The Regia Marina - Guns, Naval Policy and Early History 

Pinned post for Q&A :)

I love that the channel that started as a small passion project is now bringing brand new (in English language at least) scholarship to a wider audience and in the process challenging the popular history of a major part of WW2. This is proof that quality content will attract a audience. Keep up the great work Drach I’m glad so many like me love the channel.

Thanks Drach for having us. We will be back!

I work sporting goods. Yesterday a customer handed me a display shoe they needed a size of from the back. I looked at the description on the display tag and said, "The Arashi? Oh, sorry, it's actually Arishi, the Arashi was a Japanese destroyer at the Battle of Midway." I looked up to find the customer staring at me blankly. I then said, "What size did you need?" and walked away. This is what you have done for me Drach, thanks!

I love Italian warships of the 1930s, especially the Littorios and Zara class cruisers. They were works of art. Such a shame they had to be sunk or later got scraped.

Enjoyed this My Dad was on the HMS Kingston when got hit by the Littorio Fortunately he was manning a gun on the back of the ship he was unhurt. His best friend lost several fingers holding on to one of the many holes that was torn into the deck by the shell. It was extremely rough and was trying to save himself from being washed overboard. My father was an artist and I have a couple of pictures that he drew of that day and more of other ships he was on.

The Littorio-class and Zara-class design looked really beautiful and very distinguish for the Regia Marina in my opinion. Also Navigatori-class design was very interesting.

"I need [manufactured to proper tolerances] ammunition, not a ride." - Regia Marina creed circa 1940s

The entire Italian BB line was , in my opinion, the most elegant line of ships that ever sailed the Mediterranean Sea ....

Glad you go into the Regio Marina so much. It's often overlooked and underrated, as is the Regio Aeronautica. I found there is quite the demand for documentaries on them. My most viewed video is on the Italian CR.42 biplane fighter.

Yes please, a second Regia Marina with Italian historians video would be fantastic

Theodore Ropp "The Development of a Modern Navy: French Naval Policy 1871-1904" shows that after the Franco-Prussian War Italy was seen as a major threat to French power in the Mediterranean. The Franco-Italian Tariff disputes on the 1880-1890s was a deliberate plan of the French to weaken the Italian economy to retard the growth of the Italian navy.

Drach, I would watch a series like this, with different channels featured talking about their native navies. Dutch, Canadian, Japanese, Indian, Brazilian, South African, Norwegian, etc.

many pictures of beautiful Italian ships I hope

it was a pleasure ^_^

Never had I considered an interest in naval history... Until I found your channel! Love the content & keep up the stellar work!

What a pleasure it is to have this kind of content on YT. Thanks, Drach, Giulio and Mirko.

They sure got some style don't they, whatever else may perhaps have been lacking. :) Great coverage/collab. So now Drach has done Bismarck with a native German and Regia Marina with two native Italians... Marine Royale/Marine Nationale with a Frenchman next?

I learned a lot from this. Thank you Mirko Campochiari, Giulio Poggiaroni, and Drachinifel for your continuing work to bring history to others.

Wonderful to hear evidence from the Italian historians and perspective. Fascinating to hear some more in depth background and that amusingly as is the way even the Italian navy weren't 100% sure what caused some of their issues. Bravo drach and your guests.

Really enjoy these videos on the Italians. Anything that can minimise the 'haha Italy bad' internet meme is good in my book

The “Lissa complex “ is a good description for Italy during the Second World War. Mussolini needed to get into the war to get a seat at the peace treaty regardless of whether the military or the economy was ready and they paid the price.

The Italian armored cruiser San Giorgio was the oldest italian warship in WW2, built in 1905 - 1908 she was scuttled in Libya in 1941. Her sister ship San Marco lasted until 1949.

Italian naval exports continue to this day. The desperately needed US Constellation class frigate is adapted from a design by Fincantieri.

Hey! Italian Military Archives. I follow him on IG and RU-vid. Great to see them noticed by big guys like you Drach

Rum ration! Let’s go!! Always excited to see what kind of varied things I’ve never heard of that Drach manages to pull up. Always such fantastic presentation! Well done, sir!

The Italians made some good looking ships,no doubt about it

Maybe we Italians aren’t a race of warriors, but when it comes to design…. Anyway I really love the Regia Marina warships of the 1920s to 1940s. Many beautiful ships

Love the images of all the ships. Kept getting distracted from the conversation as I kept focusing on the ships. Will have to 'listen" to the video a second time. They are indeed beautiful.

Thank you for this great special! The Mediterranean theater I find the most interesting

Probably one of the best RU-vid channels to date. Very informative and genuine. Great show and well presented. Respect!

That artwork at the beginning is gorgeous

It's great to hear about these "smaller" navies that often get overlooked.

Several pictures of Italian ships I have never seen, as well as an interesting and informative discussion. Thanks guys.

Oh boy. Drach has guests. Bring out the fine silverware!!!

I've been looking more into the Regia Marina, and its crazy/cool that you have a video on it.

