Talk:Italian cruiser Gorizia

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Gorizia participated in World War II as a member of 1st Division, 1st Squadron. She took part in the Battle of Punta Stilo, the Battle of Taranto, where she shot down a British Swordfish torpedo bomber, the Battle of Cape Teulada, where her Ro.43 floatplane spotted the British battle group, and the First and Second Battle of Sirte, where her guns hit two destroyers, HMS Kipling (F91) and HMS Sikh (F82), inflicting minor damage on them. Some sources claim that she also hit and severely damaged the destroyer HMS Kingston (F64), instead of the battleship ITALIAN BATTLESHIP Littorio as widely reported. Among her other missions, there were escorts to Italian and German convoys, for a total of 20 operations accomplished.

On 10 April 1943, 84 B-17 bombers, one of the largest concentration of Flying Fortress ever in action that far, armed with 1000 lbs armor piercing bombs, attacked the Italian naval base at La Maddalena. 24 bombers attacked the cruiser Trieste, 24 the naval base installations, and 36 the Gorizia, from an altitude of 19,000 feet. The Trieste was hit by several bombs, and sunk. The Gorizia was hit by three bombs. Two struck it amidship, just after the funnel, on the port side, penetrated the upper deck and exploded in the room below, but the 70mm main deck withstood the explosions, avoiding worse damages. The third bomb hit the X turret, penetrated its 100mm upper armor and exploded inside, throwing the rear armor of the turret on the deck. Several dozens of near miss exploded below the waterline, damaging the hull. The ship managed to stay afloat, and was moved to La Spezia for repairs. She was still there on 8 September, when the armistice between Italy and the Allies was signed. Gorizia was crippled on 26 June 1944 at her moorings in La Spezia by manned torpedoes, after the Italians joined the Allies, in order to prevent her use by the Germans. Her hull was scrapped after 1946.


 * For future reincorporation into the article. Parsecboy (talk) 20:22, 12 July 2016 (UTC)