Vittorio Veneto Class Battleship - Service History

Service History

Littorio and Vittorio Veneto were declared operational on 2 August 1940, and were assigned to the 9th Division of the 1st Squadron. On 31 August, the two ships, along with three of the older battleships steamed with a force of ten cruisers and thirty-one destroyers to engage the Operation Hats convoy, but poor reconnaissance prevented the Italian force from engaging the British ships. The ships made another unsuccessful sortie to attack another Malta convoy on 29 September. During the attack on Taranto on 12 November 1940, Littorio was hit twice by torpedos, suffering serious damage. Significant flooding caused the ship to settle by the bow. The ship was dry-docked on 11 December, with repairs completed by 11 March 1941. Vittorio Veneto, however, emerged from the attack undamaged. While her sister was being repaired, she took over flagship duties and was transferred to Naples.

Vittorio Veneto sortied on 26 November and encountered British forces south of Sardinia. During the resulting Battle of Cape Spartivento, Swordfish torpedo bombers from the carrier HMS Ark Royal attacked Vittorio Veneto, though she evaded the torpedoes. She briefly engaged British cruisers with her rear main battery turret, without scoring any hits. During the engagement, one of her Ro.43 reconnaissance planes was shot down by a Skua fighter. On the night of 8–9 January 1941, the Royal Air Force attacked Naples with heavy bombers, but failed to hit the ship. In February, Vittorio Veneto, Andrea Doria and Giulio Cesare attempted to attack what was believed to be a Malta convoy. The British squadron was in fact Force H, steaming to bombard Genoa. The two fleets did not make contact, however, and the Italians returned to port.

On 26 March 1941, Vittorio Veneto departed port to attack British convoys to Greece. Germany pressured the Italian Navy to begin the operation, under the impression that they had disabled two of the three battleships assigned to the British Mediterranean Fleet. This resulted in the Battle of Cape Matapan the following day, during which Vittorio Veneto engaged British cruisers. She was then attacked by torpedo bombers from HMS Formidable; the first wave failed, but the second scored a single hit on both Vittorio Veneto and the heavy cruiser Pola. The battleship was flooded with some 4,000 t (3,900 long tons; 4,400 short tons) of water, though she got underway after ten minutes and eventually reached Taranto on 29 March. Repairs lasted until July.

Littorio and Vittorio Veneto had both returned to active duty by August 1941, and on the 22nd the two ships sortied to attack a convoy. They returned to port without encountering any British forces, however. On 26 September, the two battleships attempted to intercept the Operation Halberd convoy, but they broke off the operation without attacking the convoy. While escorting a convoy to North Africa, Vittorio Veneto was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS Urge; repairs lasted until Spring, 1942. Shortly thereafter, on 13 December, Littorio escorted another convoy to North Africa. This operation resulted in the First Battle of Sirte, which ended inconclusively. She provided distant cover to another convoy on 3–6 January 1942. On 21 March, she sortied to attack a British convoy, which led to the Second Battle of Sirte. During the engagement, she badly damaged the destroyers Havock and Kingston.

Repairs to Vittorio Veneto were completed in time for her to join Littorio on attacks on the convoys Vigorous and Harpoon, which had departed Alexandria and Gibraltar to reinforce Malta simultaneously in mid-June. Combat was limited to the opposing light forces, and Littorio and Vittorio Veneto did not see action. While returning to port, Littorio was hit by a bomb from an American B-24 Liberator heavy bomber; the bomb struck the forward gun turret, though it did minimal damage. Before returning to port, a British Wellington bomber torpedoed the ship. The torpedo struck her starboard bow, though she returned to port. Repairs were completed and on 12 December, both ships were moved from Taranto to La Spezia in response to the Allied landings in North Africa. Roma joined the fleet shortly after the attacks on the two convoys, and joined her sisters for the move to La Spezia. There, she replaced Littorio as the fleet flagship.

In June 1943, a series of Allied air raids attacked La Spezia in an attempt to neutralize the three battleships. On 5 June, she was hit by two large bombs that struck her port side. She was transferred to Genoa for repairs, which were not completed before the Armistice that ended Italian participation in the war. Littorio was hit by three bombs on 19 June, a week after her sister was damaged. She was renamed Italia after Benito Mussolini's regime collapsed. Roma was damaged during the 5 June attack and again in a third attack on 23 June. In September 1943, following the withdrawal of Italy from the war, all three ships and a significant portion of the Italian fleet left port to be interned in Malta. While en route, German bombers laden with Fritz-X radio-guided bombs attacked the formation. One hit Italia in the bow forward the main battery turrets, causing serious damage. Two hit Roma; one passed through the ship and exploded under her keel, and the second hit near the forward magazines. The bomb detonated the magazines, causing a massive explosion that destroyed the ship with heavy casualties.

Italia and Vittorio Veneto reached Malta, where they remained until 14 September, when they were transferred to Alexandria. They remained at the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal for the rest of the war. On 6 June 1946, Vittorio Veneto steamed to Augusta in Sicily, where, under the Treaty of Peace with Italy, she was allocated to Britain. On 14 October 1946, she was moved to La Spezia, paid off on 3 January 1948, and broken up for scrap. Italia left Great Bitter Lake on 5 February 1947, to join her sister in Augusta. Allocated to the United States, she was stricken on 1 June 1948 and scrapped in La Spezia. The incomplete Impero had meanwhile been seized by the retreating Germans in 1943, who used her as a target, until she was sunk by American bombers on 20 February 1945. In October 1947, the ship was raised and towed to Venice, where she was broken up.