Lovely thumbnail .. always liked these italian battleships.. pity about the sabotaged propellant charges.... The 6 inch battery is a bit of a throwback to nelson style but as they had to counter the French navy with its powerful destroyers is quite understandable. ...

Loved this one, Drach! These guys are great!

This made the unwanted all nighter worth it. Now to absorb this information while starting at my ceiling

I love Wednesday, solely because that means I have a long Drach video to watch while I sip my coffee.

Yay! A Drachnifel video with the no-radar fleet. 😂

I was really surprised to see some Italian Armoured Cruiser classes with ~8 ships. Of these only a pair or so would be in Italian service, with rest being in Japan and various South American Navies. So yeah, Italian warship export market was really successful.

Nice to hear more about the Italian navy in WW2.

Fantastic video, as an Italian-American, I really appreciate the attention paid to this neglected period!

Good morning from Massachusetts, Drach!

My Internet comes back after 5 weeks of it being down only to be greeted by this wonderful video

Lots of other factors in gun dispersion, for instance powder stability and quality of storage can be a problem, even a slow seepage of humidty into the powder could change the ballistics. Also Barrel Lubrication, cleanliness, etc.

The machinist in me wonders if it’s stacked tolerances. Bad steel, stability issues, tolerances for charges, and shell tolerances would be to many variables to trace.

Admiral Fioravanzo stated in his book "l'organizzazione della marina durante il conflitto" at page 105 " with the german 149mm guns of the world war 1 ships given as reparations to Italy by germany the dispersion, using german ammunition, was so tight that the fire directors would open it up un purpose to get on target faster, when the ammunition was changed to the italian made ones the dispersion got 10 times larger than before".

Could you make a video about a path warship takes between a finished design and entering service? In your videos you often mention dates for when ship was laid down, launched, finished and entered service, but what exactly happens?

I always look forward to these longer form Wednesday videos. Much appreciated.

The video I definitely most wanted to see ever

Only 382 likes out of 3671 views at this point? Best get cracking on the like button!

A variable effecting dispersion not mentioned, is insufficient rifling twist rate effecting shell stabilization; enough yaw, pitch and roll could conceivably cause dynamic variations between each shot.

I don't know if I have stated this before, the shots from Littorio are missing in bearing, that is super unusual. Most misses are in range (Over and Short) based on range estimation errors, bearing errors (with shots falling all over the line left and right of the point of aim) to my mind screams projectile or GFCS/Stabilizer problems. Then again I am mentally assuming parallel courses for the sips in question...Need more data here.

The 15 inch gun discussion was very interesting, thanks for starting on that! Correct me if wrong, but it seems like the conclusion is that their were many factors that impacted these guns and we can't draw a final conclusion due to the relatively small sample size. Although it also seems like the blanket assertion that this was a bad gun with uniformly high dispersion is false, it was simply more sensitive to issues of barrel wear and manufacturing tolerances and the Italian navy did not have the time to work out how to get the best of out of them.

Can we get a check on Royal Navy dispersion when firing against the Regia Merina?

thanking all

Drach, If we’re covering the beautiful Regia Marina rn, does that mean a little bit of French La Royale in the future?

Always wanted more info on the Italian navy as most historians don't even acknowledge Italy did anything.

Thank you for this video. It's MUCH appreciated. I'm looking forward to the next instalment. ^^

Drach, Giulio, Mirko. Just found this. Very informative. I was particularly interested in the possible corruption by Ansaldo! Regards, Bob

That float plane at the bow looks a bit.... in danger of getting blasted off if the guns ever need to be fired before the plane is launched.

Totally off topic, just came to my mind cause you said maybe there will be part two: when will you do the second part of the civil war video (river edition)?

What a pleasant surprise to wake up to

Time for Al dente high seas escapades I see!

Oh man, can't wait to watch this one!

Italian ships are the definition of *sexy*

Another thing to consider would be different rates of wear for individual barrels of differing quality of steel. So you may have a dispersion of rifling quality across all the guns on a single ship at any particular time.

1:10:10 "The Austro-Hungarian fleet was quite sizeable comparable to the " (Shore size?) - Yes, and meanwhile the A-H MERCHANT fleet was the 4th or 5th biggest one on the planet (or 7 seas) around the early XXth century.

I can assure you that in proper cases poor steel can cause horrid dispersion. If the ductility is too high the barrel can slightly bulge behind the projectile allowing a larger than normal gas cloud at the muzzle. This is a microscopic effect on small arms and can be noticeable but the problem is inherent to any size. There is also a very disturbing amount of barrel movement when viewed in slow motion as a rifle fires. It forms a sin wave and you need that wave to be in the same spot every time when the projectile exits to have accurate shots. Soft steel could have different wave forms per barrel of a turret leading to the single turret having a massive spread.

It is heartening to learn that the Regia Marina was contemplating the problem, it seems to me there was simply not enough time to sort out the problem, events were moving too fast.

