|
The Italian cruiser ''San Giorgio'' was the name ship of her class of two armored cruisers built for the Royal Italian Navy (''Regia Marina'') in the first decade of the 20th century. Commissioned in 1910, the ship was badly damaged when she ran aground before the start of the Italo-Turkish War in 1911, although she was repaired before its end. During World War I, ''San Giorgio''s activities were limited by the threat of Austro-Hungarian submarines, although the ship did participate in the bombardment of Durazzo, Albania, in late 1918. She acted as a royal yacht for Crown Prince Umberto's 1924 tour of South America and then deployed to the Indian Ocean to support operations in Italian Somaliland in 1925–26. ''San Giorgio'' served as a training ship from 1930 to 1935 and was then rebuilt in 1937–38 to better serve in that role. As part of her reconstruction, she received a modern anti-aircraft suite that was augmented before she was transferred to bolster the defences of Tobruk shortly before Italy declared war on the Allies in mid-1940. ''San Giorgio'' was forced to scuttle herself in early 1941 as the Allies moved in to occupy the port. Her wreck was used as an immobile repair ship by the British from 1943 through 1945. Salvaged in 1952, she sank while under tow to Italy to be broken up. ==Design and description== The ships of the ''San Giorgio'' class were designed as improved versions of the ''Pisa''-class design. ''San Giorgio'' had a length between perpendiculars of and an overall length of . She had a beam of and a draught of . The ship displaced at normal load, and at deep load. Her complement was 32 officers and 666 to 673 enlisted men.〔Fraccaroli 1970, p. 33〕 The ship was powered by a pair of vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam supplied by 14 mixed-firing Blechynden boilers. Designed for a maximum output of and a speed of ,〔Silverstone, p. 290〕 ''San Giorgio'' handily exceeded this, reaching a speed of during her sea trials from .〔 The ship had a cruising range of at a speed of .〔Gardiner & Gray, p. 261〕 The main armament of the ''San Giorgio''-class ships consisted of four Cannone da 254/45 A Modello 1908 guns in twin-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure. The ships mounted eight Cannone da 190/45 A Modello 1908 in four twin-gun turrets, two in each side amidships, as their secondary armament. For defense against torpedo boats, they carried 18 quick-firing (QF) 40-caliber guns. Eight of these were mounted in embrasures in the sides of the hull and the rest in the superstructure.〔 The ships were also fitted with a pair of 40-caliber QF guns. The ''San Giorgio''s were also equipped with three submerged torpedo tubes. During World War I, eight of the 76 mm guns were replaced by six 76 mm anti-aircraft (AA) guns〔 and one torpedo tube was removed.〔 The ships were protected by an armoured belt that was thick amidships and reduced to at the bow and stern.〔 The armoured deck was thick and the conning tower armour was 254 mm thick. The 254 mm gun turrets were protected by 200 mm of armour while the 190 mm turrets had .〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Italian cruiser San Giorgio」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|