Kingdom of Italy, 1937
Kingdom of Italy
Government Type: Constitutional Monarchy (On Paper), Single Party Fascist Dictatorship (Reality)
Head of State: King Victor Emmanuel IV [1]
Head of Government: Adriano Lucciano [2]
Power Status: Great Power
Population: 46,359,495 (1937 Projected)
Minister of War: Mariano Orfeo [3]
Minister of Navy: Luca Tullio
Minister of Air: Filippo Bernardino
Chief of the General Staff: Generale Fabrizio Porfirio
Conscription:
Since the rise of the National Fascist Party the Italian military has undergoing a major reworking on every level, and conscription is no different. Italy has when to having a smaller army than a nation of her size would normally have in the past however they have made up for this by having a large pool of reservist to draw from in the event of a major war. Every Italian male in Italy and the colonies[4] is called up for service with the Italian Military between the ages of 21 through 24. There are ways out of this such as going into the priesthood, being a promising student at university in the hard sciences, or a few others. However, its viewed that if they are performing duties such as being a priest or are a promising student in the hard sciences they are doing a duty for their nation far greater than wearing the uniform.
For those who don’t fall into these limited exemptions are called up for a six months training period at a minimum. This is for the army only. Those going into the navy and air force have to serve a minimum of 30 months. In the army though its six months training minimum. Following that six months they either go on for further training if they go on to other jobs beside the infantry or report to a line unit if they are staying on active duty. If not they go into the reserve system where they have to perform a one week training session once a year till they reach the age of 40. These training sessions are held between April and October. For those in the air force and naval reserves it’s a two week drill system instead of the single week drills of the army.
Army
Army Chief of Staff: Generale Felice Gregorio
Unit Strength:
18 Infantry Divisions[5], 6 Alpini Divisions, 3 Infantry Motorized Divisions, 1 Airborne Division
Equipment:
Small Arms
Following what could only be called a cluster fuck in the Great War the Italian ordnance department was forced to make some hard calls. One was damn near everything fielded by Italy in the war was already obsolete. Notably the 6.5 x 52 mm rifle round was badly obsolete in the face of modern spitzer bullets. Unlike most other nations instead of making their main rifle cartridge smaller they increased the size of their rifle cartridge to a 7.35 x 51 mm round. For this new round, they also wanted a semi-automatic rifle. After years of testing they ended up with the M1934[6]. The M1934 is a well design rifle however if one looked at it they would assume it was crude[7]. Even through it looks crude and unfinished the rifle itself handles well and is liked by the troops who are lucky enough to have it as their service weapon. At current rates every rifleman will not be issued with the M1934 till 1940.
However, for Italy they needed more fixes than a better rifle which they got in the M1934 or better ammo. They also saw that they needed to simplify their logistics. Italy had a host of different pistol rounds in service and it created logistical headaches with the need to supply all these rounds to combat troops. After testing in the mid 1920s they decided to adopt the German 9 mm Parabellum round for their new pistol round. This started a design contest for new submachine guns and pistols in 9 mm Para. The first to be fielded was the M1933 Pistol[8]. The M1933 was a break from past Italian pistol design as its not a simple blowback design as the powerful 9 mm Para round was too much for a simple pistol operated blowback. It is a short recoil operated system but one that performs nicely. Then in 1935 they fielded a new submachine gun the M1935[9]. Both the M1933 and M1935 are well performing weapons and liked by the troops that are issued them. The main problem through is there aren’t enough of these to go around at the moment and at current rates of production there will not be enough till the early 1940s.
Once of the first goals that came out of Italian Ordnance in the aftermath of the Great War was the need for a new belt fed machine gun. After testing four different domestic designs in the early 1930s in their new 7.35 mm round, the Italian Ordnance department rejected every one of them. None of them worked all that well and two of them needed oiling pads. In 1936 the Italians adopted the German MG-35 as their general use machine gun but chambered in their 7.35 mm cartridge. This was part of a wider deal with Germany for aircraft engine licensing rights at discounted prices for allowing Germany use of Tobruk as a submarine base and naval resupply port for the next 25 years at a low rent fee[10].
