Sella-class destroyer

The Sella-class destroyers were a group of four destroyers built for the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) in the 1920s. Two of these ships fought in World War II and both were sunk after the Italian capitulation to the Allies. The two other ships were sold to the Swedish Navy in 1940 and were scrapped in the late 1940s.

These ships formed the basis for most subsequent destroyers built by the Italians, but were disappointing in service with unreliable machinery.

Design and description
The Sella-class destroyers were enlarged and improved versions of the preceding Palestro-class destroyer and Curtatone-class destroyer. They had an overall length of 84.9 m, a beam of 8.6 m and a draft of 2.7 m. They displaced 970 t at standard load, and 1480 t at deep load. Their complement was 8–9 officers and 144 enlisted men.

The Sellas were powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam supplied by three Yarrow boilers. The turbines were rated at 36000 shp for a speed of 33 kn in service, although the ships reached speeds in excess of 37 kn during their sea trials while lightly loaded. They carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 3600 nmi at a speed of 14 kn.

Their main battery consisted of three 120 mm guns in one twin-gun turret aft of the superstructure and one single-gun turret forward of it. Anti-aircraft (AA) defense for the Sella-class ships was provided by a pair of 40 mm AA guns in single mounts amidships and a pair of 13.2 mm machine guns. They were equipped with four 533 mm torpedo tubes in two twin mounts amidships. The Sellas could also carry 32 mines.

Service history
During the war, the destroyers were based at the island of Leros, in the Dodecanese. They took part in the Italian retaking of Kastelorizo (named Operation Abstention by the British) on 27 February 1941, and were used as mother ships for the successful attack by explosive motor boats on HMS York (90) on 25 March. Crispi led the landing of an Italian division on Sitia, Crete, on 28 May 1941, in the course of the battle of Crete.