Curtatone Class Torpediniera RN Castelfidardo (1943)

[Conte_Baracca 4,547]

The Curtatone class was the first class of ships built entirely after World War I by the Regia Marina.  They were originally ordered in 1915, but like the preceding Palestro class they were delayed due to material shortages and were not laid down until 1920-1921 and not completed until 1923-1924.  There were four vessels of the class, the RN Calatafimi, RN Castelfidardo, RN Curtatone, and RN Monzambano.  

 

 

Many wartime lessons learned in World War I were incorporated into their design and this significantly altered the arrangement and structure of the armament.  The Curtatone class was the first class of Italian cacciatorpediniere (destroyer) with all of the armament placed along the centerline AND the first to adopt the fore and aft twin gunned turret configuration.  Furthermore the hull was lengthened by approximately 4.5 meters.  Despite the improvements over their predecessors the Curtatone Class still were relatively small vessels and the Regia Marina reclassed them as torpediniere (torpedo boats) in 1938.

 

All four ships served in World War 2 where they served as escort vessels.  The  Curtatone  was lost to Greek mines in 1941.  The  Catelfidardo  and   Calatafimi  were captured by the Germans after the Armistice in 1943 and lost by the Germans, the Castelfidardo  to Allied aircraft in 1944 and the  Calatafimi  to the Greek submarine  Pipinos also in 1944.  The  Monzambano   survived the war and was scrapped in 1951.

 

As built the ships had the following specifications:

Displacement (Full):  1214 tons

Length: 84.7 m

Beam: 8.0 m

Draft: 3.0 m

Machinery:  2 Zoelly Steam Turbines, 4 Thornycroft Boilers generating 22,000 h.p.

Maximum Speed:  32 kts

Armament:  2 X 2 - 102/45 Schneider-Armstrong 1919, 2 x 1 - 76/30 Armstrong 1914, 2 x 3 - 450mm Torpedo Tubes.

Crew:  117

 

The class saw several refits with all ships losing the 3 inch guns and gaining 2 x 1 -  20/70 Scotti-Isotta Fraschini 1939 and 2 x 1 - 8/80 MGs in 1939-1940.  In 1942-43 the surviving ships saw various other armament upgrades with no two ships having the same setup, some ships replaced the double mounts with single mounts, some ships had the triple 450mm TT launchers replaced with twin 533mm TTs.  All had increased AA armament.  

 

For War Thunder I am recommending the RN Castelfidardo  in her 1943 configuration with  2 X 2 - 102/45 Schneider-Armstrong 1919, 2 x 1 -  20/70 Scotti-Isotta Fraschini 1939,  1 X 2 20/65 Breda 1935,  2 x 1 - 8/80 MGs, and 2 x 3 - 450mm Torpedo Tubes.  In this capacity she could serve as a Frigate in the Coastal Tech Tree or even as a Destroyer in the Blue Water Tech Tree.  Her good blend of speed and armament will make her a reasonably good ship in War Thunder.

 

Sources:

https://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/ww2/Italy/italian-destroyers-of-ww2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtatone-class_destroyer

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castelfidardo_(cacciatorpediniere)

http://www.agenziabozzo.it/navi_da_guerra/C-Navi_da_Guerra_2/C-3617_RN_Castelfidardo_1922_cacciatorpediniere_in_navigazione.htm

https://www.marina.difesa.it/noi-siamo-la-marina/mezzi/mezzi-storici/Pagine/ABCD/castelfidardo2.aspx

 

Edited September 29, 2022 by Conte_Baracca

[super_cacti 1,071]

Open for discussion 

[Nicholas_Concu 2,634]

+1 

[Milocat 4,857]

+1, would love to see some more Italian torpedo boats.

[N4CR_ 537]

Great suggestion for coastal.

[OpusAudereSemper 80]

+1 good option needed in coastal