Conte di Cavour-class
The Caio Duilio
The French Bretagne-class
Laid down at the Regio Cantieri di Castellammare di Stabia, Italy on 24 February 1912, launched on 24 April 1913, completed on 10 May 1915, after the Second World War serving as training ship, in reserve since 1953, stricken on 15 September 1956 and sol to be broken up in 1957.
Of the Andrea Doria or Caio Duilio-class, preceded by the Conte di Cavour-class, to be succeeded by the planned but never completed Francesco Caracciolo-class but in reality by the Littorio-class was designed by vice admiral annex naval architect Giuseppe Valsecchi. The design was made as a response on the French Bretagne-class battleships.
General original technical specifications. With a displacement of 23.324 tons/22.956 long tons (normal load)-25.126 tons.24.729 long tons (deep load) and as dimension 168,9 (waterline)-176 (overall) x 28 x 9,4 metres of 554.2-577.5 x 91.10 x 30.10 feet. The hull was divided into 23 longitudinal and transverse bulkheads and further more provided with a complete double bottom. The machinery consisted of 3x2 Parsons steam turbines divided over 3 engine rooms and 20 Yarrow boilers supplying via 4 shafts allowing a speed of 21/2.31 (trials)-22 (design) knots and a horsepower of 32.000 ship. The range with a speed of 10 knots and a coal bunker capacity of 1.512 ton/1.488 long tons and a fuel oil capacity of 900 tons/886 long tons was to be 4.800 nautical miles. The crew numbered 1.000 men. The armament consisted of a 25cm/9.8” thick belt, 9,8cm/3.9” thick deck and the gun turrets, casemates and conning tower protected by respectively 28cm/11.0, 13cm/5.1” and 28cm/11.0”. The armament consisted of 3x3+2x2-30,5cm/12” guns, 16x1-15,2cm/6” guns, 19x1-7,6cm/3” guns and 3-45cm/17.7” torpedo tubes.
The Littorio-class drawn by Enrico (thanks for allowing us to publish)
French battle cruiser Dunkerque
After the modernisation needed to have ships in service able to compete with the new French Dunkerque-class as long as the Italian Littorio-class was still not realized. The general technical details were since then quite changed by for instance replacing the existing bow by a longer bow section. Displacement 29.345-29.863 tons (deep load) and a dimensions 186,9 x 28,03 x 10,3 metres 613.2 x 92.0 x 33.10 feet. The machinery was also changed and consisted now of 2 geared steam turbines and 8 Yarrow boilers supplying via 2 shafts 75.000 ship allowing a speed of 26 knots and with a speed of 18 knots a range of 4.000 nautical miles. The crew was increased to 1.520 men. The armament consisted of 2x2+2x2 32cm Model 1934 guns, 4x3-13,5cm anti aircraft guns, 10x109cm/50 anti aircraft guns, 6x2+3x1-3,7cm Breda anti aircraft guns and 8x2-2cm Breda anti aircraft guns. The armour was also improved like an increased thickness of the deck armour to 13,5cm/5.3”. There are naval historians who believed that in case of war between Italy and the United Kingdom these ships had no chance against the British Queen Elizabeth-class.
