Trento was the first of two Trento-class cruisers; 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 70 mm (2.8 in) thick armored belt, though she possessed a high speed and heavy armament of eight 203 mm (8.0 in) 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 early in her career


HistoryKingdom of ItalyNameTrentoNamesakeCity of TrentoBuilderCantiere navale fratelli Orlando, LivornoLaid down8 February 1925Launched4 October 1927Commissioned3 April 1929Stricken18 October 1946FateSunk, 15 June 1942General characteristicsTypeHeavy cruiserDisplacementFull load: 13,334 long tons (13,548 t)Length196.96 m (646 ft 2 in)Beam20.6 m (67 ft 7 in)Draft6.8 m (22 ft 4 in)Installed power




Propulsion4 Parsons turbinesSpeed




Range4,160 nmi (7,700 km; 4,790 mi) at 16 kn (30 km/h; 18 mph)Complement




Armament







Armor






Aircraft carried2 × IMAM Ro.43 seaplanes


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 Beaufighter torpedo bomber and then sunk by the submarine HMS Umbra with very heavy loss of life.


stationed in Messina, once again the flagship of the 3rd Division. The following day, Trento and the rest of the 3rd Division joined the 6th Division for a patrol in the Strait of Sicily, where they laid a minefield. On 8 July, the 3rd Division escorted a convoy to Libya, along with the battleships of the 1st Division; the next day, the returning warships collided with a heavily protected British convoy. In the ensuing Battle of Calabria, Trento engaged British cruisers and was heavily attacked by British aircraft, though she emerged undamaged. A force of 120 Italian aircraft arrived after both fleets had disengaged, and some Italian pilots accidentally attacked Italian vessels, prompting the fleet to paint red stripes on the forecastles of each ship. Another convoy to Libya, which passed without incident, followed on 30 July, with Trento returning to Messina on 1 August. On 31 August, the 3rd Division sortied to intercept the British convoys in Operation Hats, though the Italian fleet broke off the operation without encountering the merchant ships. Trento arrived back in Taranto on 2 September.[5]

Early on the morning of 12 October, Italian destroyers and torpedo boats engaged a pair of British cruisers in the Battle of Cape Passero; one of the destroyers, Artigliere, was badly damaged in the action. Trento, Trieste, and Bolzano were ordered to relieve the Italian light forces at 08:00, though this was far too late to save Artigliere, which was sunk about an hour later.[6] 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.[5]

On 26 November, Trento sortied with the fleet,[7] in an attempt to intercept another convoy to Malta.[8] The following morning, a reconnaissance floatplane from Bolzano located the British squadron.[9] 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 HMS Berwick, the second of which is credited to either Trieste or Trento.[10][11] The battlecruiser HMS Renown intervened to protect the British cruisers, which forced Campioni to commit the battleship Vittorio Veneto to the battle. This in turn forced the British cruisers to break off the action, allowing both sides to disengage.[12]


Battle of Cape Matapan

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.[13][14] 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 24,000 yd (22,000 m), 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.[15][16]

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.[17] Further attacks from the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable convinced Iachino to break off the action and withdraw at 12:20.[18]

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.[19]


Convoy operations and lossEdit


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 Duisberg 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.[13][20] 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 Littorio, the cruisers Gorizia and 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 HMS Kingston in this action, inflicting heavy damage.[21] Two Italian destroyers, Lanciere and Scirocco, foundered in heavy weather after the battle; Trento attempted to come to their aid, but they sank before she could reach them.[13]

On 14 June, Trento left Taranto with Littorio, Vittorio Veneto, Gorizia, and the light cruisers Giuseppe Garibaldi and Emanuele Filiberto Duca d'Aosta to attack the British convoy from Alexandria steaming to Malta in Operation Harpoon. The following morning, while steaming in the Ionian Sea, a British Bristol Beaufighter torpedo-bomber scored a hit on Trento at around 05:00. The torpedo caused a serious fire in the forward boiler rooms, which forced the ship to stop. Some of the escorting destroyers laid a smoke screen to hide the ship from further attacks and tried to tow her back to port, but at 09:10, the British submarine Umbra torpedoed the crippled cruiser. The forward magazines exploded, sinking Trento in a matter of minutes.[13] Her rapid sinking doomed many of her crew, with some 549 men out of a wartime complement of 51 officers and 1,100 enlisted going down with the ship. Among the dead was her commander, Captain Stanislao Esposito. The other Italian warships managed to rescue 602 men, of whom around a third were wounded. Of those, 21 men later died of their wounds.[22] On 18 October 1946, the postwar Italian Navy formally struck Trento from the naval register.[13]