RN Giuseppe Garibaldi: Ballistic Missile Cruiser

The Italian cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi, recipient of one of the wackier rebuilds in history, is the topic of today's video.

When commissioned at the tail-end of the 1930s, it is doubtful that anyone could have imagined what she would end up as. The entire concept would have seemed utterly alien.

Further Reading:

Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
0:58 - Condottieri-class
1:36 - Design
4:22 - WW2 Service
6:49 - Postwar Service
7:16 - Rebuild
11:17 - Ending

[TheArchemman]

Who knew... A warship built in the 1930s for a war she barely participated in. Would end up jump starting European space programs.

[alephalon]

While I will forever salt at the Allies forcing the surviving Littorios into the scrapyard, I do admire the wild ideas that the Italians pulled off with what they retained i.e. put the ballistic missiles on their fastest heavy surface combatant because they couldn't build boomers and the Med isn't great for big submarines, anyway.

[charlesmoss]

I almost fell off my perch when you said Polaris missiles - I didn’t see that coming.

[sprret]

Say what you want about the Italian navy, but damn, their ships are some of the sexiest in the world!

[RayyMusik]

Quite an interesting career for an Italian ship!
‘Degli‘ (Abruzzi) is pronounced ‘delyee‘ btw. But in general your pronunciation of foreign names is pretty good. 👍

[stephenchappell]

A similar comparison is the British HMS Victorious
Built for bi-planes she eventually deployed nuclear strike aircraft by the 1960's

[johnnash]

Polaris main-guns😄🤯 Anyone try to refit their WWII aircraft carriers to handle B-52s, perhaps two end-to-end?😄