Di Giussano class cruiser

The "Di Giussano class" light cruisers were built before World War II for the Italian Regia Marina, to gain predominance in the Mediterranean Sea. They were designed by general Giuseppe Vian and were named after military commanders of the Italian Mediaeval and Renaissance periods.

Between the two World Wars, the world powers started a rush to gain the supremacy on the seas. In 1926, France started to produce the "Le Fantasque" class of destroyers, which were superior in displacement and firepower to the destroyers of that period. In order to counter the French menace, Regia Marina decided to produce a new class of cruiser that would be of intermediate size between the new French destroyer class and the cruisers built in that period. In fact, they roughly equated to the British "Leander" class cruisers.

There were 4 ships, all laid down in 1928:
* "Alberto di Giussano"
* "Alberico da Barbiano"
* "Bartolomeo Colleoni"
* "Giovanni dalle Bande Nere"

They were fast ships with good firepower. Speed was the major design criterion and this resulted in minimal protection over critical areas and underwater protection was almost completely lacking. As a result, all 4 ships were sunk by torpedoes:
* "Colleoni" sank during the Battle of Cape Spada in 1940.
* "da Barbiano" and "di Giussano" were sunk during the Battle of Cape Bon in December 1941 by a group of Royal Navy and Dutch destroyers.
* "Bande Nere" was sunk by torpedo from the British submarine HMS|Urge|N17|6 in 1942 while off Stromboli.

External links

* [http://www.regiamarina.net/arsenals/ships_it/cruisers_light/crui_light_us.htm Condottieri light cruiser classes]