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 main battery of eight 203 mm (8 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 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 Beaufort torpedo bomber and then sunk by the submarine HMS Umbra with very heavy loss of life.
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Design
Trento was 196.96 meters (646 ft 2 in) long overall, with a beam of 20.6 m (67 ft 7 in) and a draft of 6.8 m (22 ft 4 in). She displaced 13,334 long tons (13,548 t) at full load, though her displacement was nominally within the 10,000-long-ton (10,160 t) restriction set in place by the Washington Naval Treaty. The ship's superstructure included a large conning tower forward and a smaller, secondary conning position aft. She was fitted with a pair of tripod masts, one just aft of the conning tower and the second further aft. She had a crew of 723 officers and enlisted men, though during the war this increased to 781.
Her power plant consisted of four Parsons steam turbines powered by twelve oil-fired Yarrow boilers, which were trunked into two funnels amidships. Her engines were rated at 150,000 shaft horsepower (110,000 kW) for a top speed of 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph). On trials, she reached only 35.6 knots (65.9 km/h; 41.0 mph), and in service, her practical top speed was only 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph). The ship had a cruising range of 4,160 nautical miles (7,700 km; 4,790 mi) at a speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph).
Trento was armed with a main battery of eight 203 mm (8 in) Mod 24 50-caliber guns in four gun turrets. The turrets were arranged in superfiring pairs forward and aft. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a battery of sixteen 100 mm (4 in) 47-cal. guns in twin mounts, four Vickers-Terni 40 mm/39 guns in single mounts and four 12.7 mm (0.50 in) machine guns. In addition to the gun armament, she carried eight 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes in four deck mounted twin launchers. She carried a pair of IMAM Ro.43 seaplanes for aerial reconnaissance; the hangar was located under the forecastle and a fixed catapult was mounted on the centerline at the bow.
Trento's secondary battery was revised several times during her career. The 100 mm guns were replaced with newer Mod 31 versions of the same caliber. In 1937–1938, the two aft-most 100 mm guns were removed, along with all four 12.7 mm machine guns; eight 37 mm (1.5 in) 54-cal. Breda M1932 guns and eight 13.2 mm (0.52 in) Breda M1931 machine guns, all in twin mounts, were installed in their place. In 1942, the ship received four 20 mm (0.79 in) 65-cal. Breda M1940 guns in single mounts.
She was protected with an armor belt that was 70 mm (2.8 in) thick amidships with armored bulkheads 40 to 60 mm (1.6 to 2.4 in) thick on either end. Her armor deck was 50 mm (2 in) thick in the central portion of the ship and reduced to 20 mm (0.79 in) at either end. The gun turrets had 100 mm (3.9 in) thick plating on the faces and the supporting barbettes they sat in were 60 to 70 mm (2.4 to 2.8 in) thick. The main conning tower had 100 mm thick sides.
Service history
The keel for Trento was laid down at the Cantiere navale fratelli Orlando on 8 February 1925. The completed hull was scheduled to be launched on 4 September 1927, but sabotage from anti-fascist workers in the shipyard, who had mixed sand into the grease on the slipway, preventing the ship from sliding down into the water. After repeated attempts to complete the launching, the shipyard had to resort to dragging Trento from the slipway on 4 October 1927 using the passenger ship SS Principe di Udine. After fitting-out work was completed, the ship was commissioned into the Italian fleet on 3 April 1929. On 11 May 1929, Trento became the flagship of the Cruiser Division; five days later, she and her sister Trieste began a cruise in the northern Mediterranean, which included a stop in Barcelona. The two cruisers returned to La Spezia on 4 June. Trento started a much more ambitious cruise the following month, departing Italian waters on 23 July, bound for South America. Over the following three months, she visited Cape Verde, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Bahía Blanca, Las Palmas, and Tangiers, before arriving back in Italy on 10 October.
On 15 September 1930, Trento embarked on a cruise to the eastern Mediterranean that concluded in La Spezia on 21 November. In mid-1931, she entered the drydock in La Spezia for modifications to her tripod foremast; a sturdier five-legged version was installed to reduce vibration in the fire control director. On 28 January 1932, Trento steamed to Gaeta, where she and the destroyer Espero took on a contingent from the San Marco Battalion. The two ships then departed, bound for China, where they reinforced the Italian Far East Division, which included the old protected cruiser Libia and the gunboats Sebastiano Caboto and Ermanno Carlotto. The force was tasked with protecting Italian nationals in the country during the Chinese Civil War. The ships stopped in Port Said, Aden, Colombo, and Singapore en route to Shanghai, where they arrived on 4 March. From 26 April to 1 May, Trento visited Nagasaki, Japan. Two weeks later, on 14 May, Trento left Shanghai to return to Italy, arriving in La Spezia on 30 June.
On 6–7 July 1933, Trento took part in a major fleet review held in the Gulf of Naples for Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Trento became the flagship of the 2nd Division, 1st Squadron on 2 December. The ship visited Durazzo on 23–26 June 1934, and on 1 July, became the flagship of the 3rd Division. She made another cruise in the eastern Mediterranean from 8 to 20 March 1935, during which she made calls in Rhodes and Leros. On 18 June, Trieste temporarily relieved Trento as the divisional flagship. Another naval review was held in the Gulf of Naples on 27 November 1936, to honor the Regent of Hungary, Miklós Horthy, who was visiting Italy at the time. Trieste again replaced Trento as the flagship on 27 January 1937. From 10 to 12 March 1937, Mussolini took a short tour of Italian Libya aboard the heavy cruiser Pola, escorted by Trento. The two cruisers stopped in Benghazi, Tripoli, and Ra's Lanuf during the trip.
World War II
On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on France and Britain, joining its ally Germany in World War II. At that time, Trento was 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.
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. 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.
On 26 November, Trento sortied with the fleet, in an attempt to intercept another convoy to Malta. The following morning, a reconnaissance floatplane from Bolzano located the British squadron. 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. 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.