Infantry Support Weapons
In 1932 the Italian Army adopted a new hand grenade which was design to replace the mess of different hand grenades that was in service prior the Mod 32[11] entering service. In terms of mortars the Italians brought the license to make the Italian 60 and 81 mm mortars after their early efforts to make new mortars proved to be either too complicated and costly or just flat out didn’t work as designed. Yet once they got the plans to the French mortars they made a series of improvement[12] to them and when back to the table with France and gave the French the improvements for the French reducing the license fee the Italians had to pay for every mortar they made. Learning from the lessons of the Great War the Italians have also designed a flamethrower to help clear out pillboxes and other harden targets to reduce the cost in lives. The Lanciafiamme Modello 36[13] has only been fielded in the past year and still only in service with the elite Alpini and Airborne units, and even there they have yet to get their full TO&E of them.
Artillery
In the aftermath of the Great War Italy had a mess of artillery in service. They had British, French, German, and their own designs all in service and it was a logistical nightmare. Further they had a number of artillery pieces which lacked modern recoil systems which meant that after every shot they had to be relaid so they could hit the target again. They even had a large number of black powder weapons still in service and in use or taken out of storage so they could be used. The Italian Army knew they had to fix this but funding proved to be a challenge at first. They modernized and tried to streamline the artillery in used but to get a standardized system in place like they wanted they would have to build their own.
For Italy it wasn’t till the early 1930s that they started to field new domestic artillery systems to replace the large assortment of designs then in service. Further the Italian Government made it clear to the industrial giants in Italy they had to be able to meet Italian domestic needs prior to selling guns on to foreign buyers. This forced Italian industry to expand its abilities. The first newly designed piece fielded by the Italian Army is the Obice da 75/18 modello 32[14]. The Obice da 75/18 is designed as a mountain artillery piece but can be used as a light howitzer as well. The gun is well liked on the international arms market which has increased Italian foreign currency reserves however with the laws of the land the Italian Army has enough for their own uses as well even through they haven’t fully replaced older mountain howitzers yet. This was followed by another new 75 mm piece the Cannone da 75/32 modello 34[15]. The latest new artillery piece fielded by Italy is the Obice da 149/19 modello 36[16]. Even with the expanded production lines its not projected that the Italian Army will be fully equipped with new all Italian made artillery till sometime in the mid to late 1940s. This isn’t accounting for Italian 105 mm howitzer and field gun projects that are currently in the works at the moment.
For anti-armor use the Italians have simply retasked the Cannone da 65/17 modello 13 for use as an anti-armor gun. As it’s a gun that has been retasked for a different role its not the biggest built from the ground up anti-goliath gun in service but it is the biggest one in the service anywhere. They did this by designing what they call the Effetto Pronto round. However because of the size of the gun it gives Italian anti-goliath units something that no other anti-goliath units have an effective HE round. For their anti-air missions they make use of an effective 20 mm anti-aircraft cannon and a 90 mm gun.
Light Goliaths
L7/36 (Fiat L6/40, but an all welded design)
Weight: 6.9 t
Crew: 2 (Commander, Driver)
Armor: up to 40 mm
Main Armament: 20 mm Autocannon (A Model), Flamethrower (B Model)
Secondary Armament: 2 x 7.35 mm Machine Guns
Engine: Inline Four Cylinder, Liquid Cooled
Operational Range: 150 km
Speed: 44 km/h
Air Force
Air Force Chief of Staff: Generale Antonio Romilda
Aircraft Strength:
1,800 Front Line Aircraft
Equipment:
Fighter
C-58 (Fiat G-50, more powerful engine)
Crew: 1
Powerplant: 14 cylinder, radical
Top Speed: 513 km/h
Range: 500 km
Service Ceiling: 10,500 m
Armament: 2 x 13.2 mm machine guns and up to 100 kg of ordnance
Entered Service: 1935
CR-53 (Fiat CR.42)
Crew: 1
Powerplant: 14 cylinder radical
Speed: 445 km/h
Range: 750 km
Service Ceiling: 10,300 m
