On 5 March 1943, he took command of Squadra Navale (the whole Italian fleet), replacing Admiral Angelo Iachino.

In the early hours of 8 September 1943, the fleet was poised to oppose the Allied landing at Salerno; later that evening, he was told of the Italian Armistice.

Later that afternoon, Bergamini's fleet was attacked by a wing of German bombers near Porto Torres.

Subsequently, Roma was hit by a Fritz X guided bomb, a weapon unknown to the Italians at the time.

The first of the Italian Marina Militare FREMM multipurpose frigates, commissioned in 2013, has also been named in his honor.