Navigatori-class destroyer, Nicoloso Da Recco (1943), the WWII survivor

Do you want to see the Navigatori-class destroyer, Da Recco (1943) in-game?
  • Yes
  • No
0 voters

image
Da Recco near Malta on 10/09/1943

The Navigatori-class “esploratori” were built in 1928-1929 to counter the large destroyers of the French Navy, the Jaguar and Guépard classes.

Designed by general of naval engineering Giuseppe Rota, the class featured a stronger armament, higher speed, displacement, and range than the previous classes of Italian destroyers.

However, while being fast, the destroyers were found to have stability problems. Because of that, all but two of the Navigatori class destroyers were rebuilt with clipper bows, lower superstructure and increased beam.

These modifications fixed the stability problems, but made the speed go down to only 28 knots. One of the two destroyers that did not have their hulls modified for stability, was the Nicoloso Da Recco. Her speed went from 38 knots to 33 knots after the modifications.

The Navigatori-class, compared to the previous classes of italian destroyers, were armed with six guns, instead of four, and 120/50 Ansaldo 1926 instead of the older 120/45 Odero-Terni-Orlando guns. Compared to the previous 120/45 Odero-Terni-Orlando guns, these guns had a higher muzzle velocity, fire-rate and the mounts allowed for an elevation of 45°, allowing for anti-aircraft fire to some degree. The anti-aircraft initially consisted of eight 13.2 Breda Model 1931 in twin mounts and two 40/39 Vickers-Terni cannons in single mounts, but later was upgraded to various combinations of 37 mm and 20 mm Breda cannons, at the cost of a torpedo launcher. Some also received a radar.

Service history of the Nicoloso Da Recco

  • 20/05/1930 : short training period before returning back to the shipyard, to make her lighter and modify the superstructure to improve stability
  • 1936/1938 : during the Spanish Civil War, she was stationed in Tangier, Cadiz and in the waters of the western Mediterranean
  • 03/1939 : Da Recco was in Tripoli and in April of the same year she operated in Albania
  • 22/10/1939 : after having been part of the Naviglio of the Command School, she left for Taranto, where she had once again been deployed as Head of the 16th Squadron. She moved to Leros and remained in the Aegean until 4/30/1940. After returning to Taranto, the 16th Squadron was placed under the 8th Division of the 1st Squadron and, with it, Da Recco operated in Albania in May
  • 07-09/07/1940 : protection from a distance of convoys to Libya. In the afternoon of the 9th, she took part in firing at enemy planes attacking the 1st Naval Squadron, returning from the Punta Stilo battle.
  • 04/03/1941 : took part in the bombardment of the Greek-Albanian coast. On March 26, she went out to participate in the mission south of Crete, which culminated in the battle of Cape Matapan. On her return, on 29 March, she carried out a close escort to the battleship Vittorio Veneto hit by a torpedo.
  • summer 1941 : transferred to Palermo to escort Libyan convoys in the Sicilian channel. Carried out escorts to convoys and isolated units, rescue of shipwrecked people, hunt for enemy submarines by launching jet torpedoes, rapid transport of troops and materials, protective cruises and outings in support of national aircraft and ships performing mine barrages . To her credit the shooting down of numerous enemy planes; of these, four during a single attack on 6/21/1942 while escorting a convoy from Naples to Tripoli.
  • 02/11/1942 : during a rapid transport of ammunition from Taranto to Tobruk, the Da Recco formation was attacked by enemy bombers and torpedo boats. A torpedo launched by one of these at close range fell on the deck towards the bow, fortunately without exploding, but breaking apart and causing a certain amount of damage to the deck. The plane was shot down
  • 01/12/1942 : she departed from Palermo to escort to Tripoli a convoy of four steamers loaded with troops together with the torpedo boats Procione and Clio and the destroyers Folgore and Camicia Nera. During the night, aided by radar and aircraft-launched flares, three enemy cruisers and six destroyers suddenly swooping upon the convoy, opened intense fire on the Italian vessels. The escort units, after trying to cover the merchant ships with smoke screens, launched an attack against the enemy ships, opening fire and launching torpedoes. The destroyer Folgore was sunk and the Da Recco was stopped by two hits in the bow which caused the explosion of the ammunition depot resulting in a very serious fire in the forward part. The merchant ships were sunk while the Da Recco, in flames, remained stationary and fortunately was not attacked again. During the night the crew managed to limit the fire and, once the engines were back in motion, were able to head slowly towards Trapani, also helped by the destroyers Da Noli and Pigafetta come out to help her
  • 09/01/1943 - 26/06/1943 : After twenty days in Trapani, she moved to Taranto where she remained in the arsenal
  • 07/1943 : she returned to service, performing escorts to Navy units that were laying mine barriers in the waters of the Ionian Sea.
  • 08/09/1943 : at the time of the proclamation of the armistice, she was in Taranto and the following day he moved to Malta on the basis of Allied orders.

During 3 years of war, she sailed 68.318 miles, taking part in 176 missions, of which 70 were escorting and protecting other ships

In the post-war period, due to the difficulties of land transport and destruction cause by the war, she was used as a rapid transport of people and materials between Taranto and Naples first, and then between Catania and Malta from 25/9/1945 to 7/2/1946 . Returning to Taranto and, moored at the torpedo boat quay, she concluded his activity in that port. In fact, although she was no longer used in the open sea, she remained in service for a few more years.

Why I’m proposing her?

