The German navy had two large casemate ships (about 8800 tons) of the built in UK shipyards. The first ironclad of the Greek navy, (1867), was also built in the UK; at 1700 tons, it was a minimalist casemate design having only two large 9in guns, and two small 20-pounders. The Italians had three casemate ships built, , converted from broadside during construction, and the two s. The disadvantage of the centre-battery was that, while more flexible than the broadside, each gun still had a relatively restricted field of fire and few guns could fire directly ahead. The centre-battery ships were soon succeeded by turreted warships.