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Hello, I would like to suggest Regina Margherita class pre-dreadnoughts to join WT in the Italian Naval Forces Tech Tree. This class of ships along with Regina Elena class pre-dreadnoughts, San Giorgio and Pisa Armored Cruiser classes should work as transitioning ships between heavy cruisers and battleships in the Italian tech tree (barrlecruisers equivalents compared to other nations). This suggeston is a remake of the one from the old version of WT forum RN Regina Margherita class Battleship made by me in 2021.
General information:
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Regina Margherita was a class of ships which intended to replace not very good, weak and slow Ammiraglio di Saint Bon class. Regina Margherita class consisted of only 2 ships: Regina Margherita and Benedetto Brin. The class sucraficed a bit of armor for better firepower and speed. Overall it was quite a succesful class of ships. Benedetto Brin was a naval engineer who developed the ship class along with Admiral Ruggero Alfredo Micheli, who slightly modified the project after the death of the engineer Benedetto Brin.
Benedetto Brin initially wanted to arm the ships with only two of the 12-inch guns and twelve 8 in (203 mm) guns, but after his death, Admiral Micheli altered the design to double the number of 12-inch guns, at the expense of eight of the medium-caliber pieces. Compared to Regina Margherita, Benedetto Brin had shorter funnels and higher vanes.
Both Regina Margherita and Benedetto Brin served in the active duty squadron for the first few years of their careers, and participated in the peacetime routine of fleet training. Regina Margherita frequently served as the fleet flagship before the completion of the new Regina Elena-class battleships. On 29 September 1911, Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire, starting the Italo-Turkish War. The two ships saw action during the war in the 3rd Division in the 2nd Squadron. Benedetto Brin took part in the attack on Tripoli in October 1911, and both were involved in the campaign to seize Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
During WWI both the Italians and Austro-Hungarians adopted a cautious fleet policy in the confined waters of the Adriatic Sea, and so the two Regina Margherita-class battleships did not see action. Benedetto Brin served as a training ship based in Brindisi until she was destroyed in an internal explosion in the harbor on 27 September 1915 with heavy loss of life (454 men of the ship’s crew died in the explosion). Regina Margherita served for a little bit longer, until she struck a mine laid by the German submarine SM UC-14 on the night of 11 December 1916 (though sources are conflicting, MM website tells that: “The battleship Regina Margherita out of Valona, due to bad weather conditions, sank because it ended up in a field of Italian mines placed to defend the entrance to the port of the bay.”).
Regina Margherita:
Worksite: Arsenal of La Spezia
Setting up: 20/11/1898
Launch: 30/05/1901
Completion: 14/04/1904
Loss: 11/12/1916
Benedetto Brin:
Worksite: Castellammare di Stabia
Setting up: 30/01/1899
Launch: 07/11/1901
Completion: 01/09/1905
Loss: 27/09/1915
Specifications:
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Displacement:
Normal: 13,427 Tons.
Full load: 14.574 Tonn.
Dimensions:
Length: 138.6 (ft) - 130 (pp.) Mt.
Width: 23.8 mt.
Draft: 8.9 meters
Engine system:
28 boilers
2 alternative engines
Power: 20,000 HP
Speed:
20 knots
Fuel:
1,000 tons of coal
Autonomy:
10,000 miles at 10 knots
Protection:
Vertical: 150 mm.
Horizontal: 80 mm.
Artillery: 220 mm.
*Tower: 150 mm.
Armament:
4 pieces of 305/40 mm.
4 pieces of 203/45 mm
12 pieces of 152 mm.
20 pieces of 76 mm.
2 pieces of 47 mm.
2 pieces of 37 mm.
2 machine gunners*
4 torpedo tubes
Crew:
797**
*- 10mm /70 Maxim MGs
**- 797 according to MM website; 38+782 according to Aldo Fraccaroli’s book and from 812 to 900 according to wikipedia (Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships: 1860–1905. Annapolis: Conway Maritime Press.)
General characteristics are identical for both ships of the class.
Photos and Schemes:
Sources:
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Marina Militare official website
-
Italian Warships of World War 1 by Aldo Fraccaroli
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