Italian cruiser Giovanni delle Bande Nere
Giovanni delle Bande Nere was an Italian light cruiser of the , which served in the Regia Marina during World War II. She was named after the eponymous 16th-century condottiero and member of the Medici family. Her keel was laid down in 1928 at Cantieri Navali di Castellammare di Stabia, Castellammare di Stabia; she was launched on 27 April 1930, and her construction was completed in 1931. Unlike her three sisters, the finish and workmanship on the vessel were not rated highly. She was sunk on 1 April 1942 by the British submarine . The Giussano type of cruiser sacrificed protection for high speed and weaponry, as a counter to new French large destroyers. Design

In the aftermath of World War I, the Italian  (Royal Navy) received a group of light cruisers from the defeated German and Austro-Hungarian fleets. At the time, the Italian naval command was satisfied with these vessels as a supplement to their existing scout cruisers in the immediate postwar era. After the French Navy began building twelve large destroyers of the  and es, the Italian command responded by ordering the four s. The s were intended to overpower the new French destroyers with superior armament and very high speed, at the expense of most armor protection. was  long overall, with a beam of  and a draft of . She displaced  at standard displacement and up to  at full load. The ship had a long forecastle deck that extended for the first third of the hull, before stepping down to the main deck that continued for the rest of the ship's length. Her hull was very lightly built to save weight. Her superstructure consisted of a large conning tower forward that incorporated a tripod mast and a smaller, secondary tower aft. She was fitted with an aircraft catapult on her forecastle, and could carry two reconnaissance aircraft; she initially carried CANT 25 seaplanes, but these were later replaced with IMAM Ro.43. She had a crew of 520 officers and enlisted men. Her power plant consisted of two Belluzzo geared steam turbines powered by six oil-fired Yarrow boilers, which were ducted into two widely spaced funnels. The propulsion system was arranged on the unit system of machinery, which divided the engines and boilers into two separate pairs. Her engines were rated at  and produced a top speed of . During her sea trials, she reached a top speed of  from , though in service she could only maintain a speed of  at sea. was armed with a main battery of eight  Mod 26 53-caliber guns in four gun turrets. The turrets were arranged in superfiring pairs forward and aft. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a battery of six  47-cal. guns in twin mounts, eight  /54 guns in twin mounts, and eight  guns in twin mounts. Her armament was rounded out by four  torpedo tubes in two twin launchers on the main deck amidships. The ship's armor belt was  thick, extending only for the length of the hull that contained the propulsion machinery spaces and the ammunition magazines. The belt was closed on either end by  transverse bulkheads and was capped by an armor deck of the same thickness. Inboard of the belt, an  thick inner bulkhead was intended to catch shell fragments that penetrated the main belt. The main battery turrets received  of protection, and her conning tower received  of armor plate. Service
 was built at the  (Royal Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia); her keel was laid down on 31 October 1928, the last member of the class to begin construction. She was launched on 27 April 1930, and work on the ship was completed in April 1931. During the Spanish Civil War,  operated in the western Mediterranean as part of the non-intervention patrols intended to block arms shipments to the warring factions. Later in the decade, the ship served with the Training Command. World War II
On 10 June 1940, Italy declare war on Britain and France, entering World War II on the side of Germany. At that time,  was assigned to II Division of II Squadron, along with her sister ship . She served as the divisional flagship under Rear Admiral Ferdinando Casardi. The two ships were moved to Palermo, Sicily, and on the evening of 10 June, they sortied to lay mines in the Strait of Sicily. On 22 June, the two cruisers departed to search for French ships that were reportedly west of Sardinia, but they returned to port two days later, having failed to locate any French vessels. By the end of the month, France had signed the Armistice of Villa Incisa, ending their participation in the war. As a result,  and  were moved to Augusta in eastern Sicily. On 2–3 July, the ships carried another sweep that failed to locate any British ships, and the next day they covered a convoy from Tripoli in Italian Libya to Italy. On 7 July,  and  sortied as part of the escort for a large convoy sailing to Benghazi in Libya. The convoy consisted of five freighters and a passenger liner that were carrying some 2,200 men, 72 tanks, 237 other vehicles, and a large amount of supplies and fuel; these were intended to fortify the planned invasion of Egypt. II Division, along with the 10th Destroyer Squadron (which consisted of , , , and ) and the torpedo boats , , , , , and , formed the convoy's close escort. Significant elements of the Italian fleet were at sea as part of the convoy, which the British attempted to intercept. In the ensuing Battle of Calabria on 9 July, the ships of II Division were assigned to make sure the convoy arrived in port undamaged. The convoy arrived in Benghazi the next day, but  and  soon moved to Tripoli to avoid attacks from British aircraft based in Egypt. The Italian naval command considered sending the two cruisers to bombard British positions on the coast at Sollum, but decided against it; instead, they were to be sent to Portolago in the Dodecanese. From there, they were to attack British convoys in the Aegean Sea. Battle of Cape Spada