This was really cool! Looking forward to part two!

Thank you for the great content! For the Algorithm... and also thanks for introducing 'us' to these guests and their channels.

The Bofors 40mm gun is a great example of an over stabilized shell. I'm not sure if this pertains to the L60, but I recall the stability factor of the L70 is over 2. Shells strike tail first if they don't hit an aircraft, and they occasionally don't go off. A former colleague of mine actually picked up an unexploded shell on the test range. the shell didn't go off, but he nearly cause the safety officer to have a heart attack.

Good to hear some Italians speaking about the Italian armed forces as so much literature about them is written by those that aren't.

4:05 limitations in dockyards where ship could be built, could explain the choice of the two Duilio. Sanctions for the war in Ethiopia led to scarcity of good quality metal for shipbuilding, and Soviet Steel that were provided in exchange for ship design and other Italian goods were of extremely poor quality and not used for battleship construction. The idea that pre WWI ships like the Duilios, currently in questionable operational state, could be quickly upgraded capitalising on the experience of the Cesare, while requiring a limited amount of new quality metal, could have shifted the scale. Both the Duilio could be worked on in smaller dockyards used for cruiser construction and the total amount of cost was probably underestimated. In the end, due to the more advanced weaponary and the removal of the old stern, the Duilios ended costing about half of a Littorio at 3M lire. Another source of concern in 1937, was the very poor performances of the Ansaldo Genova dockyards which was late in building the Littoro compared to the CRA of Trieste that were right on spot. Littorio was completed months later then Vittorio Veneto, despite being laid down several months before, and the Impero was never completed, while, once again, Roma was laid down almost 1 year later and completed much faster then V.Veneto, despite the donation of the left propeller driveshaft for repairing the V.Veneto after Matapan. Faced with the poor record of the western dockyards, the Regia Marina may have considered building the Duilio as another stopgap, in case of further delay with the Littorio program. In the end, rebuilding the Duilio was too expensive to be worth, but understendable, given the Sanctions to Italy, the steady deterioration of the international ballance after 1937 and the Spanish civil war.

i like the star trek security shirt, drach

Thank you, Drachinifel.

Question for anyone that can confirm: this photo @1:58. Is that an actual color shot ? Is it the real hues/colors ? Or was it a b&w photo that someone took artistic liberties with ? It is a stunning image, and I'd truly like to verify it's accuracy as to a future model building endevor.... thank you for any info on this !! 🚬😎

That damn thumbnail pic is just a stunner !! 🚬😎

I suspect the Italian navy ship designers must have had an office labeled,"Make our ships look Cool". They just seem to be pleasing to look at.

Thanks Drach!

Maybe things change as you go up in size. With small arms over stabilization isn't really a thing that affects accuracy. What typically happens is high spin rates and high velocity will cause the bullet to fragment in mid air. You can see this with the 5.56 nato. And how you need to be careful of the twist rate for your application. That being said I wonder if maybe the high velocity was causing the driving bands to fragment or other damage to the shell.

Ah perfect thing to listen to while I grind the new Italian mini event in Azur Lane.

All of this further higlights, how much Mussolini miscalculated when he entered the war. He misread Hitler in a fatal manner and boxed himself and Italy in a war that wasn't theirs and which they weren't ready to fight. I am so glad people are reassesing this in recent times because mischaracterisation of Italian army and people during WWII is trully criminal. They were brave and capable but not ready for a major and prolonged conflict. And it was Germany's war, not Italy's war. Why would they even fight with USSR? Fascist Italy had pretty good relations with Soviet union.

Good looking ships , Unfortunately. WW2 says : it does'nt matter

Q&A could do a deep dive into what the US was doing between Dec 8, 41 and Apr 18, 42..

Littorio class battleships are the sexiest things in the universe and nothimg can change my mind!

sono qui dopo gli apprezzamenti di "the man of the lowcloset" su Liberi oltre

Interesting material. Thanks for posting.

This was GOOD STUFF. How about expediting part II?

It's interesting, that the Cavours we're rebuilt as a stopgap, instead of the more modern Duilios.

Outstanding talk - thanks much

Every time I listen to the Drach intro music I’m ready to run through a fucking wall.

Awesome!

I'm definitely not an expert but I follow a few military channels and really like Drachinfel, always high quality. Something has just occurred to me so sorry if it is covered later in the video. With much of their naval experience being based in the Mediterranean. Did this experience with more moderate sailing conditions affect their design when tackling more open water like the Atlantic?

Ooo, this one should be good.

I would think the metallurgy of the barrel could have a lot of impact on accuracy. Different metallurgical properties will have different rates of expansion and contraction, they will also have a different resistance to the expanding gases and the passage of the shell. I would also wonder if the shells themselves were impacted by this graph and corruption. I mean if the shells are distorting as a pass through the barrel that could affect how they are finally released from the barrel ultimately affecting the dispersion as they go down range from a stability it perspective on the round itself.

Rum for breakfast, yum, yum, yum!