RN Gorizia - Italy's Luckiest Heavy Cruiser? 

Gorizia is the Italian Prinz Eugan, she is a luck vampire of the class taking all the luck of the class

Always considered these ships to be very handsome. Entirely suitable for the Mediterranean. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

The Italians had some beautiful ships.

There's some (unplanned) symbolism about this class: these ships were named after the towns formerly belonging to Austro-Hungarian empire and passed to Italy after the WW I. Three of them were sunken, those that were bearing the names of the towns that Italy lost after the WW. II (Pola/Pula, Fiume/Rijeka, Zara/Zadar), while Gorizia remained afloat, as the town of Gorizia remained part of Italy. Some stuff for those who believe in conspiracy theories (I guess).

Thank you so much for giving the Italian Regio Marina some much deserved attention. It is truly amazing how many people have to be reminded about the Italians involvement in the Mediterranean during the Second World War. I'm also glad you chose this heavy cruiser especially...because I had been getting her name wrong for so many years up until this vid! I always thought her name was "Garizia", but that was incorrect. Gorizia is a fascinating heavy cruiser because I hardly knew anything about her, but I do recall hearing that she was the last one of her class as a result of the Battle of Cape Matapan. I concur with your sense that the mood on board was probably very tense, and very somber in the wake of the losses suffered in the aforementioned battle...it was probably like most of the crew felt as if they'd lost a family member, or enraged at being left out of what should have been the class as a whole being sunk. She did seem to have something of a luck streak, and unfortunately, also seems to have been something of a luck vampire. How her story ends left me with mixed emotions. It was sad to see her just dragged out to port unceremoniously by the Germans, and just left there like some unwanted tugboat...but I was particularly moved by the fact that she stubbornly stayed afloat despite all the damage she took. She was listing horribly, but it's like she just indignantly stuck her heels in the dirt and refused to go under. I always adore ships that seem to have a spunk about them. IJN Haguro, USS Hornet, and HMS Repulse come to mind. Thank you again for an awesome video, and for helping me to improve as a maritime historian! Can't wait for more vids on the Regio Marina. Maybe give the Ciao Duilio a shot? Her captain was later involved in the sinking of cruiser ship Andrea Doria, but also helped to save almost everyone on board. Can't wait for the next one!

9:40 Wait a minute - the Zaras had their aircraft catapult on the bow? Quite unique, but at least it explains why avgas tanks were also located there.

My favorite heavy cruiser finally gets some respect!

True story time Gibralter harbor master: Sure we can bring your treaty cruiser into dry dock. What weight should we set the blocks up for? Italian captain: 10,000 tons of course. Gibralter harbor master: You do know if we set them up for the wrong weight the ship could fall over or brake in half..... Italian captain: Just to be safe you better set it for 15,000 tons.

Italy built beautiful ships. Underrated, under-utilized and very capable.

When people say the Italian navy in WW2 i just think of the The Fritz X bomb that had a spectacular success in 1943 when the Germans used it to sink the Italian battleship Roma.

happily reading and seeing more about the ships, tactics and history of the Regia Marina coming out over the last years. indeed they are very overlooked and boiled down to the Taranto Raid and Cape Matapan.

Best naval reviewer out there imo

Gorizia i'm not overweight, just big boned

12:09 The crew takes a shower from 2 huge water buckets spraying the entire crew ! Probably unavailable outside of the home port . Must feel good to get that salt water off of you !

The funny thing was the naming, basically all of those were annexed cities from other countries. Zara and Fiume were in Dalmatia but arguable had been Venetian for centuries, while Gorizia was Görz in South Tyrol annexed after WW1 and subjected to an (ultimately unsuccessful) 90 year attempt at forced italianization. Basically this class was the Irredentismo class

A very welcome study of a neglected ship. It is refreshing to hear a balanced and informed account both of Italian ships and the actions of the Italian navy. The latter is often unjustly dismissed as lacking in enterprise and determination, rather than being judged with allowance for the technical and material restraints in which the RM had to operate.

Many people just had a bad opinion of Italy in World War II. but not all Italians were like that

Most of the fights in the Mediterranean, unlike in the norther sea snd in the Pacific, was conducted at extremely long ranges and the rare hits were generally result of as lucky shot, like Warspite hitting Cesare or Zara hitting a British cruiser in the same battle. Hits were rare by both parts because of destroyer screen covers and extreme range of fight. In the end the Mediterranean saw destroyers doing most of the heavy lifting in the convoy war.

Have any of the aforementioned Italian wrecks been discovered , dived on and photograph?

A video about the tone class would be interesting, dont see much people talk about it

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Great video! Back in the mid to late 70s I read that the crew of the _Pola_ had gotten drunk after their ship was crippled which led to the loss of her and her sisters. Has anyone else read the same?

Not very lucky in WoWs.