Armament: 4 x 7.35 mm machine guns
Entered Service: 1933
Close Air Support
AT-37 (Northrop A-17)
Crew: 2 (Pilot and Gunner)
Powerplant: 14 cylinder radical
Speed: 359 km/h
Range: 700 km
Service Ceiling: 6,000 m
Armament: 3 x 7.35 mm machine guns, and up to 600 kg of ordnance
Entered Service: 1934
Tactical Bombers
BT-29 (Savoia-Marchetti SM.79)
Crew: 6 (Pilot, Co-Pilot, Flight Engineer/Gunner, Radio Operator, Bombardier, Gunner)
Powerplant: 3 x 14 cylinder radicals
Speed: 468 km/h
Range: 2,500 km
Service Ceiling: 7,700 m
Armament: 2 x 13.2 mm Machine Guns, 2 x 7.35 mm Machine Guns, and up to 1,200 kg of ordnance
Entered Service: 1937
Navy
Chief of Naval Operations: Ammiraglio Vittore Marciano
Total Strength:
When the Treaty System Broke in 1934 [16]
4 Pre-Colossus Battleships, 55,000 tonnage
1 Armored Cruiser, 10,800 tonnage
7 Colossus Battleships, 208,600 tonnage
Total Capital Ship Tonnage of 274,400, against a limit of 330,000 Tonnage
1 Light Aircraft Carrier, 14,100 tonnage (Built after the loophole was closed)
Total Aircraft Carrier Tonnage of 14,100, against a limit of 150,000 Tonnage
Active
7 Colossus Battleships
3 Light Aircraft Carriers
7 Heavy Cruisers
10 Light Cruisers
48 Destroyers
62 Submarines (Various, but mostly Littoral Boats)
Pre-Commission Work Ups/Fitting Out/Slip Way/Laid Down/Ordered
2 Colossus Battleships
1 Light Aircraft Carrier
2 Heavy Cruisers
4 Light Cruisers
8 Destroyers
12 Submarines (Various, but mostly Littoral Boats)
Reserves
3 Pre-Colossus Battleships
2 Armored Cruisers
2 Protected Cruisers
3 Destroyers
5 Submarines (Various)
Ship Overview (Cap Ships and Carriers)
Pre-Colossus Class Battleships
Vittorio Emanuele Class Battleships, reserves
13,900 tons displacement, coal fired boilers, triple expansion steam engines, 22 knots, 2 x 305 mm L/40s in single turrets, 12 x 203 mm L/45s in twin turrets, 16 x 76 mm L/40s casemate
RN Vittorio Emanuele
RN Regina Elena
RN Napoli
Colossus Class Battleships
Conte di Cavour Class Battleships
23,100 tons displacement, oil spray coal fired boilers, turbine driven, 21.5 knots, 13 x 305 mm L/46s in triple/twin turrets (Superfiring), 18 x 120 mm L/50s casemate, 14 x 76 mm Guns in single mounts
RN Conte di Cavour
RN Leonardo da Vinci
Andrea Doria Class Battleships
24,800 tons displacement, oil spray coal fired boilers, turbine driven, 21.5 knots, 12 x 305 mm L/46s in triple/twin turrets (Superfiring), 16 x 152 mm L/40s casemate, 18 x 76 mm Gins in single mounts
RN Andrea Doria
RN Caio Duilio
Cristoforo Colombo Class Battleship
34,000 tons displacement, oil fired boilers, turbine driven, 25 knots, 8 x 381/40s in twin turrets (Superfiring), 12 x 152 mm L/40s in casemates, 12 x 76mm Guns
RN Cristoforo Colombo
Giulio Cesare Class Battleships
37,800 tons displacement, oil fired boilers, turbine driven, 30 knots, 9 x 381 mm L/50s in triple turrets (Superfiring, Forward), 16 x 120 mm L/45s in Twin Turrets, 8 x 90 mm AA Guns
RN Giulio Cesare
Roma Class Battleships
41,000 tons displacement, oil fired boilers, turbine driven, 30 knots, 9 x 381 mm L/50s in triple turrets (Superfiring, Forward), 12 x 152 mm L/55 in triple turrets, 12 x 90 mm AA Guns
RN Roma
Giuseppe Garibaldi, Fitting Out
Dante Alighieri, Slip Way
Armored Cruisers
San Giorgio Class, Reserves
10,800 tons displacement, coal fired boilers, vertical triple expansion engines, 23 knots, 4 x 254 mm L/45s in twin turrets, 8 x 191 mm L/45s in twin turrets, 18 x 76 mm Guns
RN San Giorgio
RN San Marco
Light Aircraft Carriers
Alberto da Giussano Class Light Aircraft Carriers
13,400 tons displacement, diesel engine, 26 knots, 6 x 120 mm L/50s in twin turrets, 8 x 20 mm Autocannons, Twin Mount, 24 Aircraft
RN Alberto da Giussano
RN Alberico da Barbiano
Bartolomeo Colleoni Class Light Aircraft Carriers
14,100 tons displacement, oil fired boilers, turbine driven, 32 knots, 6 x 120 mm L/50s in twin turrets, 8 x 20 mm Autocannons, Twin Mount, 25 Aircraft
RM Bartolomeo Colleoni
Giovanni dalle Bande Nere Class Light Aircraft Carriers
14,550 tons displacement, oil fired boilers, turbine driven, 33 knots , 6 x 120 mm L/50s in twin turrets, 8 x 20 mm Autocannons, Twin Mounts, 24 Aircraft
Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, Slip way
[1] ITL Son of Victor Emmanuel the Third. Took over after his father abdication in 1919. Is widely accredited with saving the monarchy in Italy. The king is in his late 30s and is unwed at the current moment as he is working with Adriano Lucciano to rebuild Italy, and they have done a fairly good job at it.
