Freccia was the lead ship of her class of four destroyers built for the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) in the early 1930s.

[3] Freccia was laid down by Cantieri del Tirreno at their Riva Trigoso shipyard on 20 February 1929, launched on 30 August 1930 and commissioned on 21 October 1931.

[7] On 14 August 1937, the Italian destroyer shadowed a Panamanian-flagged tanker, supported by the torpedo boat Cigno and the Spanish Nationalist auxiliary cruisers Puchol and Mallorca.

Freccia's commander was under the impression that they were tracking the Republican tanker Campeador, unaware that the latter had been torpedoed and sunk by her sister ship Saetta on 11 August.

[9] During the battle of the Mediterranean, the burden of escorting Axis convoys to Libya, Greece and Tunisia fell to the Freccia-class and the Navigatori-class destroyers.

[10] At the head of the 7th Squadron, Freccia led her sister ships Dardo, Saetta and Strale to a fruitless torpedo charge against the British Fleet in the last stages of the battle of Calabria, on 9 July 1940.

[14][15] On 11 December 1941, Freccia was escorting the transport Calitea when the Italian motor vessel was torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine HMS Talisman.

The Italian ships shot down two Beauforts and two supporting Beaufighters, not before one of the aerial torpedoes struck Luciano Manara's stern.

[18] On 29 December 1942, Freccia, fitted by then with the radar warning system Metox,[5] was lightly damaged when an aerial torpedo hit and blew up the ship she was escorting to Tunis, the transport Iseo, loaded with ammunition.

[19] While undergoing modernisation works at Genoa, Freccia was bombed and sunk at dock by RAF Lancaster bombers during an area air raid on the city on 8 August 1943.