When I was 1 year old my grandpa took me to La Spezia to visit the cruiser Vittorio Veneto, and that’s how my ships obsection started; also fun fact the cruiser had the bell from the battleship which is now preserved in the naval museum of La Spezia
It was the only non US ship to be fitted and tested with Polaris but since the nuclear warhead could only be handled by US personnel it was soon scrapped as being too impractical, stull the launch tubes were used for a lot of testing for even the OTOMAT which was supposed to be vertically launched initially but simply too impractical
Re the aircraft, these were not floatplanes as usually seen, as you can see at 4:40 but single seat monoplane fighters, the Reggiane 2000 Falco "Catapultabile" variant. The idea was that the Re. 2000s would protect the ship from enemy attack or at least recon planes but they had good range and could serve as scouts as well. However, they had to recover at a land base as they had no way of recovering at their parent ship, however their good range meant that in the med, they could reliably reach a friendly airfield from almost anywhere the ship would operate. Early in their career they carried the usual Ro. 43 floatplane and the catapult fighters were delivered only in 1943 by which time the Re. 2000 was obsolete. Apparently the original plan was to equip those ships with Autogiros that could land on the stern as well, but those never saw service. One of Vittorio Veneto aircraft survives as one of two surviving Re. 2000s
REGIA MARINA:The Italian fleet was the fourth in the world in 1940, it had the same tonnage of navy like France .The Littorio Class was the backbone of the navy with the 3 huge battleships: Littorio ,Vittorio Veneto and Roma(in 1940 they were considered the most powerful battleships in the world like artillery.). The Regia Marina had very great successes with submarines ,they fought in fourth different seas:Mediterranean Sea, in the Red Sea,in the Persian Gulf and in the Atlantic Ocean. ,with 1750 missions and the sinking of 132 merchant ships and 18 military ships,Italy lost 128 submarines of the totaly 172.The X Mas ,was a special unit of assault and raid of the Regia Marina ,with great success of sinking to the Royal Navy. Battles won: First and second battles of Sirte Operation Harpoon Operation Pedestal
One correction: the 90mm platform was not bad per se and worked fine on the Littorio class. The main problems came from the Duilio class, where, being mounted much lower on the ship, they became often wet, with water infiltrating under the rubber skirts and the stabilyzing platform had to be disabled to avoid shirt circuits in rough sea. One of the Duilio AA turrets can still be seen at the Science and Technology museum in Milan. It was a very advanced and fast firing weapon, but by 1943 it often had to deal with waves of bombers flying above the maximum rangenintended for the AA gunship, lole the Dorniers 217 which were dropping their bombs at over 9 km or the liberators waves coming from north Africa.
IIRC the torpedo hit by the Albacore hit the propeller-shaft in a similar spot as the one that caused so much damage to Prince of Wales on December 9th. But as Vittorio Veneto was unlike Prince of Wales not under further attack the crew could afford to slow down and take the time to properly inspect the damage and then limped home on the remaining shafts.
I always find it strange that the Germans built two battleships that became famous for doing very little and getting sunk while this class of ship, apart from Roma's destruction by guided munitions, is barely known. It was a shame that their main gun ammunition quality was rubbish, but as a design they could at least match anything in Europe. Perhaps the British were lucky they never got to prove it.
Lovely looking vessels but it confuses me how hard it was for them to acquire good shells and shoot down swordfish but I guess Bismarck isn't blameless there either
The 90mm guns of Vittorio Veneto or Italia (forgot which) played a decisive role in protecting Dubrovnik during the Yugoslav civil war, as coastal guns installed on off shore islands.
The RM and RA were rivals who didn't want to talk to each other. If the RM had wanted air support, they had to call their HQ, who had to call Mussolini, who had to call the Luftwaffe to ask if they were going to do anything, THEN call the RA HQ, who had to phone the nearest airfield, before a single plane can take off. It was very stupid.
