Italian battleship Roma (1940)

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This page is about the 1940 dreadnought battleship. For other Roma battleships of the Regia Marina, see Italian battleship Roma.

Career (Italy)

Laid down:	18 September 1938
Launched:	9 June 1940
Commissioned:	14 June 1942
Status:	Sunk 9 September 1943
General Characteristics
Displacement:	43,624 tons standard, 45,752 tons full load
Length:	224.5-237.8 m
Beam:	32.9 m
Draught:	10.5 m
Propulsion:	8 boilers, 4 shafts, 140,000 hp
Speed:	31,50 knots
Range:	3,920 miles at 20 knots
Complement:	1,830 (1,910 as flagship)
Armament:	3 × 3 381/50 mm 4 × 3 155/55 mm 12 × 90/50 mm AA 20 × 37/50 mm 30 × 20/65 mm
Aircraft carried:	3 aircraft

Roma was an Italian Vittorio Veneto class battleship that served in the Regia Marina during World War II. She was built in 1940.

The explosion of Roma.

Roma was sunk on 9 September 1943, one day after the Italian government surrendered to the Allies, by a German Fritz X bomb launched from a Dornier Do 217 aircraft. It was thus the first capital ship to be sunk by a guided anti-ship missile. She was en route to the surrender point where she exploded after being hit by two Fritz X bombs. The first one hit amidship between 90 mm AA gun mounts, piercing deck and side, then exploded halving speed; the other one hit aprow deck between turret #2 and conning tower. It caused an explosion that threw the turret outboard and affected boilers, starting a major fire that detonated main magazines. More than 1600 lives were lost; only 596 survivors, most badly burned, were rescued. Among those killed was the Italian Naval Commander in Chief, Admiral Carlo Bergamini [1].