Italian Dante Alighieri
The French Dunkerque
The French Dunkerque
utch magazine Onze Vloot dated June 1935, p. 80, after a drawing of Adriaan van Sorge
An item referred to the newspaper Daily Telegraph reporting that the famous Italia dreadnought Dante Alighieri (1) was sold for 3½ million lire to a firm at Genoa, Italy to be broken up. She was laid down in 1909 and her building costs were 65 million lire. She had been the first warship in the world fitted out with triple gun turrets and had totally 4x3-12” guns and a very powerful secondary armament. Completed in 1912 was she at one time the fastest battleship in service while with a speed of 33 knots she was 2 knots faster than contemporary British and other battleships. Standard displacement 19.55o tons. The Italian navy possessed at that moment over 4 dreadnought each armed with 13-12” guns.(2) Despite the Washington Naval Treaty [of 1922] allowed Italy to built 2 new large ships between 1927 and 1929 none such ship was laid down. It was now expected that new dreadnoughts were to be built while Italian naval experts stated that such large ships were obsolete or useless for the tactics to be used in the Mediterranean.(3)
Notes
1. First Italian dreadnought battleship. Preceded by the Regina Elena-class and succeeded by the Conte di Cavour-class. Laid down at the Castellammare di Stabia navy yard on 6 June 1909, launched on 20 August 1910, completed on 15 January 1913, modernized in 1923, stricken on 1 July 1928 and finally broken up in that same year. She was designed by the Italian rear admiral engineer Edoardo Masdea at that moment Chief Constructor of the Italian navy using the ideas of general Vittorio Cuniberti. The intention was to built a battleship with a main armament of the same calibre to be used for broadside fire and as much possible limited superstructure.
2. The Conte di Cavour and Guilio Cesaro of the Conte do Cavour-class with a standard displacement of 23.458 tons and 3x3&2x2-30,5cm/12” guns and the Andrea Doria and the Caio Duilio with a deep load displacement of 25.126 tons and 3x3&2x2-30,5cm/12” guns.
3. Between 1934-1942 were the Littorio, Vittorio Veneto and Roma of the Littorio or Vittorio Veneto completed, the Impero was never completed. Standard displacement was 40.724 tons and a main armament of 3x3-38,1cm/15.0 guns. Answer on the French fast battleships of the Dunkerque-class.