Most likely the VV is most famous of the three, since it had decisively more active war path than her sisters. Roma`s sinking is not that well known outside the hard core naval history consumers.
Coincidence, evidently. I’ve said it before (on the Savannah video), I have a list I work through for videos. I don’t let what other channels do influence me. And I certainly have no idea what others will upload in advance. (This video, in particular, was recorded last week)
The Littorios were capable battleships, possibly the most capable in Europe (especially since being built for the Med means range wasn’t an issue). But like all their contemporaries….they were built at a time when being a battleship was in and of itself a fatal flaw.
"Battleships were useless" is a very Pacific-centric viewpoint. On the other side of the world, in the Atlantic, and up in the North and Arctic Seas, battleships were still important. No planes other than Swordfishes could have taken off in such atrocious weather with the decks pitching over 10 metres (30 feet).
@@bkjeong4302 same goes for the side of the battleship. the brits could call for landbased air cover too. and AA on board battleships wasnt at all bad. radar guided AA fire was also devastating. Battleships werent obsolete because carriers butchered them, it was more of a bigger bang for the buck scenario.
The thing was - the Italians and the Japanese were a tier behind the British, Americans and Germans. Thus - the leading tier - had radar and good radios in everything. The next step down - didn't. Here - the second tier could build good ships and passable planes - but - their tanks were spotty. The thing is - Cape Matapan was decided by radar. The British had it - and knew exactly where the Italians were. The Italians didn't have it - and had no idea they were about to be destroyed. Then they were. The Japanese had a very good Navy. The Italian Navy wasn't too bad - but the Japanese Navy was very good. They just didn't have radar - and - like the rest of the Axis Powers - could not replace their losses. The British had Aircraft Carriers - the Italians didn't. I think they - like the Germans - were working on one but never finished it. Thus - the British had airplanes with their fleets - and the Italians didn't. The Italians (iirc) thought that they had enough land bases in the Med - to support their fleet from land - but - like the British in Malaya with Force Z - that never worked out well. It just didn't. The Japanese in the Bismarck Sea - had a similar situation. It's not like they didn't have any - but they didn't have enough - and it wasn't there all the time. Thus - the British are putting air launched torpedoes into Italian Ships - and the Italians are not doing the same to them. One thing the Italians did very well - was specialty submarine attacks with mini subs. They sank or damaged a number of British ships in Alexandria and Gibraltar on several occasions. One other factor in this - is that the British and Americans had major oil supplies - where no one else - but the Russians - did. .
When I was 1 year old my grandpa took me to La Spezia to visit the cruiser Vittorio Veneto, and that’s how my ships obsection started; also fun fact the cruiser had the bell from the battleship which is now preserved in the naval museum of La Spezia
Wiki says the cruiser was finally scrapped in Aliag, Turkey in 2021. She was a handsome ship, with many American style features.
@@lancerevell5979she had terrier missiles and could be armed with polaris but the other weapons were italians, some of the radars were american
It was the only non US ship to be fitted and tested with Polaris but since the nuclear warhead could only be handled by US personnel it was soon scrapped as being too impractical, stull the launch tubes were used for a lot of testing for even the OTOMAT which was supposed to be vertically launched initially but simply too impractical
What a beautiful battleship! ❤
This class has such a beautiful design. Vittorio Veneto gave a good accounting of herself during the war all things considered.
Wow, even just the bare hull sitting on the slip was a thing of beauty. The Italians really knew how to build floating works of art...
