THE UNITS OF THE NAVY

At the end of the Second World War, Italy was no longer a naval power. Besides the many months of long conflict against the Allies - which has caused heavy losses of men and equipments - there were problems ensued from the armistice of September 8th, 1943-Recalling the 37,000 miles sailed during the conflict, the loss of 270,000 tons of warships and the sinking of 412,000 tons of enemy vessels, it's possible to note the Royal Italian Navy became a cornerstone and a starting point from which the Nation was capable to rebuild her fortune.

On the VE-Day (May 8th, 1945), though the Royal Italian Navy had been almost destroyed after five years of war, she was the sole organization able to grant some kind of continuity. The remaining naval forces were relevant as a whole, but most of the ships were too old and in poor conditions. They were: two battleships (Italia and Vittorio Veneto), three older ones which had been refitted 10 years earlier (Andrea Doria, Caio Duilio and Giuliu Cesare), nine cruisers, eleven destroyers, thirty six submarines and an average of forty composed by escort vessels and corvettes, forty-four fast Patrol Boats and fifty minesweeper and sixteen landing traits. There were also a number of ocean-going, coastal and inshore auxiliaries among which the bail training ships Amerigo Vespucci and Cristoforo Colombo.