[2] A cross between Italo Balbo and Benito Mussolini. Has Mussolini speaking abilities but the competence and ability of Balbo at running a government. Further he doesn’t suffer fools lightly either.
[3] Honestly there aren’t really any good people to base Italian political figures on from this time frame in OTL. But with Lucciano at the helm these guys are at least competent. Some honestly are fairly good.
[4] Some are starting to view the coaster areas in Libya as part of Italy proper as the Fourth Shore thing is taking off ITL. But officially Libya is still a colony.
[5] Unlike OTL Italian Divisions are three regiments with a bigger tail than OTL. But when to put up say a German division, its still on the smaller side of world divisions.
[6] Gewehr 43 but in 7.35 Italian.
[7] They are taking some parts straight from the forge and are using them as is and gives the Italian rifle a rough look. However, the parts that needed to be machined are and done well generally. This is done to make the rifle cheaper and allow there to be more rifles.
[8] Beretta M1951 but not the lightweight frame model. These were built with steel from the word go.
[9] Beretta M1938 Submachine Gun, but somewhat simplified to make them cheaper and easier to make.
[10] Yes ITL Berlin, Paris, and Rome* have formed a united alliance bloc. Each side is scared by the communist, a revenge seeking British Empire, and a hostile Austria Hungary.
* Rome is in need of money to build herself up along with her military so she is selling naval expertise to the Com Block for large amounts of hard money and resources which is how the Italians are able to afford what they have by this point. Otherwise the Italians would be in very rough shape in terms of their military ITL. They don’t like it but they don’t have any other way of getting the money they need to maintain what they have or build new weapons to keep up. Berlin is getting some wind of this and they aren’t too happy about it. Yet they know Italy isn’t going to break away from them like in 1914 for one key reason, Austria-Hungary is allied with the British. Further the Italians KNOW if they pull another stunt like they did in the Great War they will never be trusted again and will be the bastard child in the world stage without allies.
[11] SRCM Mod. 35
[12] Mortaio da 81/14 Modello 35
[13] Its an upgraded of the German Wechselappart and it works.
[14] Obice da 75/18 modello 34, but with the ability to mount tires that allow for it to be pulled by motorized transport. It really depends on which units if they have more modern rubber tires or older fashion wheels. This is a trait in all new Italian Artillery ITL so just assume this with everything that follows with Italian Artillery.
[15] Cannone da 75/32 modello 37
[16] Obice da 149/19 modello 37
[17] Even through I didn’t write this up in the update that dealt with the naval treaty system failing, Italy was going into London in 34 to get itself the rights to build two capital ships at time. I’m doing the excel spreadsheets as I go on tonnage and found Italy was well under it’s 330,000 capital ship limits and had a few ships that were due to be scrapped in 34 because simply they were horribly outdated and of no value. Had I seen that I would put in that update. Soon after the treaty broke they send a pre-Colossus BB and an ACR to the breaker yards. That ACR that when to the breaker yards was one of the ships that was in the reserve part of the treaty. That said the treaty system still failed so its really dust in the wind.
