Description
The RM Roma was an Italian battleship from the Second World War. The keel for this unit was laid in 1938, with launching in June 1940, and commissioning into service with the Italian Regia Marina in 1942. The full displacement of the ship at the time of launching was approx. 46,000 tons, with a length of 238 m long and a beam of 32.9 m. The maximum speed was up to 30 knots. Armament consisted of: 9 381 mm guns in three turrets, 12 152 mm guns and 12 90 mm guns.
Roma was the third of the Littorio class battleships, and were designed to compete with the French navy in the Mediterranean Sea, and were seen from the outset as the most powerful battleships in the Italian Navy. The new ships had strong and well-placed main weapons, good armour, and performance – especially top speed. They were also characterized by an avant-garde and atypical anti-torpedo defence system. Roma entered service at a time when the Regia Marina was on the defensive in the Mediterranean War with Roma not taking part in any offensive operations and damaged in June 1943 by an Allied air raid on her base in La Spezia. In September of the same year, after the singing of the Italian armistice, she sailed from La Spezia to Malta to surrender to the Allies, but was attacked by German Do 217K bombers. As a result of two bomb hits with Fritz X radio controlled missiles she sank on September 9, 1943.
