Che netti che gerimo mimorti

Osare senza fare danni ad un nemico, che per poco ci portava alla sconfitta, sembra una beffa si......ma per l' Italia.

This was a brilliant discussion between these two excellent historians expounding on the Royal Navy's respect for the Regia Marina (and the Regia Aeronautica) as a serious threat to the control of the Mediterranean during WW2. Forcing the British to expend resources there in late 1941 through 1943 prevented them from being able to build an offensive fleet in the far east. I would say that the Italian forces helped Japan more than it did Germany, despite the success of the Axis forces in North Africa that the efforts of the Italians helped to supply. If only the Regia Marina had had a bit of time to modernize her ships with radar and improved gunnery techniques.

molto bello. come sempre

As long as we are mentioning Italian contributions to Naval History - don't forget that Christopher Columbus en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus was an Italian. And then of course ... there are the Punic Wars .... I remember David Drake could translate Latin .... I was so envious ... He could read Caesar in Latin ... I have no facility for languages - none - and it wasn't for want of trying ... German, Russian and Chinese ... but no .... . .

Oh - and thank you for the link. Nice to see someone else paying more attention to the Italian Navy in WWII - which it so richly deserves. .

Sto poco a poco recuperando le live vecchie del canale che ho scoperto non da molto. Stamattina mi son guardato con piacere questa visto che seguo anche Evropantiqva😊

Con tutti i soldi che si mangiano abbiamo 4 bagnarole 3 aerei e 1 campagnola. 24 anni di >Europa ci hanno spianato e nessuno sembra rendersene conto. Bello il pilota automatico di Draghiana menzione..

Giulio, Thanks so much for doing these English language videos. Improved access to the Italian navy goodness is brilliant.

Appena si atterra a malta si capisce una cosa, tutta l'isola è una gigantesca fortezza. Da quando i cavalieri l'ebbero in dono nel 16esimo secolo non fecero altro che costruire fortezze, mura, roccaforti e difese. Terreno aspro, sassi ovunque, pochi e piccoli campetti strappati alla roccia. Spiagge... Quali spiagge? Malta era da secoli una noce molto dura da rompere. Come si poteva invaderla noi senza gli adeguati mezzi?

Militarmente fu vinto dai Tedeschi, ma gli inglesi, furono abili 😂, a non far filtrare la verità, così che la flotta tedesca rimase nei suoi porti!

I miei complimenti per questa vera è propria conferenza di livello universitario su la battaglia dello Jutland. Il chiarissimo ammiraglio Marco Santarini ha dimostrato una conoscenza a 360° gradi su ogni questione: calcolatori analogici, statistica, meccanica, balistica e persino uniformologia. In particolare come informatico mi ha molto interessato la spiegazione del funzionamento dei calcolatori analogici in dotazione ai britannici. Mi chiedevo come nessuno nella marina britannica abbia pensato di riprendere in mano gli studi di Babbage della macchina analitica che gli avrebbe fornito un vero e proprio calcolatore estremamente preciso nei calcoli balistici. La macchina analitica in pratica aveva la stessa architettura dei moderni calcolatori solo che era meccanica alimentata da un motore a vapore ( ma al tempo della Grande Guerra sicuramente sarebbe stata alimentata da un generatore elettrico) e lavorava in base 10 invece che 2.

Fantastic preserved piece of history. A great monument to the great men who fought in her!

The Royal Navy has always regarded the Regia Marina as an equal force, especially in the Med. This is largely due to something the RN very much respects - a nation's Naval History. As a descendant of arguably the oldest continuous Naval tradition in the world, the Regia Marina very much "Knows how to Navy", and when on their home seas are enough to make any opposing Captains concerned. It's just unfortunate that having such a long history allows the inevitable periodic screwups to pile up, dragging the reputation of the RM down in the popular consciousness. Be it the inter-fleet rivalries at Lissa, or the inconsistent shell loading issues of WW2, when you have as much history as the Regia Marina, it is the failures that are remembered, not the successes...

Very interesting. Layered upper deck protection, spacer on the side and never heard of torpedo protection. Also interesting was in the submarine video the aspect of how fast you can dive. Don’t remember seeing somewhere these numbers mentioned.

