Итальяндық «Тренто» крейсерінің тарихы

Heavy cruiser of the Italian Royal Navy

Trento was the first of two s; they were the first heavy cruisers built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy). The ship was laid down in February 1925, launched in October 1927, and was commissioned in April 1929. Trento was very lightly armored, with only a thick armored belt, though she possessed a high speed and heavy main battery of eight guns. Though nominally built under the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty, the two cruisers significantly exceeded the displacement limits imposed by the treaty. Trento frequently served as the flagship of the Cruiser Division throughout the 1930s. During the pre war period, she also made lengthy trips abroad, including a tour of South America from May to October 1929 and a deployment to China from January to June 1932 to protect Italian nationals during the Chinese Civil War. She also took part in numerous naval reviews held for visiting foreign leaders. After Italy entered World War II in June 1940, Trento saw extensive action in the Mediterranean Sea, including at the battles of Calabria, Cape Spartivento, and Cape Matapan in July and November 1940 and March 1941, respectively. She was also present during the inconclusive First and Second Battles of Sirte, and at the latter she severely damaged a British destroyer. Trento was also frequently tasked with escorting convoys to supply Italian forces in North Africa as well as interdicting British convoys to Malta. During one of the latter missions to attack the British Operation Harpoon convoy in June 1942, Trento was torpedoed twice, first by a Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber and then sunk by the submarine with very heavy loss of life.

Trento was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of She displaced at full load, though her displacement was nominally within the restriction set in place by the Washington Naval Treaty. The ship's superstructure included a large conning tower forward and a smaller, secondary conning position aft. She was fitted with a pair of tripod masts, one just aft of the conning tower and the second further aft. She had a crew of 723 officers and enlisted men, though during the war this increased to 781. On trials, she reached only , and in service, her practical top speed was only The ship had a cruising range of at a speed of
Trentos secondary battery was revised several times during her career. The 100 mm guns were replaced with newer Mod 31 versions of the same caliber. In 1937–1938, the two aft most 100 mm guns were removed, along with all four 12.7 mm machine guns; eight 54 cal. Breda M1932 guns and eight Breda M1931 machine guns, all in twin mounts, were installed in their place. In 1942, the ship received four 65 cal. Breda M1940 guns in single mounts. She was protected with an armor belt that was thick amidships with armored bulkheads thick on either end. Her armor deck was thick in the central portion of the ship and reduced to at either end. The gun turrets had thick plating on the faces and the supporting barbettes they sat in were thick. The main conning tower had 100 mm thick sides. On 11 May 1929, Trento became the flagship of the Cruiser Division; five days later, she and her sister Italian cruiser Trieste began a cruise in the northern Mediterranean, which included a stop in Barcelona. The two cruisers returned to La Spezia on 4 June. Trento started a much more ambitious cruise the following month, departing Italian waters on 23 July, bound for South America. Over the following three months, she visited Cape Verde, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Bahía Blanca, Las Palmas, and Tangiers, before arriving back in Italy on 10 October. While on the way back, British aircraft attacked the Italian cruisers without success. On 21 October, Trento was moved to Taranto, and she was present in the harbor on the night of 11–12 November, when the British raided the port. During the attack, a single bomb hit the ship, though it failed to explode. It nevertheless damaged the forward 100 mm mount on the port side. in an attempt to intercept another convoy to Malta. The following morning, a reconnaissance floatplane from Bolzano located the British squadron. Shortly after 12:00, Italian reconnaissance reports informed the Italian fleet commander, Vice Admiral Inigo Campioni of the strength of the British fleet, and so he ordered his ships to disengage. By this time, Trento and the other heavy cruisers had already begun engaging their British counterparts in the Battle of Cape Spartivento, and had scored two hits on the cruiser , the second of which is credited to either Trieste or Trento. The battlecruiser intervened to protect the British cruisers, which forced Campioni to commit the battleship Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto to the battle. This in turn forced the British cruisers to break off the action, allowing both sides to disengage.

The 3rd Division escorted another convoy to North Africa on 12–13 March 1941. Two weeks later, on 27 March, the division—at this time commanded by Rear Admiral Luigi Sansonetti—sortied with the rest of the fleet for a major sweep toward the island of Crete. At 06:55 on the 28th, an IMAM Ro.43 floatplane launched by Vittorio Veneto located a British cruiser squadron, and by 07:55, Trento and the 3rd Division had come within visual range. Seventeen minutes later, the Italian cruisers opened fire from a range of , initiating the first phase of the Battle of Cape Matapan; in the span of the next forty minutes, Trento fired a total of 204 armor piercing shells, though trouble with her rangefinders and the extreme range of the action prevented her from scoring any significant hits. At 08:55, the Italian fleet commander, Vice Admiral Angelo Iachino instructed Sansonetti to break off the action with the British cruisers and turn northwest, to lure the British vessels into range for Vittorio Veneto. By about 11:00, Vittorio Veneto had closed the distance enough to open fire, prompting Sansonetti to turn his three cruisers back to join the fight. The 6 inch gun armed British cruisers were outmatched both by the Italian heavy cruisers and Vittorio Veneto, and they quickly reversed course. While the two sides were still maneuvering, a group of British torpedo bombers from Crete arrived and unsuccessfully attacked Trento and the rest of her division shortly after 12:00. Further attacks from the aircraft carrier convinced Iachino to break off the action and withdraw at 12:20. Later in the day, Vittorio Veneto and Pola were torpedoed by British aircraft, the latter left immobilized. Trento, Trieste, and Bolzano were also attacked by aircraft, but they escaped without damage. Trento reached Taranto in company with the damaged Vittorio Veneto at 15:30 the following day. In the meantime, Pola and two other Zara class cruisers were destroyed in the night action with British battleships late on the 28th.

Trento moved to La Spezia on 6 May for an extensive overhaul that lasted until 5 August, at which point she returned to Messina. She took part in the Duisburg convoy on 8–9 November along with Trieste, the two ships serving as the convoy's covering force. The convoy was attacked by British warships in the early hours of 9 November, though the covering force failed to intervene and the convoy was destroyed. Another convoy followed on 21 November, and during the crossing Trento helped to defend against a British air attack. Less than a month later, on 16 December, Trento joined most of the other heavy units of the fleet to escort two large convoys to Benghazi and Tripoli. The following day, the fleet encountered British forces covering a merchant ship steaming to Malta, leading to the inconclusive First Battle of Sirte. On 22 March 1942, Trento joined the battleship Italian battleship Littorio, the cruisers Italian cruiser Gorizia and Italian cruiser Giovanni delle Bande Nere, and several destroyers in an attempt to intercept a British convoy. In the Second Battle of Sirte, the four ships attacked Convoy MW10, but the British escorts—four light cruisers and eighteen destroyers—prevented the Italians from attacking the merchant ships. According to some sources, Trento scored a hit on the destroyer in this action, inflicting heavy damage. Two Italian destroyers, Italian destroyer Lanciere and Italian destroyer Scirocco, foundered in heavy weather after the battle; Trento attempted to come to their aid, but they sank before she could reach them. On 18 October 1946, the postwar Italian Navy formally struck Trento from the naval register.