The Ships of Battlegroup: Italy Aquila (CV)
Displacement 23,350 tons Belt Armor nil
Overall Length 759 feet Deck Armor 3.1 inches
Beam 96 feet Aircraft Complement 36
Speed 30 knots Main Guns 8 × 5.3″
cpc_BB_BG_TF_CHER3.xmlPrior to World War II, the Italian high command saw no reason to build aircraft carriers as they already had an unsinkable one, their own country, sitting smack dab in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The daring strikes undertaken by the British aircraft carriers soon proved them wrong. It certainly didn’t help that the Italian Air Force was not especially good at over water navigation and they seemed to bomb Italian ships as often as British ones! On mature consideration, it might be nice to have an aircraft carrier that can accompany the other ships and have airmen who can tell the difference between British and Italian ships. Taken in hand for conversion from the civilian liner Roma during 1941, Aquila, which means “Eagle”, was never commissioned as an aircraft carrier. She nearing the completion of her conversion in 1943 when Italy surrendered to the Allies. The Germans captured the hull, but before they could act on her, the Allies initiated air and human torpedo attacks that kept her immobilized. Plans for the ship’s airgroup were to use modified Re 2001 fighter aircraft. Initially they would consist of aircraft with non-folding wings, though plans were made to create a folding-wing version that would have allowed more aircraft to be carried. Various ordnance loads were contemplated for the Re 2001s including a torpedo option, the Re 2001G. Scuttled by the Germans, Aquila was raised and broken up in 1951-52.
