RN Vittorio Veneto - Italy’s Best Battleship

Vittorio Veneto is an interesting ship. The second of her class- or the first, depending on the source. And arguably the luckiest of the bunch. She avoided damage at Taranto. And wasn't hit by a Fritz X on the way to surrender.

She *was* torpedoed a couple times, but even this damage was quickly repaired. And as a result, Vittorio Veneto would be the most active of Italy's battleships. Even if she missed most of her chances at direct ship to ship combat.

But, well, that's just the Mediterranean Theater in a nutshell.

Either way, Vittorio Veneto would ultimately survive the war. Even if her ultimate fate was to be scrapped, as Italy could not retain her modern battleships.

Further Reading:

[grandadmiralzaarin]

This class has such a beautiful design. Vittorio Veneto gave a good accounting of herself during the war all things considered.

[SeveralWeezelsInaTrenchcoat]

When I was 1 year old my grandpa took me to La Spezia to visit the cruiser Vittorio Veneto, and that’s how my ships obsection started; also fun fact the cruiser had the bell from the battleship which is now preserved in the naval museum of La Spezia

[Leptospirosi]

One correction: the 90mm platform was not bad per se and worked fine on the Littorio class. The main problems came from the Duilio class, where, being mounted much lower on the ship, they became often wet, with water infiltrating under the rubber skirts and the stabilyzing platform had to be disabled to avoid shirt circuits in rough sea. One of the Duilio AA turrets can still be seen at the Science and Technology museum in Milan.
It was a very advanced and fast firing weapon, but by 1943 it often had to deal with waves of bombers flying above the maximum ranga as the ships were stayionary in port, like the Dorniers 217 which were dropping their bombs at over 9 km or the liberators waves coming from north Africa bombing from high altitudes.

[OriginalCoalRollers]

Omg Italian Battleships are freaking beautiful

[HeWhoDrivesATruck]

Wow, even just the bare hull sitting on the slip was a thing of beauty. The Italians really knew how to build floating works of art...

[JGCR]

Re the aircraft, these were not floatplanes as usually seen, as you can see at 4:40 but single seat monoplane fighters, the Reggiane 2000 Falco "Catapultabile" variant. The idea was that the Re. 2000s would protect the ship from enemy attack or at least recon planes but they had good range and could serve as scouts as well. However, they had to recover at a land base as they had no way of recovering at their parent ship, however their good range meant that in the med, they could reliably reach a friendly airfield from almost anywhere the ship would operate. Early in their career they carried the usual Ro. 43 floatplane and the catapult fighters were delivered only in 1943 by which time the Re. 2000 was obsolete. Apparently the original plan was to equip those ships with Autogiros that could land on the stern as well, but those never saw service. One of Vittorio Veneto aircraft survives as one of two surviving Re. 2000s

[dennisswaim]

The Italian ships were just beautiful. We allies were fortunate that the axis weren't able to get the most out of them. Thank you, Royal Navy!

[katrinapaton]

I always find it strange that the Germans built two battleships that became famous for doing very little and getting sunk while this class of ship, apart from Roma's destruction by guided munitions, is barely known. It was a shame that their main gun ammunition quality was rubbish, but as a design they could at least match anything in Europe. Perhaps the British were lucky they never got to prove it.

[johnfranciscastilloatienza]

I like the Italian BB Vittorio Veneto because is beautiful

[josephhungerford]

Very interesting ship and so beautiful ship design.

[gildor]

IIRC the torpedo hit by the Albacore hit the propeller-shaft in a similar spot as the one that caused so much damage to Prince of Wales on December 9th. But as Vittorio Veneto was unlike Prince of Wales not under further attack the crew could afford to slow down and take the time to properly inspect the damage and then limped home on the remaining shafts.

[kevinyoung]

Say what you want about the Italians during WW2, they had some of the prettiest warships of the war.

[RemcovandeLangenberg]

Beautiful, powerful looking battlewagon.

[spritbong]

I am surprised that this ship wasn't brought into the Royal Navy, given the loss of Hood, Prince of Wales, Repulse and Barham.

[raigarmullerson]

Whats up bro. Love the content. Cheers from Estonia

[Destoroyah-Edits]

Playing Wows with this ship made me very interested in Italian battleships.
Vittorio Veneto is my favorite Battleship of all time

[RemcovandeLangenberg]

Thank you for this doc. (beautiful pics)

[lucaorlandi]

REGIA MARINA:The Italian fleet was the fourth in the world in 1940, it had the same tonnage of navy like France .The Littorio Class was the backbone of the navy with the 3 huge battleships: Littorio, Vittorio Veneto and Roma(in 1940 they were considered the most powerful battleships in the world like artillery.). The Regia Marina had very great successes with submarines, they fought in fourth different seas:Mediterranean Sea, in the Red Sea, in the Persian Gulf and in the Atlantic Ocean., with 1750 missions and the sinking of 132 merchant ships and 18 military ships, Italy lost 128 submarines of the totaly 172.The X Mas, was a special unit of assault and raid of the Regia Marina, with great success of sinking to the Royal Navy.
Battles won:
First and second battles of Sirte
Operation Harpoon
Operation Pedestal

[kruelunusual]

If they could’ve lined out their powder quality issues, these 15 inch guns would’ve been something to reckon with!

[robertmiller]

Italy always like to make things beautiful……love from New Zealand