Whilst writing my recent blog entry about Ian Allan Publishing, I realised that one book was missing from my collection ... ITALIAN WARSHIPS OR WORLD WAR I. It was published in 1970, and for some reason I never managed to buy a copy ... until now! Thanks to the Internet and Amazon UK I managed to track down a reasonable second-hand copy, and it was delivered today.
Reading through it I began to remember the diversity of warships that the Italians employed during the First World War, ranging as they did from ironclad turret ships built in the 1870s to Grillo-class assault craft that were designed to climb over enemy net defences! My particular odd-ball favourites are the Alfredo Cappellini (a former floating crane that was converted into a monitor armed with two 15-inch guns in a single turret) ...
... and the Faa di Bruno (which was also armed with two 15-inch guns and that had a concrete hull; it survived to serve as a floating battery during World War II!).
Reading through it I began to remember the diversity of warships that the Italians employed during the First World War, ranging as they did from ironclad turret ships built in the 1870s to Grillo-class assault craft that were designed to climb over enemy net defences! My particular odd-ball favourites are the Alfredo Cappellini (a former floating crane that was converted into a monitor armed with two 15-inch guns in a single turret) ...
... and the Faa di Bruno (which was also armed with two 15-inch guns and that had a concrete hull; it survived to serve as a floating battery during World War II!).
That's a great find, Bob.
ReplyDeleteCorporal_Trim,
ReplyDeleteIt was not that cheap, but it was worth it just to complete the collection.
All the best,
Bob