Government Type: Constitutional Monarchy (On Paper), Single Party Fascist Dictatorship (Reality)
Head of State: King Victor Emmanuel IV [1]
Head of Government: Adriano Lucciano [2]
Power Status: Great Power
Population: 46,359,495 (1937 Projected)
Minister of War: Mariano Orfeo [3]
Minister of Navy: Luca Tullio
Minister of Air: Filippo Bernardino
Chief of the General Staff: Generale Fabrizio Porfirio
Conscription:
Since the rise of the National Fascist Party the Italian military has undergoing a major reworking on every level, and conscription is no different. Italy has when to having a smaller army than a nation of her size would normally have in the past however they have made up for this by having a large pool of reservist to draw from in the event of a major war. Every Italian male in Italy and the colonies[4] is called up for service with the Italian Military between the ages of 21 through 24. There are ways out of this such as going into the priesthood, being a promising student at university in the hard sciences, or a few others. However, its viewed that if they are performing duties such as being a priest or are a promising student in the hard sciences they are doing a duty for their nation far greater than wearing the uniform.
For those who don’t fall into these limited exemptions are called up for a six months training period at a minimum. This is for the army only. Those going into the navy and air force have to serve a minimum of 30 months. In the army though its six months training minimum. Following that six months they either go on for further training if they go on to other jobs beside the infantry or report to a line unit if they are staying on active duty. If not they go into the reserve system where they have to perform a one week training session once a year till they reach the age of 40. These training sessions are held between April and October. For those in the air force and naval reserves it’s a two week drill system instead of the single week drills of the army.
Army
Army Chief of Staff: Generale Felice Gregorio
Unit Strength:
18 Infantry Divisions[5], 6 Alpini Divisions, 3 Infantry Motorized Divisions, 1 Airborne Division
Equipment:
Small Arms
Following what could only be called a cluster fuck in the Great War the Italian ordnance department was forced to make some hard calls. One was damn near everything fielded by Italy in the war was already obsolete. Notably the 6.5 x 52 mm rifle round was badly obsolete in the face of modern spitzer bullets. Unlike most other nations instead of making their main rifle cartridge smaller they increased the size of their rifle cartridge to a 7.35 x 51 mm round. For this new round, they also wanted a semi-automatic rifle. After years of testing they ended up with the M1934[6]. The M1934 is a well design rifle however if one looked at it they would assume it was crude[7]. Even through it looks crude and unfinished the rifle itself handles well and is liked by the troops who are lucky enough to have it as their service weapon. At current rates every rifleman will not be issued with the M1934 till 1940.
However, for Italy they needed more fixes than a better rifle which they got in the M1934 or better ammo. They also saw that they needed to simplify their logistics. Italy had a host of different pistol rounds in service and it created logistical headaches with the need to supply all these rounds to combat troops. After testing in the mid 1920s they decided to adopt the German 9 mm Parabellum round for their new pistol round. This started a design contest for new submachine guns and pistols in 9 mm Para. The first to be fielded was the M1933 Pistol[8]. The M1933 was a break from past Italian pistol design as its not a simple blowback design as the powerful 9 mm Para round was too much for a simple pistol operated blowback. It is a short recoil operated system but one that performs nicely. Then in 1935 they fielded a new submachine gun the M1935[9]. Both the M1933 and M1935 are well performing weapons and liked by the troops that are issued them. The main problem through is there aren’t enough of these to go around at the moment and at current rates of production there will not be enough till the early 1940s.
Once of the first goals that came out of Italian Ordnance in the aftermath of the Great War was the need for a new belt fed machine gun. After testing four different domestic designs in the early 1930s in their new 7.35 mm round, the Italian Ordnance department rejected every one of them. None of them worked all that well and two of them needed oiling pads. In 1936 the Italians adopted the German MG-35 as their general use machine gun but chambered in their 7.35 mm cartridge. This was part of a wider deal with Germany for aircraft engine licensing rights at discounted prices for allowing Germany use of Tobruk as a submarine base and naval resupply port for the next 25 years at a low rent fee[10].