They sure did, though one could argue that the converted Dorias were most beatiful of all italian battleships.😊
Omg Italian Battleships are freaking beautiful
Re the aircraft, these were not floatplanes as usually seen, as you can see at 4:40 but single seat monoplane fighters, the Reggiane 2000 Falco "Catapultabile" variant. The idea was that the Re. 2000s would protect the ship from enemy attack or at least recon planes but they had good range and could serve as scouts as well. However, they had to recover at a land base as they had no way of recovering at their parent ship, however their good range meant that in the med, they could reliably reach a friendly airfield from almost anywhere the ship would operate. Early in their career they carried the usual Ro. 43 floatplane and the catapult fighters were delivered only in 1943 by which time the Re. 2000 was obsolete. Apparently the original plan was to equip those ships with Autogiros that could land on the stern as well, but those never saw service. One of Vittorio Veneto aircraft survives as one of two surviving Re. 2000s
REGIA MARINA:The Italian fleet was the fourth in the world in 1940, it had the same tonnage of navy like France .The Littorio Class was the backbone of the navy with the 3 huge battleships: Littorio ,Vittorio Veneto and Roma(in 1940 they were considered the most powerful battleships in the world like artillery.). The Regia Marina had very great successes with submarines ,they fought in fourth different seas:Mediterranean Sea, in the Red Sea,in the Persian Gulf and in the Atlantic Ocean. ,with 1750 missions and the sinking of 132 merchant ships and 18 military ships,Italy lost 128 submarines of the totaly 172.The X Mas ,was a special unit of assault and raid of the Regia Marina ,with great success of sinking to the Royal Navy.
Battles won:
First and second battles of Sirte
Operation Harpoon
Operation Pedestal
Very interesting ship and so beautiful ship design.
One correction: the 90mm platform was not bad per se and worked fine on the Littorio class. The main problems came from the Duilio class, where, being mounted much lower on the ship, they became often wet, with water infiltrating under the rubber skirts and the stabilyzing platform had to be disabled to avoid shirt circuits in rough sea. One of the Duilio AA turrets can still be seen at the Science and Technology museum in Milan.
It was a very advanced and fast firing weapon, but by 1943 it often had to deal with waves of bombers flying above the maximum rangenintended for the AA gunship, lole the Dorniers 217 which were dropping their bombs at over 9 km or the liberators waves coming from north Africa.
Beautiful, powerful looking battlewagon.
IIRC the torpedo hit by the Albacore hit the propeller-shaft in a similar spot as the one that caused so much damage to Prince of Wales on December 9th. But as Vittorio Veneto was unlike Prince of Wales not under further attack the crew could afford to slow down and take the time to properly inspect the damage and then limped home on the remaining shafts.
Whats up bro. Love the content. Cheers from Estonia
I always find it strange that the Germans built two battleships that became famous for doing very little and getting sunk while this class of ship, apart from Roma's destruction by guided munitions, is barely known. It was a shame that their main gun ammunition quality was rubbish, but as a design they could at least match anything in Europe. Perhaps the British were lucky they never got to prove it.
Thank you for this doc. (beautiful pics)
I like the Italian BB Vittorio Veneto because is beautiful
My favorite battleship ever
Happy New Year and all the best
Such a shame that not a single european nation kept at least ONE battleship as museum!
Especially german ones. Like, they even got one ship from WW1 still preserved in turky in 70`s, but it got scrapped after germans refused it.
@alexturnbackthearmy1907 yes, the Goeben.
Say what you want about the Italians during WW2 ,they had some of the prettiest warships of the war.
Hell yes
Such a lovely-looking ship, just like her sisters before her.
Lovely looking vessels but it confuses me how hard it was for them to acquire good shells and shoot down swordfish but I guess Bismarck isn't blameless there either
The 90mm guns of Vittorio Veneto or Italia (forgot which) played a decisive role in protecting Dubrovnik during the Yugoslav civil war, as coastal guns installed on off shore islands.
I am surprised that this ship wasn't brought into the Royal Navy, given the loss of Hood, Prince of Wales, Repulse and Barham.
The Italian ships were just beautiful. We allies were fortunate that the axis weren't able to get the most out of them. Thank you, Royal Navy!
2:00 man has the book as well. Nice
Well I have to say the Italian fleet learned about air attacks better then the British or US fleets
Just one glance at her and she looks like she means serious business.