Yes, we already have a Navigatori-class destroyer in-game, however I don’t think the Da Verazzano is a good destroyer, because of its very low speed and poor AA. Nicolotto Da Recco, in her late 1942 configuration would be a better fit for her Battle rating. She eliminates some of the weaknesses of the Da Verazzano, at the cost of 3 torpedoes, which weren’t that good anyway. Her AA armament consists of 9x 20 mm cannons and 2x 37 mm Breda cannons, which is pretty good, and her speed is 61 km/h, which is on-par with other destroyers, and much better than the Da Verazzano’s 52 km/h. She also has a radar, which would make it easier for her to know about the presence of enemy aircraft.

general specifications ( late 1942)

  • Displacement : standard 1900 t; Full load 2599 t.
  • Full length : 107,3 m.
  • Draught : 3,4 m.
  • Breadth : 10.2 m.
  • Machinery : 2 sets Tosi geared steam turbines, 4 Odero boilers, 50.000 h. p.
  • Max speed : 33 knots.
  • Complement : 230.

Armament and equipment

  • 3x2 : 120/50 Ansaldo mod.1926
  • 2x1 : 37/54 Breda 1939
  • 2x1 : 20/70 Scotti-Isotta Fraschini 1939
  • 7x1 : 20/65 Breda 1940
  • 1x3 : 533 mm torpedo tubes
  • 2 depth charge racks
  • EC.3/ter radar


Comparison of Lanzerotto Malocello (1943), Leone Pancaldo (1943) and Nicoloso Da Recco (1944). As it seems, the radar has been removed in 1944.

Sources

https://digilander.libero.it/carandin/darecco.htm

https://www.lavocedelmarinaio.com/2016/12/1-12-1942-regio-cacciatorpediniere-da-recco/

https://www.navypedia.org/ships/italy/it_dd_navigatori.htm

4 Likes

+1

As I said in the previous forum the lack of the rear mast is already a massive boost to this class of destroyers.
The problem with the “Da Vezzano” in game is that you have to give massive broadside to be able to use the last gun, wich usually end up in your easy demise.
With all three guns able to fire showing minimum broadside this will greatly boost this class survivability (even if it’s still a 4.3 machine due to the long reload)

As you said the improved AA will also boost its survivability against aircrafts (the Da Vezzano has too old AA and they open fire always too late).

The lack of torps is not such a great loss as they usually ends up as a last resort weapon or a way to block narrow channels hoping to be lucky enough to hit something.

Let’s hope they will add this as soon as possible, as they already have the base model in game.

I would say that Navigatory-class main guns emplacement is what hampers its capability to be at BR 4.3 and also Da Vezano too is no different as many other Bluewater DDs except Comandante with its deadly 37mm AA gun and premium Fante-class Geniere with powerful 3inch/50caliber AA guns… Also one more exception to its relevant BR is RN Leone & Tigre with 4 twin gun but very weak AA defense and torpedo armament+loadout

UNLESS Italian have super effective SAP/AP shell that can effectively penetrate 4.7 heavy cruiser’s armor with high chance of ammoracking it, then it can be at 4.3 IF nothing else, its gonna get itself killed easier as quickly as Da Vezzano by anything armed with 4inch SAP and plane that carries bomb with 200KG TNT yield as its AA armament basically capable of deterring rank 2 plane at best…

I think the most important improvement over the Da Verazzano, is the max speed. Da Verazzano is painfully slow, and a 9 km/h increase will make a big difference. I think it should be in the standard tree, as it’s quite different. It has a different hull shape, placement of the rear mast, radar and AA guns.

Speed is important in quick, decisive fight BUT if its only slight faster, its not much useful unless captains wanna be a daredevil who plan on ramming enemy destroyer while carrying depth charge/+mines and use it in extremely CQC range…

Still… Have you played Da Verazzano against multiple foe at once? Have you managed to avoid being bombed and torPed in extremely close range simultaneously while in heated engagement in any other Italian DD except Comandante and Geniere (Fanta-class) as those 2 have good AA defense for its BR despite its inherent weakness

IF Gaijin managed to finally rework its BR to decent level like i once wrote back then, playing Italian Navy would be quite seriously fun…

Forgot to add, this new DD, Nicoloso Da Recco’s 73km/h speed is decent enough for close combat BUT not enough to survive its counterpart or equivalent BR…

In my opinion, it would be good enough IF Italian DD can reach speed of 90-93km/h, then it can remain in its current BR as that speed helps offset its many weakness in battle even just a little

IF you wanna know related ship with such speed, try to play USSR Moskva (BR 4.3 rank 1) and Tashkent (BR 4.7 rank 2)… These 2 currently the fastest Destroyer in game

If you wanna understand my point of why that level of speed is important while having handicapped in firepower and survivability, try playing Moskva about a dozen matches in multiple scenario then you’ll see why i said slight faster BUT still not much useful isn’t in its decent BR

Yes, I did. I don’t find any problems with the main guns, thanks to their excellent AP shell, which offers good muzzle velocity, penetration and a big explosive filler (for AP) of 1.3kg. Even if the fire-rate is quite low.

In my opinion, the main problems of the Da Verazzano are:

  • Low speed
  • Poor AA defence
  • Poor aiming angles of the rear turret
  • Small crew complement

The first three are vastly better when it comes to Da Recco, making it a much more suitable destroyer for BR 4.3, compared to Da Verazzano.
I think the Da Verazzano should go down to 4.0, just like the Leone and Soldati classes.

IT could be placed at 4.3 if it have at least 4 twin guns overall instead or its main guns are able to bear 2 twin gun forward at very least OR it have at least 2 quad torpedo and 6 single 37mm Breda Autocannon to basically qualify 4.3 nowadays…

I disagree. I think it would be ok at 4.3.

+1 great research, great story, i want those vessels in italian tree !

Suggestion passed to the developers for consideration.

1 Like