Infantry Support Weapons
In 1932 the Italian Army adopted a new hand grenade which was design to replace the mess of different hand grenades that was in service prior the Mod 32[11] entering service. In terms of mortars the Italians brought the license to make the Italian 60 and 81 mm mortars after their early efforts to make new mortars proved to be either too complicated and costly or just flat out didn’t work as designed. Yet once they got the plans to the French mortars they made a series of improvement[12] to them and when back to the table with France and gave the French the improvements for the French reducing the license fee the Italians had to pay for every mortar they made. Learning from the lessons of the Great War the Italians have also designed a flamethrower to help clear out pillboxes and other harden targets to reduce the cost in lives. The Lanciafiamme Modello 36[13] has only been fielded in the past year and still only in service with the elite Alpini and Airborne units, and even there they have yet to get their full TO&E of them.
Artillery
In the aftermath of the Great War Italy had a mess of artillery in service. They had British, French, German, and their own designs all in service and it was a logistical nightmare. Further they had a number of artillery pieces which lacked modern recoil systems which meant that after every shot they had to be relaid so they could hit the target again. They even had a large number of black powder weapons still in service and in use or taken out of storage so they could be used. The Italian Army knew they had to fix this but funding proved to be a challenge at first. They modernized and tried to streamline the artillery in used but to get a standardized system in place like they wanted they would have to build their own.
For Italy it wasn’t till the early 1930s that they started to field new domestic artillery systems to replace the large assortment of designs then in service. Further the Italian Government made it clear to the industrial giants in Italy they had to be able to meet Italian domestic needs prior to selling guns on to foreign buyers. This forced Italian industry to expand its abilities. The first newly designed piece fielded by the Italian Army is the Obice da 75/18 modello 32[14]. The Obice da 75/18 is designed as a mountain artillery piece but can be used as a light howitzer as well. The gun is well liked on the international arms market which has increased Italian foreign currency reserves however with the laws of the land the Italian Army has enough for their own uses as well even through they haven’t fully replaced older mountain howitzers yet. This was followed by another new 75 mm piece the Cannone da 75/32 modello 34[15]. The latest new artillery piece fielded by Italy is the Obice da 149/19 modello 36[16]. Even with the expanded production lines its not projected that the Italian Army will be fully equipped with new all Italian made artillery till sometime in the mid to late 1940s. This isn’t accounting for Italian 105 mm howitzer and field gun projects that are currently in the works at the moment.
For anti-armor use the Italians have simply retasked the Cannone da 65/17 modello 13 for use as an anti-armor gun. As it’s a gun that has been retasked for a different role its not the biggest built from the ground up anti-goliath gun in service but it is the biggest one in the service anywhere. They did this by designing what they call the Effetto Pronto round. However because of the size of the gun it gives Italian anti-goliath units something that no other anti-goliath units have an effective HE round. For their anti-air missions they make use of an effective 20 mm anti-aircraft cannon and a 90 mm gun.
Light Goliaths
L7/36 (Fiat L6/40, but an all welded design)
Weight: 6.9 t
Crew: 2 (Commander, Driver)
Armor: up to 40 mm
Main Armament: 20 mm Autocannon (A Model), Flamethrower (B Model)
Secondary Armament: 2 x 7.35 mm Machine Guns
Engine: Inline Four Cylinder, Liquid Cooled
Operational Range: 150 km
Speed: 44 km/h
Air Force
Air Force Chief of Staff: Generale Antonio Romilda
Aircraft Strength:
1,800 Front Line Aircraft
Equipment:
Fighter
C-58 (Fiat G-50, more powerful engine)
Crew: 1
Powerplant: 14 cylinder, radical
Top Speed: 513 km/h
Range: 500 km
Service Ceiling: 10,500 m
Armament: 2 x 13.2 mm machine guns and up to 100 kg of ordnance
Entered Service: 1935
CR-53 (Fiat CR.42)
Crew: 1
Powerplant: 14 cylinder radical
Speed: 445 km/h
Range: 750 km
Service Ceiling: 10,300 m