 and  left Tripoli on the evening of 17 July and sailed to the north of Crete, bound for the Aegean. On the 19th, the four British destroyers , , , and  were sent on an anti-submarine patrol in the area, while the Australian light cruiser  and the British destroyer  searched the Gulf of Athens. At around 06:00 on 19 July, the Italians spotted the four British destroyers off Cape Spada of western Crete, which were some  away; Sydney and Havock were around  to the north. The British ships immediately signaled Sydney and turned to flee at high speed. Casardi ordered his ships to pursue the retreating British ships, believing them to be part of the escort for a convoy he hoped to attack. At 06:27, the Italian cruisers opened fire on the destroyers, but the faster destroyers were able to pull out of range without having been hit. At around this time, a Greek freighter passed between the formations but quickly withdrew from the area. Casardi pursued the British blindly, deciding not to launch any of his reconnaissance aircraft (both because of the sea state and not wanting to slow down to launch them), and he was also not supported by any land based aircraft in the area. As a result, they had no way to know that Sydney was in the area, and when she arrived on the scene at around 07:30 and opened fire, it took the Italians completely by surprise. The Australian cruiser had opened fire from a range of about  while in the middle of a fog bank; almost immediately, she hit  near her aft funnel. This hit killed four men on the deck and wounded four more. The Italian cruisers quickly returned fire, but had difficulty locating the target in the fog, as they only had Sydneys muzzle flashes to aim at. They also rolled badly in the heavy seas, which further hampered their gun laying. Captain Collins of Sydney detached Havock to join the other destroyers, Collins ordered to make a torpedo attack on the cruisers. Casardi responded by turning his ships south and then southwest to move to less restricted waters further from Crete. As the Italians withdrew, Sydney alternated fire between the two cruisers, depending on which was more visible, but she focused her fire on , as she was generally closer. At 08:24, Sydney struck  with a salvo of 152 mm shells that inflicted serious damage. The latter fell behind, which allowed the destroyers to enter effective range, and the British ships quickly neutralized . One of the destroyers hit her with a torpedo that blew off her bow. Shortly thereafter, Casardi circled back at 08:50 to attempt to come to her aid, but quickly determined that the situation was hopeless, so he turned back to the west and fled at high speed. Sydney, Hero, and Hasty turned to pursue  while the remaining destroyers finished off  and then picked up survivors. During the pursuit, Sydney hit  once, which killed four men and wounded another twelve, and in response,  hit Sydney once. By 09:37, the Italian cruiser had pulled far enough away from Sydney that she broke off the chase. thereafter returned to port at Benghazi. Subsequent operations