If ONLY the Italians had had some Air Support....... One of History's "what ifs".
The RM and RA were rivals who didn't want to talk to each other. If the RM had wanted air support, they had to call their HQ, who had to call Mussolini, who had to call the Luftwaffe to ask if they were going to do anything, THEN call the RA HQ, who had to phone the nearest airfield, before a single plane can take off. It was very stupid.
The U class subs made the med their home, HMS Upholder being the most famous.
The Mediterranean submarine fleet was so successful they packed up early because they ran out of enemies and were deployed elsewhere.
Most likely the VV is most famous of the three, since it had decisively more active war path than her sisters. Roma`s sinking is not that well known outside the hard core naval history consumers.
So then... not a collab with CentralCrossing? The chances of 2 of you uploading videos about the same ship within hours of each other
Coincidence, evidently. I’ve said it before (on the Savannah video), I have a list I work through for videos. I don’t let what other channels do influence me.
And I certainly have no idea what others will upload in advance.
(This video, in particular, was recorded last week)
She looked to be well armed if nothing else
Beautiful ship!
And she & Roma STILL kick ass in World of Warships Blitz 😊
The Littorios were capable battleships, possibly the most capable in Europe (especially since being built for the Med means range wasn’t an issue). But like all their contemporaries….they were built at a time when being a battleship was in and of itself a fatal flaw.
Do you post the same comments on battleship redundancy on every naval channel?
@
Someone needs to balance out all the hordes of battleship apologists making excuses or spreading misinformation about how useful they were in WWII.
"Battleships were useless" is a very Pacific-centric viewpoint. On the other side of the world, in the Atlantic, and up in the North and Arctic Seas, battleships were still important. No planes other than Swordfishes could have taken off in such atrocious weather with the decks pitching over 10 metres (30 feet).
@
Land-based aircraft in Europe:
@@bkjeong4302 same goes for the side of the battleship. the brits could call for landbased air cover too. and AA on board battleships wasnt at all bad. radar guided AA fire was also devastating. Battleships werent obsolete because carriers butchered them, it was more of a bigger bang for the buck scenario.
Had these ships had proper supply they would've done much better. Unfortunately in the grand scheme they were vastly outnumbered and poorly used.
Please show us Soviet battleships!
Apparently, you're looking at them! 😂
You mean naval legend Sovetsky Soyuz?
@@SennaAugustus it was a superlative ship!
@@Schlipperschlopper it didn’t exist, she was never finished and was badly designed
The thing was - the Italians and the Japanese were a tier behind the British, Americans and Germans.
Thus - the leading tier - had radar and good radios in everything. The next step down - didn't.
Here - the second tier could build good ships and passable planes - but - their tanks were spotty.
The thing is - Cape Matapan was decided by radar. The British had it - and knew exactly where the Italians were. The Italians didn't have it - and had no idea they were about to be destroyed. Then they were.
The Japanese had a very good Navy. The Italian Navy wasn't too bad - but the Japanese Navy was very good. They just didn't have radar - and - like the rest of the Axis Powers - could not replace their losses.
The British had Aircraft Carriers - the Italians didn't. I think they - like the Germans - were working on one but never finished it.
Thus - the British had airplanes with their fleets - and the Italians didn't.
The Italians (iirc) thought that they had enough land bases in the Med - to support their fleet from land - but - like the British in Malaya with Force Z - that never worked out well. It just didn't. The Japanese in the Bismarck Sea - had a similar situation. It's not like they didn't have any - but they didn't have enough - and it wasn't there all the time.
Thus - the British are putting air launched torpedoes into Italian Ships - and the Italians are not doing the same to them.
One thing the Italians did very well - was specialty submarine attacks with mini subs. They sank or damaged a number of British ships in Alexandria and Gibraltar on several occasions.
One other factor in this - is that the British and Americans had major oil supplies - where no one else - but the Russians - did.
.
World of Warships and Armada Warship Legends