''Sparviero'' (

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

: "

Sparrowhawk Sparrowhawk (sometimes sparrow hawk) may refer to several species of small hawk in the genus ''Accipiter''. "Sparrow-hawk" or sparhawk originally referred to ''Accipiter nisus'', now called "Eurasian" or "northern" sparrowhawk to distinguish it f ...

") was an Italian aircraft carrier designed and built during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

of the ''

Regia Marina The ''Regia Marina'' (; ) was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy (''Regno d'Italia'') from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the ''Regia Marina'' changed its name to ''Marina Militare'' ("M ...

''. She was originally the ocean liner built in 1927 for

Navigazione Generale Italiana Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI) was an Italian shipping company. History The company formed in 1881 by the merger of ''Florio, I & V. Florio'' of Palermo and ''Raffaele Rubattino'' of Genoa. At the time of the merger, the two companies both ...

, but was transferred to the new

Italian Line Italian Line and from 1992 Italia Line, whose official name was Italia di Navigazione S.p.A., was a passenger shipping line that operated regular transatlantic services between Italy and the United States, and Italy and South America. During ...

after the merger of Navigazione Generale Italiana. The conversion was started in 1942 originally under the name ''Falco'' but was never completed, and the ship was never delivered to the ''Regia Marina''. She began to be scrapped in 1946, a process completed by 1952.Sparviero in summer 1943
/ref>

Service history

As MS ''Augustus''

MS Augustus and her sistership, were a group combined ocean liner and

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as ...

built in 1927 for

. She was launched in December 1926 at the Ansaldo Shipyard and was christened by

Edda Mussolini Edda Ciano, Countess of Cortellazzo and Buccari (''née'' Mussolini; 1 September 1910 – 9 April 1995) was the daughter of Benito Mussolini, Italy's fascist dictator from 1922 to 1943. Her husband, the fascist propagandist and Foreign Minister ...

(daughter of dictator Benito Mussolini). The ship was later transferred to the new

after the merger of Navigazione Generale Italiana. When the war started in 1939, she and her sister ship, the Roma were laid up before Commissioned by the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina).

As ''Sparviero''

In 1936, a project to transform the 30,418 GRT ocean liner ''Augustus'' into an auxiliary carrier was prepared. The idea was initially abandoned but then resumed in 1942. The passenger ship ''Augustus'' was first renamed ''Falco'' in 1939 and then to ''Sparviero'' in 1940. The project resumed the one developed by the Colonel of the Naval Engineers Luigi Gagnotto and the transformation works began in September 1942 in the Ansaldo Shipyards in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

. The superstructure was to be removed. She would have also been equipped with a single

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

with two lifts and fitted with a

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopte ...

that ended before the bow. The main armament would have been placed at the sides of the forecastle at the level of the hangar deck, and at the stern and there was no island structure because the exhaust gases of the diesel engines would have been expelled laterally below the level of the flight deck. She would have had a narrow flight deck. Her air group was to be either 34

fighters Fighter(s) or The Fighter(s) may refer to: Combat and warfare * Combatant, an individual legally entitled to engage in hostilities during an international armed conflict * Fighter aircraft, a warplane designed to destroy or damage enemy warplan ...

or 16 fighters and 9

torpedo bomber A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight ...

s. The propulsion plant was to remain unchanged, the diesel engines giving an estimated speed of under 20 knots. The ''Sparviero'' was going to have an armament of six 152 mm guns and four of 102, as well as several anti-aircraft machine gun positions. RN Sparviero affondato a Genova

The conversion began in September 1942, the work undertaken by the Ansaldo Shipyard in

. Apart from removing the superstructure little else was done before the Italian capitulation in September 1943. The hull was captured by the Germans and was sunk on 5 October 1944 to block access to the port of Genoa. The wreckage was recovered after the war and finally scrapped in 1951. Like ''Sparviero'', the , a modification of the sister ship of ''Augustus'', , was

scuttled Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...

and scrapped before the conversion into the aircraft carrier was finished. These two ships were the last attempts to build aircraft carriers for the Italian Navy until 1981, when work began on .

Notes

Bibliography

* Pierluigi Malvezzi
Regia Marina Italiana: Italian Carriers
– ''regiamarina.net''

External links