 joined the  4th Division on 4 December, and over the following months she escorted several convoys to North Africa, including operations with fast passenger liners. She also participated in attempts to block British convoys to Malta during this period. On 8 May 1941, Giovanni delle Bande Nere took part in attack against the Operation Tiger convoy to Malta and Egypt. The British sent a convoy of five fast merchant ships carrying tanks and Hawker Hurricane fighters across the Mediterranean to Alexandria, while at the same time running another convoy from Alexandria to supply Malta in the central Mediterranean. The Italian squadron also included the light squadrons , , and , along with five destroyers. Unknown to the Italians, the British convoy was escorted by the battleship , along with other vessels; luckily for both sides, neither encountered the in bad weather. In June 1941,  and her sister  laid a defensive minefield off Tripoli. This minefield later sank the British cruiser  and the destroyer  and damaged the cruisers  and  in December. The Italian cruisers laid additional minefields in the Strait of Sicily in July. became the flagship of the Special Naval Force on 20 October. In December, the Italian high command decided to use light cruisers and destroyers to conduct high-speed resupply missions to North Africa. On 9 December,  and the rest of 4th Division—her sisters  and —were sent with  of fuel and  of other supplies apiece. They departed from Palermo]that morning, but had only gotten about halfway between Sicily and Tunisia by the next morning, when they were spotted by reconnaissance aircraft from Malta. They then came under air attack from British torpedo bombers, which forced them to abandon the attempt and return to Palermo. 's engines developed problems before the next attempt was made on 12 December, so the other two cruisers proceeded without her. This time, the two cruisers were intercepted by a group of British destroyers and were both sunk. On 3 January 1942,  was transferred to the 8th Cruiser Division. In February, she was part of the escort force for Operation K7, which saw convoys from Corfu and Messina to Tripoli. Second Battle of Sirte

On 21 March 1942, the Italian submarine  detected the British convoy MW.10 sailing west from Alexandria. The convoy had sailed the day before to carry supplies to Malta. On the evening of 21 March, the Italian naval command—the —activated a group of cruisers that included  to try to intercept the convoy. The squadron, which also included the heavy cruisers  and , along with an escort of four destroyers, was based at Messina and was under the command of Rear Admiral Angelo Parona. The ships were to rendezvous with the fast battleship  and another four destroyers, which had sailed from Taranto. The British were aware of the departure of the  group, and they turned slightly south to try to avoid them, but the arrival of the cruiser group surprised them (though the British spotted the Italian ships first). In the ensuing Second Battle of Sirte, Parona made a dilatory approach, first turning north and then describing a large circle to starboard before eventually ordering his ships to fire at 14:56 at the convoy escort that had steamed to engage them, albeit at very long range. Neither side scored any hits, though  straddled the British cruisers  and  before Parona broke off the engagement at 15:15. The Italian squadrons then formed up, with the cruisers in the lead, and at 16:37, they again closed with the convoy escort in an attempt to block their route to Malta. By 16:43,  had engaged Cleopatra and Euryalus for the second time, and she scored a hit on the former, disabling her radio and killing fifteen men. Soon thereafter,  joined the engagement, which forced the British cruisers and destroyers to fall back, but the Italians still could not see the convoy in the heavy smoke screens. As darkness approached, the Italian fleet broke off, having been ordered to avoid a night engagement. While withdrawing to port on 23 March, the Italian fleet encountered severe storms, and Giovanni delle Bande Nere suffered damage. After the ship returned to Messina, it was decided to send her to La Spezia for repairs, and she departed on 1 April, with the destroyer  and the torpedo boat  as escorts. The ships were intercepted by the British submarine  about eleven miles to the southeast of Stromboli; Urge hit  with two torpedoes, which inflicted serious damage. Her hull broke into two sections, and she quickly sank. Discovery
On 9 March 2019, the Italian Navy reported that the minesweepers  had discovered the wreck of . used remotely operated vehicles (ROV) Hugin 1000 and Multipluto 03 to search for the wreck. The ROVs obtained images of the wreck that confirm the ship broke into three sections as it sank. From photos shown, at least part of the cruiser lies on its port side at a depth of  of water. Footnotes

Notes

Citations

References

Further reading

External links 
 Italian light cruisers
 Giovanni delle Bande Nere Marina Militare website

 

Giussano-class cruisers
Ships built in Castellammare di Stabia
1930 ships
World War II cruisers of Italy
Ships sunk by British submarines
World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
Maritime incidents in April 1942