Figure 1: Battleship Roma being launched at the Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico shipyard on 9 June 1940. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: Roma sometime in 1942 or 1943, but prior to 9 September 1943. This photograph was probably taken shortly after commissioning since there is an absence of splinter camouflage on her, which was used towards the end of her career. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: Stern view of Roma sometime in 1942 or 1943, but prior to 9 September 1943. This photograph was probably taken shortly after commissioning since there is an absence of splinter camouflage on her, which was used towards the end of her career. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: Roma testing her forward guns sometime in 1942 or 1943, but prior to 9 September 1943. This photograph was probably taken shortly after commissioning since there is an absence of splinter camouflage on her, which was used towards the end of her career. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: Roma coming into port, date and place unknown. Note her new splinter camouflage which was used towards the end of her career. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: Roma in port, probably doing maintenance on her guns, date and place unknown. Note her new splinter camouflage which was used towards the end of her career. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: Stern view of Roma showing one of her float planes sitting on its catapult, date and place unknown. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: Roma in port, date and place unknown. Note the life rafts on top of the 15-inch gun turrets. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: Roma in port, date and place unknown. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: Stunning view of Roma showing her immense size. Date and place unknown. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: Roma leaving port, date and place unknown. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 12: Roma after being hit by a German “Fritz X” radio-controlled glide bomb dropped by a German Do 217 bomber on 9 September 1943. She is shown here clearly listing to starboard and in serious trouble. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 13: Roma on fire and listing even more to starboard after being hit by a German radio-controlled glide bomb on 9 September 1943. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 14: The magazine of Roma’s number two 15-inch gun turret explodes on 9 September 1943. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 15: A chain of explosions rips apart Roma on 9 September 1943 after she was hit by a second “Fritz X” German radio-controlled glide bomb. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 16: As she was sinking, the once proud battleship Roma is blown apart and broken in two by internal explosions on 9 September 1943. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 17: What’s left of Roma’s bow before it slips under the sea on 9 September 1943. Italian Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 18: Junkers JU 88D with a “Fritz X” radio-controlled glide bomb at the United States Air Force Museum. Two of these radio-controlled bombs were used to sink Roma on 9 September 1943. This is a public domain picture. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after the city of Rome, Italy, the 41,376-ton Roma was a Vittorio Veneto class battleship of the Italian Regia Marina (RM), or “Royal Navy.” The ship was built by the Cantieri Riuniti dell’Adriatico shipyard at Trieste, Italy, and was commissioned on 14 June 1942. Roma was approximately 787 feet long and 108 feet wide, had a top speed of 30 knots, and had a crew of 1,920 officers and men. Roma was heavily armed with nine 15-inch guns, 12 6-inch guns, 12 90-mm guns, 40 37-mm guns, 32 20-mm guns and six 8-mm guns. The battleship also carried three aircraft.
After being commissioned, Roma was ordered to steam to the major Italian naval base at Taranto and arrived there on 21 August 1942. At that point, she was assigned to the Italian Navy’s Ninth Naval Division. Although Roma participated in training exercises and was moved to various bases including Naples and La Spezia, she was not sent on any combat missions because of the severe shortage of fuel in the Italian Navy. There also was a lack of heavy vessels that could escort battleships like Roma, making it almost impossible for the Italian battleships to conduct effective offensive operations. On 6 December 1942, Roma was sent from Taranto to La Spezia along with two other Italian battleships, Vittorio Veneto and Littorio. Roma was made the flagship of the Regia Marina, but was forced to remain at La Spezia due to fuel shortages during the first six months of 1943. During that time, she did not go on any combat operations, but was used to bolster the anti-aircraft defenses of the port.
While Roma was at La Spezia, the port was bombed numerous times by Allied aircraft. On 5 June 1943, a bombing raid severely damaged both Roma and Vittorio Veneto. Roma received two near hits on either side of her bow. The first bomb hit the starboard side of the ship but passed through the hull before exploding. The second bomb missed the ship but exploded right next to the hull in the water, causing much damage to the hull. Roughly 2,350 tons of water poured into Roma, causing the ship to nearly sink. Shipyard workers immediately began to repair the stricken battleship, trying to make her seaworthy as quickly as possible.
But La Spezia was again attacked by Allied bombers on 23-24 June 1943, with Roma receiving two more bomb hits. The first bomb hit the ship aft and to starboard of the rear main battery turret and destroyed several staterooms. The second bomb landed on top of the rear 15-inch turret, but little damage was done due to the turret’s heavy armor protection. No serious damage was sustained by the ship and there was no flooding after this attack, but Roma was still sent to Genoa for repairs. Roma arrived at Genoa on 1 July and then returned to La Spezia on 13 August after the repairs were completed.