Armament: 4 x 7.35 mm machine guns
Entered Service: 1933
Close Air Support
AT-37 (Northrop A-17)
Crew: 2 (Pilot and Gunner)
Powerplant: 14 cylinder radical
Speed: 359 km/h
Range: 700 km
Service Ceiling: 6,000 m
Armament: 3 x 7.35 mm machine guns, and up to 600 kg of ordnance
Entered Service: 1934
Tactical Bombers
BT-29 (Savoia-Marchetti SM.79)
Crew: 6 (Pilot, Co-Pilot, Flight Engineer/Gunner, Radio Operator, Bombardier, Gunner)
Powerplant: 3 x 14 cylinder radicals
Speed: 468 km/h
Range: 2,500 km
Service Ceiling: 7,700 m
Armament: 2 x 13.2 mm Machine Guns, 2 x 7.35 mm Machine Guns, and up to 1,200 kg of ordnance
Entered Service: 1937
Navy
Chief of Naval Operations: Ammiraglio Vittore Marciano
Total Strength:
When the Treaty System Broke in 1934 [16]
4 Pre-Colossus Battleships, 55,000 tonnage
1 Armored Cruiser, 10,800 tonnage
7 Colossus Battleships, 208,600 tonnage
Total Capital Ship Tonnage of 274,400, against a limit of 330,000 Tonnage
1 Light Aircraft Carrier, 14,100 tonnage (Built after the loophole was closed)
Total Aircraft Carrier Tonnage of 14,100, against a limit of 150,000 Tonnage
Active
7 Colossus Battleships
3 Light Aircraft Carriers
7 Heavy Cruisers
10 Light Cruisers
48 Destroyers
62 Submarines (Various, but mostly Littoral Boats)
Pre-Commission Work Ups/Fitting Out/Slip Way/Laid Down/Ordered
2 Colossus Battleships
1 Light Aircraft Carrier
2 Heavy Cruisers
4 Light Cruisers
8 Destroyers
12 Submarines (Various, but mostly Littoral Boats)
Reserves
3 Pre-Colossus Battleships
2 Armored Cruisers
2 Protected Cruisers
3 Destroyers
5 Submarines (Various)
Ship Overview (Cap Ships and Carriers)
Pre-Colossus Class Battleships
Vittorio Emanuele Class Battleships, reserves
13,900 tons displacement, coal fired boilers, triple expansion steam engines, 22 knots, 2 x 305 mm L/40s in single turrets, 12 x 203 mm L/45s in twin turrets, 16 x 76 mm L/40s casemate
RN Vittorio Emanuele
RN Regina Elena
RN Napoli
Colossus Class Battleships
Conte di Cavour Class Battleships
23,100 tons displacement, oil spray coal fired boilers, turbine driven, 21.5 knots, 13 x 305 mm L/46s in triple/twin turrets (Superfiring), 18 x 120 mm L/50s casemate, 14 x 76 mm Guns in single mounts
RN Conte di Cavour
RN Leonardo da Vinci
Andrea Doria Class Battleships
24,800 tons displacement, oil spray coal fired boilers, turbine driven, 21.5 knots, 12 x 305 mm L/46s in triple/twin turrets (Superfiring), 16 x 152 mm L/40s casemate, 18 x 76 mm Gins in single mounts
RN Andrea Doria
RN Caio Duilio
Cristoforo Colombo Class Battleship
34,000 tons displacement, oil fired boilers, turbine driven, 25 knots, 8 x 381/40s in twin turrets (Superfiring), 12 x 152 mm L/40s in casemates, 12 x 76mm Guns
RN Cristoforo Colombo
Giulio Cesare Class Battleships
37,800 tons displacement, oil fired boilers, turbine driven, 30 knots, 9 x 381 mm L/50s in triple turrets (Superfiring, Forward), 16 x 120 mm L/45s in Twin Turrets, 8 x 90 mm AA Guns
RN Giulio Cesare
Roma Class Battleships
41,000 tons displacement, oil fired boilers, turbine driven, 30 knots, 9 x 381 mm L/50s in triple turrets (Superfiring, Forward), 12 x 152 mm L/55 in triple turrets, 12 x 90 mm AA Guns
RN Roma
Giuseppe Garibaldi, Fitting Out
Dante Alighieri, Slip Way
Armored Cruisers
San Giorgio Class, Reserves
10,800 tons displacement, coal fired boilers, vertical triple expansion engines, 23 knots, 4 x 254 mm L/45s in twin turrets, 8 x 191 mm L/45s in twin turrets, 18 x 76 mm Guns
RN San Giorgio
RN San Marco
Light Aircraft Carriers
Alberto da Giussano Class Light Aircraft Carriers
13,400 tons displacement, diesel engine, 26 knots, 6 x 120 mm L/50s in twin turrets, 8 x 20 mm Autocannons, Twin Mount, 24 Aircraft
RN Alberto da Giussano
RN Alberico da Barbiano
Bartolomeo Colleoni Class Light Aircraft Carriers
14,100 tons displacement, oil fired boilers, turbine driven, 32 knots, 6 x 120 mm L/50s in twin turrets, 8 x 20 mm Autocannons, Twin Mount, 25 Aircraft
RM Bartolomeo Colleoni
Giovanni dalle Bande Nere Class Light Aircraft Carriers
14,550 tons displacement, oil fired boilers, turbine driven, 33 knots , 6 x 120 mm L/50s in twin turrets, 8 x 20 mm Autocannons, Twin Mounts, 24 Aircraft
Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, Slip way
[1] ITL Son of Victor Emmanuel the Third. Took over after his father abdication in 1919. Is widely accredited with saving the monarchy in Italy. The king is in his late 30s and is unwed at the current moment as he is working with Adriano Lucciano to rebuild Italy, and they have done a fairly good job at it.
