'La Squadra' – intended to make the Mediterranean an Italian sea once more. In this book, Italian naval historian Enrico Cernuschi offers a fresh assessment of the wartime Italian battle fleet, based on his lifetime of primary-source research from both Italian and Allied sources. It offers a comprehensive portrait of this proud armada, how it was devised and built, and how it operated and fought. It covers a multitude of factors often overlooked, such as Italy's naval codebreakers, the fleet's logistics, and the qualities and limitations of Italian industry that supported it. The book also provides a concise account and analysis of the battle fleet's activities through the war, from major clashes such as the Battle of Calabria to lesser-known expeditions. The author's research into Italian wartime primary sources overturns some myths still commonplace in Anglo-American accounts. Illustrated with superb new artwork, maps and 3D diagrams, and featuring rare photos, this book is a fascinating account of Italy's great fleet of World War II.
Among the great misconceptions of modern times is the assumption that Benito Mussolini was Hitler's junior partner, who made no significant contributions to the Second World War. That conclusion originated with Allied propagandists determined to boost Anglo-American morale, while undermining Axis cooperation. The Duce's failings, real or imagined, were inflated and ridiculed; his successes, pointedly demeaned or ignored. Italy's bungling navy, ineffectual army - as cowardly as it was ill-equipped - and air force of antiquated biplanes were handily dealt with by the Western Allies. So effective was this disinformation campaign that it became post-war history, and is still generally taken for granted even by otherwise well-informed scholars and students of World War Two. But a closer examination of recently disclosed, and often neglected, original source materials presents an entirely different picture. They shine new light, for example, on Italy's submarine service, the world's greatest in terms of tonnage, its boats sinking nearly three-quarters of a million tons of Allied shipping in three years' time. During a single operation, Italian 'human torpedoes' sank the battleships HMS Valiant and Queen Elizabeth, plus an eight-thousand-ton tanker, at their home anchorage in Alexandria, Egypt. By mid-1942, Mussolini's navy had fought its way back from crushing defeats to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean Sea. Contrary to popular belief, his Fiat biplanes gave as good as they got in the Battle of Britain, and their monoplane replacements, such as the Macchi Greyhound, were state-of-the-art interceptors superior to the American Mustang. Savoia-Marchetti Sparrowhawk bombers accounted for seventy-two Allied warships and one hundred-ninety-six freighters before the Bagdolio armistice in 1943. On 7 June 1942, infantry of the Italian X Corps saved Rommel's XV Brigade near Gazala, in North Africa, from otherwise certain annihilation, while horse-soldiers of the Third Cavalry Division Amedeo Duca d'Aosta defeated Soviet forces on the Don River before Stalingrad the following August in history's last cavalry charge. As influential as these operations were on the course of World War Two, more potentially decisive was Mussolini's planned aggression against the United States' mainland. Postponed only at the last moment when its conventional explosives were slated for substitution by a nuclear device, New York City escaped an atomic attack by margins more narrow than previously understood. It is now known that Italian scientists led the world in nuclear research in 1939, and a four-engine Piaggio heavy bomber was modified to carry an atomic bomb five years later. These and numerous other disclosures combine to debunk lingering propaganda stereotypes of an inept, ineffectual Italian armed forces. That dated portrayal is rendered obsolete by a true-to-life account of the men and weapons of Mussolini's War.
Italian Battleships of World War II by Mark Stille Pdf
Italy's navy, the Regia Marina was the fourth-largest naval force in the world at the outbreak of World War II, and yet is often overlooked and largely discounted as ineffective. In general the fleet was made up of obsolete vessels, lacked radar functionality, and had a reputation for indiscipline and poorly trained crews. The complex and bureaucratic command system imposed on the fleet further hampered its effectiveness. In this book, Mark Stille details why the Italian battleships were able to maintain a solid reputation, examining their impressive designs and the courage and determination of the fleet at Calabria, Sirte, Cape Spartiveto and Cape Matapan, all illustrated with stunning photographs from the Italian Navy's own archives.
There is a popular notion that the Italian armed forces of the Second World War were an inferior fighting force. Despite the vast numbers taken prisoner, detailed studies of the experiences of these soldiers remain relatively uncommon and the value of this group to furthering our understanding of the Italian experience of war under Fascism is also rarely acknowledged. The existence in the National Archives of hundreds of pages of transcripts of covert British surveillance of Italian POWs has made it possible to engage with their experiences and opinions in much greater depth. The euphemistically termed ‘Special Reports’ present historians with a unique insight into how all levels of Italian soldiery viewed Fascist Italy’s experience of war, 1940-1943. This book examines reactions to Italian political leadership, the progress of the war, as well as Italian soldiers’ ‘everyday’ views on sex, war, the enemy, death, food, their allies, bravery, race, and killing. These fascinating documents reveal the complexity of the outlook of these men, which persistent – and influential – national stereotypes and historiographical trends fail to acknowledge.
Italian Battleships of World War II by Mark Stille Pdf
Often overlooked as a naval power of WWII, Italy's Regia Marina was, upon the declaration of war against France, the fourth largest navy in the world. Despite its numbers, the Italian fleet was made up of largely obsolete vessels, none being equipped with radar, and had a reputation for having inadequately-trained crews. Added to these drawbacks, the Italian commanders did not enjoy the discretion of command at sea that their counterparts in the service of other nations did, being directed closely by the Supermarina (Italian Naval Headquarters). Despite these obstacles, and the heavy losses inflicted upon the fleet by the Royal Navy while in harbour at Taranto, the battleships of the Italian Navy enjoyed a good reputation for being well-designed, and served with courage and determination at Punto Stilo/Calabria, Sirte, Cape Spartivento, and Cape Matapan. Mark Stille details, with the aid of many stunning photographs, including several from the Italian Navy's own archives, the battleships of one of the forgotten navies of WWII.
The hotly-contested Mediterranean naval battles of 1940 initiated rapid developments that changed the face of naval warfare, yet also had echoes of a previous and less complicated era when gunnery, pure and simple, dominated warfare at sea. The actions were fought when the Royal Navy was still evolving its use of naval air power and when radar at sea was primitive and fitted to only a few ships, while Italy's Regia Marina was handicapped by having access to neither. Bombastic assertions by Mussolini that the Mediterranean was 'Our Sea', preceded his declaration of war on 10th June, when Great Britain was preoccupied with the dire situation in France. But the Royal Navy had two of its most competent and aggressive flag officers commanding the mostly elderly ships based at each end of the Mediterranean. Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham and Vice Admiral Sir James Somerville fought spirited actions against the modern and capable Regia Marina, undermining Mussolini's rhetoric and boosting morale as Britain focussed on the threat of German invasion. Confronting Italy contains three previously classified Naval Staff Histories describing major naval surface actions of 1940, supported by a modern introduction setting them in context and also illustrates warships involved, using WW2 US Navy Intelligence Dept documents. Confronting Italy is in a series publishing previously classified documents in a new, accessible format. Specially commissioned commentary by expert naval historians published in collaboration with Britannia Royal Naval College Britannia. Naval Histories of World War II - an important source in understanding the critical naval actions of the period.
The Italian Navy in the European War: For the Defence of Venice by Umberto Fracchia,Italy Ministero Della Marina Ufficio S. Pdf
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