 As a stop-gap measure in response to the new French s, the navy decided to modernize its old battleships; work on the two surviving "Conte di Cavour"s began in 1933 and the two "Andrea Doria"s followed in 1937.The work lasted until July 1940 for "Duilio" and October 1940 for "Andrea Doria".The existing bow was dismantled and a new, longer, bow section was built, which increased their overall length by to (on the "Cavour"-class the new bow had been grafted over the existing one, instead).