[2] A cross between Italo Balbo and Benito Mussolini. Has Mussolini speaking abilities but the competence and ability of Balbo at running a government. Further he doesn’t suffer fools lightly either.
[3] Honestly there aren’t really any good people to base Italian political figures on from this time frame in OTL. But with Lucciano at the helm these guys are at least competent. Some honestly are fairly good.
[4] Some are starting to view the coaster areas in Libya as part of Italy proper as the Fourth Shore thing is taking off ITL. But officially Libya is still a colony.
[5] Unlike OTL Italian Divisions are three regiments with a bigger tail than OTL. But when to put up say a German division, its still on the smaller side of world divisions.
[6] Gewehr 43 but in 7.35 Italian.
[7] They are taking some parts straight from the forge and are using them as is and gives the Italian rifle a rough look. However, the parts that needed to be machined are and done well generally. This is done to make the rifle cheaper and allow there to be more rifles.
[8] Beretta M1951 but not the lightweight frame model. These were built with steel from the word go.
[9] Beretta M1938 Submachine Gun, but somewhat simplified to make them cheaper and easier to make.
[10] Yes ITL Berlin, Paris, and Rome* have formed a united alliance bloc. Each side is scared by the communist, a revenge seeking British Empire, and a hostile Austria Hungary.
* Rome is in need of money to build herself up along with her military so she is selling naval expertise to the Com Block for large amounts of hard money and resources which is how the Italians are able to afford what they have by this point. Otherwise the Italians would be in very rough shape in terms of their military ITL. They don’t like it but they don’t have any other way of getting the money they need to maintain what they have or build new weapons to keep up. Berlin is getting some wind of this and they aren’t too happy about it. Yet they know Italy isn’t going to break away from them like in 1914 for one key reason, Austria-Hungary is allied with the British. Further the Italians KNOW if they pull another stunt like they did in the Great War they will never be trusted again and will be the bastard child in the world stage without allies.
[11] SRCM Mod. 35
[12] Mortaio da 81/14 Modello 35
[13] Its an upgraded of the German Wechselappart and it works.
[14] Obice da 75/18 modello 34, but with the ability to mount tires that allow for it to be pulled by motorized transport. It really depends on which units if they have more modern rubber tires or older fashion wheels. This is a trait in all new Italian Artillery ITL so just assume this with everything that follows with Italian Artillery.
[15] Cannone da 75/32 modello 37
[16] Obice da 149/19 modello 37
[17] Even through I didn’t write this up in the update that dealt with the naval treaty system failing, Italy was going into London in 34 to get itself the rights to build two capital ships at time. I’m doing the excel spreadsheets as I go on tonnage and found Italy was well under it’s 330,000 capital ship limits and had a few ships that were due to be scrapped in 34 because simply they were horribly outdated and of no value. Had I seen that I would put in that update. Soon after the treaty broke they send a pre-Colossus BB and an ACR to the breaker yards. That ACR that when to the breaker yards was one of the ships that was in the reserve part of the treaty. That said the treaty system still failed so its really dust in the wind.
and nothing like giving away your position but don't think it would be good to be on the receiving end either