In 1913, the situation in Europe became increasingly tense, and the outbreak of the two Balkan wars had foreshadowed the irreconcilable confrontation between the two major military alliances in Europe.
A cartoon of the time depicts Russia, Germany, France and Britain sitting on a boiling Balkan cauldron, and war is about to break out
Italy tested its military achievements in the 1911-1912 Italian-Turkish War, which defeated the Ottoman Empire and captured Tripoli and Cyrenaica, and finally had a sum of money available for the construction of a navy.
Italian Navy battleship construction advocate Admiral Direwell
So in 1913, shortly after the construction of the Orion-class battleships in Britain, the Italians decided to build their own super-dreadnought, which was initially benchmarked against the British Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, and it was expected that the construction of four caracciolo, the first ship of the class, would appear as I Series VII battleships.
Caracciolo, whose data is being tested, will appear as a World of Warships I.I. CLASS battleship
The Caracciolo class battleships are a major innovation compared to the previous gradual Andredor and Cavour class. From the outset, it was decided to use oil-fired boilers as the power system, and the British opened up a series of restrictions on arms transactions in order to win italy over Italy and disintegrate the Allied powers, so the Italians also gained the technology to produce 15-inch guns.
More importantly, several Italian arms companies have also improved their own artillery level through multiple channels, and before the caracciolo class was built in 1913, Italy ordered 10 guns from the Three Factories of Ansardo-Schneider, Armstrong-Pozzoli, and Vix-Terni, for a total of 30 15-inch guns for comparison. After a series of tests, the Italian Navy chose Armstrong's design, which was defined as the Cannone navale da 381/40 (40x diameter 381 mm naval cannon).
Caracciolo class line chart
The 1914 state of the Caracciolo class is expected to be built
Ansardo's workshop for the production of 15-inch guns
15-inch gun produced by Viksterney
Armstrong's 15-inch gun is awaiting acceptance
In terms of secondary guns, the Caracciolo class chose 12 50-caliber 152 mm secondary guns as weapons, which were also designed by the British Armstrong company, but were produced in Italy.
The Italian Coast Guard is operating a 50x 152 mm coastal defense gun, most of which was converted from the Caracciolo class secondary guns
The main armor belt of the Caracciolo class is 303 mm thick and uses Krupp carburized armor steel produced by Terni, which is greatly improved from the previous Andreidoria class.
A piece of Krupp armored steel under test, 152 mm thick, is marked to have withstood multiple direct hits from 152 mm guns
The caracciolo class's first ship, the Caracciolo, was built in 1914 at The Sea Fortress of Stabia, but from the very beginning she was influenced by the adjustment of the Italian Navy's military policy, making the construction process not smooth.
After the outbreak of World War I, Italy hesitated between the Allies and the Allies, and by 1915 Italy was finally determined to join the Allies and declare war on Austria-Hungary in anticipation of regaining its unrecovered territory from Austria-Hungary.
Affected by the war, Italian naval construction also began to give way to the Army, the main steel was used to support the production of Army equipment, and after the war, Italy was plagued by a post-war economic depression, making Caracciolo stay on the ship platform for 6 years.
Caracciolo when he was launched in 1920
A turret prepared for Caracciolo's 15-inch artillery
In 1919, the construction of Caracciolo resumed progress, and the rise of carrier-based aviation in the late World War I gave the Italian Navy a new plan, as a battleship that began as an all-fuel boiler, she had a maximum speed of 28 knots, which was very suitable for conversion into an aircraft carrier, and the Shipbuilding Bureau also proposed a relevant plan according to this concept.
One of the route maps of the Caracciolo aircraft carrier program, which is supposed to be a built version of the plan in the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty
Unfortunately, the italian navy's views on battleships and aircraft carriers have not been able to be unified. The Battleship Faction believed that construction as battleships should continue, as older battleships with 305 mm guns should be phased out. The carrier faction believed that it should be converted into an aircraft carrier, and then build an "economic fleet" of cruisers, destroyers and torpedo boats.
At a stalemate between the two sides, General Sage, the most politically influential member of the Naval Council, decided that a more recent 15-inch artillery battleship should be built, and then an aircraft carrier should be built to complement the new battleship, and the final product of General Sage's theory was the later famous Veneto class battleship.
At the instigation of General Szecchi, Italy decommissioned a large number of old ships, and Caracciolo was considered "outdated by construction", so the construction work was directly terminated, and the hull was sold to the Italian General Shipping Company to be converted into a fast passenger ship.
General Sage, who suggested building new ships directly, eventually facilitated the construction of the Veneto-class battleships
But by 1921, Italy had allocated another 61,000 tons of aircraft carrier construction tonnage during the Washington Naval Treaty negotiations, and the Italian Navy remembered Caracciolo's hull and intended to convert it again into a Battleship similar to Veneto.
However, when calculating the cost of the reconstruction, the Italian Navy, which was preparing to build a new cruiser, could not allocate enough budget for Caracciolo's renovation, so by 1921, Caracciolo was finally sent to the shipbreaking yard for dismantling.
The caracciolo class of artillery is not without a shipping role, 4 of these heavy guns were used by the Italian Army as railway guns, 6 as shore guns, and the rest of the Italian Navy was equipped with gunboats for coastal defense and fire support. The Italian Navy's dream of being super fearless could only be realized a few years later, when the man who claimed to "make Italy great again" appeared.
A 381 mm shore gun position on the Adriatic coast
381 mm train gun of Italy during World War I