Freccia-class destroyer

Freccia class

Italian destroyer Freccia
Class overview
Name:	Freccia class
Operators:	Regia Marina Royal Hellenic Navy
Preceded by:	Navigatori class
Succeeded by:	Folgore class
Subclasses:	Kondouriotis class
Built:	1929–33
In commission:	1931–46
Completed:	8
Lost:	6
Scrapped:	2
General characteristics
Type:	Destroyer
Displacement:	1,205 long tons (1,224 t) standard 2,116 long tons (2,150 t) full load
Length:	96.15 m (315 ft 5 in)
Beam:	9.75 m (32 ft 0 in)
Draught:	3.15 m (10 ft 4 in)
Installed power:	33,000 kW (44,000 shp) 3 boilers
Propulsion:	2 shafts, Parsons type geared steam turbines
Speed:	38 knots (70 km/h; 44 mph)
Range:	4,600 nmi (8,500 km; 5,300 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	185
Armament:	2 × 2 - 120 mm (4.7 in) guns[1] 2 × 40 mm "pom-pom" AA guns 4 × 13.2 mm machine guns 6 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes 54 mines

The Freccia-class destroyer was a class of destroyers built for the Regia Marina, the Italian Royal Navy, in the 1930s. It was basically an enlarged version of the earlier Turbine-class destroyers. Four modified ships were built and delivered in 1933 for Greece.

List of ships of Freccia class

Italian Navy

• RN Dardo

Built by Odero, Sestri Ponente,

launched 6 September 1930 – completed 25 January 1932

Captured by the Germans and renamed TA31. Scuttled on 24 April 1945.

• RN Freccia

Built by CT Riva Trigioso,

launched 3 August 1930 – completed 21 October 1931

In the Spanish Civil War, on 15 August 1937, she torpedoed and damaged the Panamanian tanker George McKnight off Tunis.

Sunk on 8 August 1943 off Genoa by bombing.

• RN Saetta

built by CT Riva Trigioso,

launched 17 January 1932 – completed 10 May 1932

In the Spanish Civil War, on 11 August 1937, she torpedoed and sank the Spanish Republican tanker Campeador in the strait of Sicily.

Sunk by a mine on 3 February 1943 with the loss of 170 men including Lt. Cdr. Enea Picchio, the commanding officer, while 39 men survived.

• RN Strale

Built by Odero, Sestri Ponente,

launched 26 March 1931 – completed 6 February 1932

Rammed and sank UK submarine HMS Odin on 14 June 1940. Beached herself on 21 June 1942 near Cape Bon and was finished off by torpedoes from UK submarine HMS Turbulent.

Hellenic Navy

The Greek Navy ordered four destroyers from Italy in 1929 to a modified design as the Kondouriotis class. The chief difference with the Italian ships was the substitution of four single 120 mm guns (Ansaldo Model 1926) for the twin turrets used in the Italian Navy ships.

• RHS Hydra –

Built by Odero, Sestri Ponente, launched 21 October 1931, commissioned November 1932

Sunk by German aircraft, 22 April 1941.

• RHS Spetsai –

Built by Odero, Sestri Ponente, commissioned May 1933

Served in World War II, decommissioned in 1946, Scrapped 1947.

• RHS Psara –

Built by Odero, Sestri Ponente, commissioned May 1933

sunk by German aircraft, 20 April 1941.

• RHS Kountouriotis –

built by Odero, Sestri Ponente, launched 29 August 1931, commissioned November 1932

served in World War II, decommissioned and scrapped in 1946.

The two surviving ships, Spetsai and Kondouriotis, served in the Eastern Mediterranean as part of the Free Greek Navy until late 1943. They were then laid up at Port Said, Egypt for want of Italian spare parts, and because their crews were needed for new ships built in the UK for the Free Greek Navy.

Sources

• Axis History Factbook
• Whitley, MJ (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. Cassell Publishing. ISBN 1-85409-521-8.

Notes

1. Campbell, John (1985). Naval Weapons of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 335–338. ISBN 0-87021-459-4.