Sword of the Sea:
The Royal Italian Navy, Part Two
by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
April 2023

Our Second Great War at Sea: Sword of the Sea alternative-history expansion book features a naval war in the Red and Arabian Seas and Persian Gulf that never happened, with Italian, Persian and British (including Royal Indian) squadrons taking on the Ottoman Turks and a small German contingent. It draws on Second World War at Sea: Horn of Africa for the operational map and some pieces.

Italy’s Red Sea Flotilla is based at Massawa, in Eritrea, with a small station at Assab some distance down the Eritrean coast. It faces a Turkish naval base at Hodeida in Yemen, right across the narrow Red Sea, and other, smaller Turkish bases on up the Arabian coast. At the start of the Second Great War the Suez Canal is in the hands of Italy’s British allies, but that eventually changes as the Turks overrun the British defenders of Egypt and secure the canal for their own use. Once they clear the mines and other obstacles the British have left behind, they can bring reinforcements into the Red Sea from their own Mediterranean-based forces. After that, the situation changes dramatically for the Italians.

Italian forces in the Red Sea are built around a quartet of coast-defense ships. These are thought to be useful among the treacherous reefs and island archipelagoes of the Eritrean coast; the Italians do not intend for their little fleet to break out into the Gulf of Aden and beyond. The Red Sea Flotilla has only a handful of modern, first-line warships, but that’s also true of their Turkish opponents.

Supporting the large coast-defense ships are a pair of smaller coast-defense ships, two fast armored cruisers, two modern scout cruisers, some older cruisers, a flotilla of powerful, big modern destroyers and another flotilla of older boats. There’s also an ancient, though not very useful, armored cruiser rebuilt as a coast-defense ship. The Italian Red Sea Flotilla is a strong little fleet, a match for what the Ottoman Turks have deployed in the Red Sea – as long as Turkish reinforcements are denied access to the Suez Canal.

Note: Many of the ships listed above are found in Second World War at Sea: Horn of Africa. In Sword of the Sea’s scenario set, we make use of all of those mystery ships.

Small Coast-Defense Ships
The Ansaldo combine offered a smaller coast-defense ship design to the Royal Swedish Navy, a reduced heavy cruiser rather than a reduced battleship. And in the world of the Second Great War, this ship has also been constructed for the Royal Italian Navy, and stationed in the Red Sea.

The Agordat class is based heavily on the “Swedish” coast defense ship, one example of which (Confienza) serves in the Red Sea Flotilla. The smaller cruiser-equivalent version also carries six heavy guns in three twin turrets, one forward and two aft. She’s roughly the same size as the oversized Zara class, at 12,000 tons’ displacement, but wider in the beam and not as long as she doesn’t need the lean hull form for high speed. That stubbier hull allows more armor protection than the usual heavy cruiser; she’s listed as capable of 24 knots but like her big sister is capable of much more, able to clock 28 knots.

She carries six 203mm/53 (8-inch) rifles in three twin turrets, the same weapon as the Zara class heavy cruisers. It has great range and accuracy, and makes Agordat a formidable opponent despite her low speed – while an enemy heavy cruiser can dictate the range, she’ll have to come within reach of Agordat before opening fire herself. Beyond that she has four 135mm Model 1937 secondary guns in a pair of twin mounts, eight 65mm/54 anti-aircraft guns plus smaller weapons. Unlike the bigger coast-defense ships, she has both a seaplane and torpedo tubes.

Agordat is a very cost-effective warship; whether the Royal Italian Navy has made a good investment will become clear when she has to face the German cruisers of the East African Squadron or the big Turkish fast armored cruisers.

Destroyers
The narrow confines of the Red Sea are thought to make surface action more likely here than in other theaters, and the Royal Italian Navy has built its own class of large destroyers maximized for this role. They were ordered alongside the smaller Soldati-class fleet destroyer, to provide a larger boat with heavier guns.

The Impetuoso- (also called I-) class destroyer is an improved, enlarged version of the Navigatori-class boats, originally conceived in the late 1920’s as esploratori, or scouts. While that role had even then been taken over by aircraft (and in the world of the Second Great War, airships) even before the boats had been laid down, other European nations had built or planned large destroyers and the Navigatori-class boats served very well to fill the surface-combat role they had not truly been intended to satisfy.

The Impetuoso class replaces the three twin 120mm gunhouses of the older destroyer design with two twin and one single 135mm guns with high elevation to make them true dual-purpose weapons, usable against aircraft or surface targets. Like the Navigatoris, they have six torpedo tubes and light anti-aircraft weapons to round out the armament. They can also lay mines.

They are bigger than the Navigatoris, though following the same hull form; they weigh in at 2,600 tons’ displacement and can make 35 knots compared to 32 for the older boats. The follow-on destroyers, known as the Comandanti Medaglie d’Oro class, would also be armed with the 135mm gun but would not be as large or as fast.

Note: The Royal Italian Navy considered an enlarged Navigatori like Impetuoso, but instead went with smaller fleet destroyers for its next several classes so that more of them would fit within the Navy’s budget. In the world of the Second Great War, Italy is a petro-state with much more money available to throw at ships and weapons.

There are eight Impetuoso-class destroyers in Sword of the Sea, joining the nine much older destroyers from Horn of Africa to give the Italians plenty of them.

You can order Sword the Sea right here.

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and new puppy. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.

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