The war for Italy ended on 8 September 1943 when that country asked for and received an armistice with the Allied powers. The Italian fleet, which was about to launch a final attack against the Allied landings on southern Italy, was told that the war was over and that all ships had to sail to Allied-controlled ports, most notably the island of Malta. Admiral Carlo Bergamini sailed from La Spezia that evening on his flagship Roma along with two other battleships, three cruisers, and eight destroyers and headed for the port of La Maddalena, on the island of Sardinia. He was then ordered to take the task force from there to Malta.
On 9 September 1943, the task force was joined by thee more Italian cruisers and was steaming west of Corsica and was nearing the Strait of Bonifacio. At that point, Admiral Bergamini was told that it was no longer possible to go to Maddalena because it had just fallen to German troops, their one-time allies. At the same time, German bombers had left airfields in southern France and were ordered to stop the Italian ships from falling into British or American hands. German Dornier Do 217 bombers were prowling the skies looking for the Italian warships. They found them around 1537 hours. At first, Bergamini could not tell if they were German or Allied aircraft. But as soon as the planes began their bombing runs, it became clear that they were German and Bergamini gave the order to open fire on them.
Unknown to the Italians, the German bombers were armed with the new “Fritz X” (also known as the Ruhrstahl X-1) radio-controlled, precision-guided, armor-piercing glide bombs. This was the first guided bomb ever created and it represented the cutting-edge of technology.
The first wave of German bombers attacked the Italian ships but scored no hits. The Italian warships took evasive maneuvers and opened up with every anti-aircraft gun they had. Roughly 15 minutes after the first wave of bombers flew over the task force, another wave of Dornier Do 217 aircraft began their attack. The German aircraft dropped their bombs early and then turned away, confusing the Italians into thinking that the Germans had dropped their loads too early and were going to miss the ships. What the Italian ship commanders didn’t understand was that the bombs were being guided towards their ships by radio control and that they were headed straight for them. The battleship Italia was hit first, well aft, where it caused some flooding and a jammed rudder. Then Roma was hit by a bomb that penetrated her starboard side amidships. The bomb went through the ship’s hull, destroying an engine room and two boiler rooms. Roma fell out of formation as fires erupted all over the ship and the battleship took on a severe list. A few minutes later, a second bomb hit her forward on the starboard side next to the “B” or Number Two 15-inch gun turret. The armor-piercing bomb buried itself deep in the ship before exploding and destroyed the forward engine room and started huge fires throughout Roma. Then a few seconds later, the main powder magazine exploded, throwing the entire 1,500-ton “B” turret off the ship. The ship was now just a volcano of flames and was being blown to pieces. As some of the fire and smoke cleared, Roma was still afloat, but there now was an enormous hole where “B” turret used to be. The bridge and the ship’s superstructure began to collapse into the giant hole as water poured into Roma. As Roma sank deeper into the water, the crew struggled to abandon ship. But the strength of the well-made battleship gained some of the crew a few precious moments to get clear of the doomed vessel. Approximately 622 men managed to escape over nine minutes as Roma slowly rolled over, breaking in two as it did. The stern section of the ship sank immediately, but the bow section stayed afloat for a few more minutes before slipping beneath the waves. Admiral Bergamini and 1,253 other crew members were killed when the ship exploded and sank.
The loss of Roma carried with it a lot of “ifs.” If the Italian warships had Allied air cover while attempting to flee to Malta, would the German bombers have been able to get close enough to attack the Italian warships in the first place? If the German bombers were carrying conventional bombs rather than these new radio-controlled bombs, would the Italian warships have had an easier time avoiding the deadly cargo that was dropped from the German aircraft? If the Italian warships had gone straight south rather than staying north close to Sardinia, could they have steamed out of range of the German bombers and avoided them? If the Italians had more fuel, could their ships have stayed farther out at sea longer and out of range of the German bombers, but much closer to their final destination of Malta?
But the loss of Roma did show that the era of the big-gun battleship was coming to a close. Just like the British loss of HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales to Japanese aircraft at the start of the war, airplanes proved once again to be deadly slayers of battleships. And with these new guided bombs carried by aircraft, all surface warships were going to have an even harder time surviving in this new age of modern naval warfare.