Thanks for this video, gentlemen. It's helped crystallize my thoughts on Jutland. The battle went about as well for the Germans as could have reasonably been expected, while for the English things couldn't have gone much worse, but in the end it didn't matter because Germany didn't have the naval power to achieve their strategic aim (breaking the blockade)

As Phillip Vian said of the Second Battle of Sirte (which some revisionists claim as indecisive or a British defeat because most of the supplies were lost), we know what the result would have been had the roles been reversed. British battleships catching an enemy convoy escorted by cruisers would have blown them out of the water. Fleets in beings do not win wars, and Italy's only hope was to defeat the British and take Malta and allow Rommel to take Suez... The Italians, by unwillingness to take risks, failed at this, refusing to press their advantage even with no British battleships in the Eastern Mediterranean. The British on several occasions lost or passed up opportunities too, but on balance were more willing to seek and hazard battle. That the failed Italian grand strategy is given revisionist appreciation in some circles of western military thought, is very disquieting. That said, here is perhaps the greatest qualifyer to the above mentioned items. The Italian navy in terms of ships and training was VERY competent, and certainly NEVER cowardly! Nor was its morale low. While the Italian High Command squandered the Italian surface fleet in 1942, though much of this was due to Mussolini, and while the British navy was superior (in quantatative terms of training, morale, and overall willingness to risk ships), the Italian navy does not deserve to be denigrated. It was always to be respected, and its worthy to note that when it was readied for an aborted suicidal sortie to attack the Salerno landing in September 1943 (when the British had twice the available firepower, and vast air superiority) its crews never mutinied like the Germans in 1918, and would have likely gone down fighting against the odds as gallantly as the Japanese at Surigao Strait. If anything, the Italian Fleet's biggest obstacle was the doctrine of Mussolini's High Command. Refusal to risk battleships beyond the narrowest possible corridor of the centeal Mediterranean, an aversion indeed reinforced by Calabria and Matapan, were as big an impediment as fuel shortages. Incidentally the Italian Navy, at least its professional officer corps, were more royalist in their sympathies than fascist. Its a pity that upon Italy switching sides, the bulk of the Italian fleet (specifically Italia/Littorio and Vittorio Veneto) were not allowed to join Somerville's Eastern Fleet as the French Richelieu did. Under Italian crews, after overhauls in US yards for good radars and improved AA, could have given great service in the Far East in 1944-45, and perhaps have facilitated earlier amphibious operations in southeast Asia. That they were allowed for political reasons to be idled uselessly in the Suez Canal for the last two years of the war, was criminal

Very interesting video

Can you post the list of the visited places and what made them special?

I saw a piece of torpedo net displayed at Altnea. It was a mesh of circles where each circle was linked to the four surrounding it. The circles had been made by taking a piece of wire about 4 millimetres diameter and loosely twisting it round as it made the circle. Eventually it was over 20mm in diameter. Assuming the wire was not broken a torpedo striking the net would cause the nearest circle to tighten as it moved backwards and the surrounding circles would do the same to a lesser extent, all the time gently resisting.

Italy and WW2 is so nuanced. Glad to see Pedestal mentioned though. Especially with an accurate description. Sometimes people just want a simple answer when there’s just not a simple answer.

Awesome, nuanced history.

The algorithm did an excellent job by putting this in my feed. A fascinating chat and I've saved your English playlist as well as subscribed to your channel. I look forward learning more about the Regia Marina!

What a great chat, and lovely to have a new channel to follow 😊

....ho appena terminato di guardare la "diretta" per la quarta o quinta volta, e ogni volta è un immenso piacere ascoltare le spiegazioni dell'Ammiraglio. Riesce a rendere fluido e fruibile un argomento di grande complessità grazie ad esempi semplici quanto illuminanti, snocciolati con un tono di voce ed una cadenza impareggiabili. Grazie e non si preoccupi di "non essere chiaro".......lo è eccome. Grazie anche al padrone di casa per queste preziosissime "chiacchierate".

Great discussion gentlemen! I enjoyed the observations of how the Royal Navy chose to deal with the Kriegsmarine vs the Regina Marina.

I had subbed to you after the first time you worked with Drachinifel, but then I unsubscribed because there didn’t seem to be English language content and my Italian is about as good as cold (15°c) manicotti.

Even though I'm a big fan of Roman history and that the medieval Italian city states, if I ever was in Italy, you'd never get me out the restaurants !

Excellent to experience this discussion between two non-competitive, complementary historians. Many thanks to you both.

Ecco...il Giglio é nel Tirreno,ma la Meloria é nel mar Ligure.

Germany never had a balanced fleet.. whilst the Italian navy, like their airforce was a fully developed service...

Grazie. Thanks. Subscribe OK. I was in Yokosuka (Japan) recently and was impressed by the Cavour.

Elegant ships

11:50 This is a good summation of how important Britain and the Royal Navy viewed the campaigns in the Mediterranean theater, including the landings in Sicily and Italy. As Americans (and occasionally British) looking at Naval actions during WWII, many of us concentrate overly on the Atlantic and Pacific, often overlooking the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean actions. Good work Drachinifel and Giulio ! Thank you both for this informative video !