Soldato-class Destroyer

The Soldato class (also known as the Soldati class) was a class of destroyers of the Italian (Royal Navy) built by Ansaldo of Genoa prior to the First World War. Ten were built for the ''Regia Marina'' between 1905 and 1910, while an eleventh ship was built for China but purchased by Italy before completion. They served during the First World War, where one was lost, with the remaining ships sold for scrap in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Design

The Soldato class was ordered from Ansaldo as an improved version of the , a class of six turtleback destroyers built for the Italian Navy by the Pattison shipyard of Naples to a modified Thornycroft design between 1899 and 1905.Chesneau and Kolesnik 1979, p. 356.Fraccaroli 1970, p. 65. The new design carried a more powerful armament than the earlier ships, with four 76 mm (3 in)/40 calibre guns (capable of firing a shell to a range of at a rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute per gunFraccaroli 1970, pp. 281–282.) and three 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes instead of the five 57 mm guns and four 356 mm (14 in) tubes carried by the ''Nembo'' class.

The ships were powered by two sets of triple expansion steam engines fed by three Thornycroft water-tube boilers and driving two propeller shafts. The machinery was rated at to give a speed of . The ships were fitted with three funnels. Six ships (the ''Artigliere'' group) had coal-fired boilers, carrying 95 t of coal, sufficient to give a range of at a speed of or at . Four more ships (the ''Alpino'' group) were fitted with oil-fired boilers, with 65 t of oil giving a range of at 12 knots.

All 10 ships were laid down in 1905, with the first four ships of the ''Artigliere'' group completed in 1907, with the remaining ships delivered in 1910. In 1910, China placed an order for a single destroyer based on the Soldato class, to be named ''Ching Po'' or ''Tsing Po''. This ship was to have a gun armament of two 76 mm and four 47 mm guns, and was designed to use mixed fuel, with one boiler being coal-fired and two being oil-fired. In 1912, the under-construction ship was acquired by Italy, and renamed ''Ascaro''. The ship's armament was revised to conform with the rest of the class, but the ship retained its non-standard machinery.

Service

The Soldato class were the most modern destroyers in the ''Regia Marina'' when the Italo-Turkish War broke out. Soldato-class destroyers took place in both the Battle of Preveza, where Italian destroyers, including and sank three Turkish torpedo boats.Hythe 1912, pp. 160–161.Beehler 1913, pp. 22–23. and the Battle of Kunfuda Bay, where the protected cruiser , together with ''Artigliere'' and sank seven gunboats.Beehler 1913, pp. 50–51.Hythe 1912, pp. 166–167.

One ship, ''Garibaldino'', was lost following a collision on 16 July 1918. The remaining ships were reclassified as torpedo boats on 1 July 1921 and were gradually discarded through the 1920s and early 1930s, with the final ship, stricken on 15 December 1932.

Ships

;''Artigliere'' group

;''Alpino'' group

;''Ascaro''

Notes

Citations

References

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External links

Soldato-class destroyer
Marina Militare website

{{WWI Italian ships

Destroyer classes
World War I destroyers of Italy
Ships built by Gio. Ansaldo & C.