During the war, Italian destroyers were responsible for the safe flow of convoys to supply the Axis armies in North Africa and for the suppression of British submarines.
At one end, a torpedo boat design was developed into a series of destroyer classes (Sella, Sauro and Turbine) that were comparable with their British contemporaries.
The original anti-aircraft weaponry, consisting of mixtures of obsolete 40-millimetre Vickers cannon (designed in 1917) and 13.2 mm machine guns was clearly inadequate when Italy entered World War II.
[1] The designation esploratori, meaning "scouts", was originally given to a class of Italian warship that was between the then-current destroyers and cruisers, in terms of size and firepower.
Of the Italian destroyers that saw action in World War II, the ships belonging to the Navigatori, Mirabello and Leone classes were originally rated as esploratori.
The Regia Marina initially classified yet another group of ships (Capitani Romani class) as esploratori oceanici—ocean scouts—but they were later reclassified as light cruisers.
During the war, the older destroyers (such as the WWI-era Mirabello-class and the Sella-class, built in the early 1920s) were mainly used as escort ships on the less-dangerous routes (mainly between Italy, Albania, Greece, the Italian Dodecanese and the Axis-occupied islands in the Aegean Sea), whereas the more modern destroyers of the Oriani and Soldati classes were primarily employed as fleet escorts, but not exclusively so, taking part in most battles and operations that involved the Italian battle fleet between 1940 and 1942.
Destroyers that fell between the two categories, being neither too obsolete, nor modern enough for use with the battle fleet, were tasked with escorting supply convoys between Italy and North Africa; ships of the Navigatori, Freccia, Folgore and Maestrale classes were among those that saw most-intense service on these routes.
During the Tunisian Campaign, after the Battle of Skerki Bank caused the loss of 1,500 soldiers in one night and showed that troop transports were too vulnerable to the Allied offensive, Italian destroyers were extensively used in fast troop-transport missions to Tunisia.
The intense service of these ships, especially on the dangerous supply routes between Italy and North Africa, resulted in severe losses: of seventy-one Italian destroyers that served during World War II, forty-three were sunk during the war against the Allies, between 10 June 1940 and 8 September 1943, and another fifteen were lost following the Armistice of Cassibile and Operation Achse (most of the latter were undergoing maintenance or repairs when the armistice was declared, and were scuttled in harbour to prevent them from falling into German hands).
Most of the thirteen destroyers that survived the war were ceded to France and the Soviet Union by order of the Paris Peace Treaty; only five destroyers (the WWI-era Augusto Riboty, the Navigatori-class Nicoloso Da Recco and the more modern Grecale, Granatiere and Carabiniere) were left to the postwar Marina Militare.
Of the fifty-eight Italian destroyers lost during World War II, fourteen were sunk by aircraft, ten by surface warships, eight by submarines, six by mines, five by accidental causes, and one by motor torpedo boats.
Three Mirabello class destroyers were commissioned in 1916–1917 as esploratori, but one (Carlo Alberto Racchia) was lost in the Black Sea in 1920.
The ships of this class were powerful destroyers in the early 1920s, displacing 2,300 tons[6] and armed with eight four-inch guns in single mounts, 450-millimetre (17.7 in) torpedoes, depth charges and mines.
[7] The Mirabellos reflected their age when Italy entered the war, and were used to lay minefields off Taranto and to escort convoys to Albania and Greece, relatively "safe" duties.
Their armament was upgraded from that of the preceding Mirabellos and the resultant additional topweight required increases in dimensions and displacement (2,690 tonnes[6]) with the machinery significantly uprated to maintain speed.
Eight 4.7-inch guns (120 mm – the new standard for Italian destroyers, introduced during World War I by the Romanian-ordered Aquila class)[8] were mounted in four twin turrets and torpedo tubes were now 21 inch.
[7] All three were part of the Italian Red Sea Flotilla when Italy entered the war in June 1940, where they were employed to lay mine fields and to disrupt British convoys, without any success.
After an abortive mission against Port Sudan, Pantera and Tigre, both damaged by Swordfish aircraft, were scuttled off Saudi Arabia.
At the Italian surrender in 1943, German E-Boats sank the Quintino Sella, while Francesco Crispi was captured in Piraeus and renamed TA15 for the Kriegsmarine, later sunk by Allied planes on 12 October 1944.
They were developments of the preceding Sella class, with a broader beam to allow for the greater weight of weaponry and some layout changes.
All were lost by early April 1941, when Massawa fell: one (Francesco Nullo) was sunk by HMS Kimberley in October 1940 after a failed attack on a British convoy, while two (Nazario Sauro and Daniele Manin) were sunk by British planes during a last failed attack on Port Sudan, shortly before the fall of Massawa, and the last one (Cesare Battisti) had to be scuttled after engine defects forced her to abort the same mission.
These ships were a further development of the Sella design, with a larger hull, significantly increased engine power and fuel storage.
[clarification needed] Remedies were applied in two stages, firstly in the mid-1930s when some superficial changes were made to reduce superstructures and move fuel bunkers, and subsequently from 1938 to 1940, when the beam was increased and bows raised.
During World War II, several programmes were started to upgrade weaponry, in particular anti-aircraft weapons, but none were applied uniformly to all ships in the class.
Several ships were adapted for radar but only two received the equipment; Leone Pancaldo had the Italian EC3/ter Gufo set and Lanzaretto Malocello had the German FuMo 26/40G.
[14] The three squadrons of this class served in the Mediterranean, escorting North African convoys, laying offensive minefields, bombarding shore targets and screening the fleet.
Poor stability and engine reliability were serious problems when the ships entered service and remedies were attempted which, in turn, led to fuel contamination.
[19] The four Orianis operated as fleet escorts for much of the war, being present at the battles of Calabria and Matapan, two being sunk at the latter action.
[citation needed] The Regia Marina also operated some destroyers built for foreign navies, captured from either France or Yugoslavia.