Hello everyone,
I'm back after a long hiatus and hope to continue regular updates as life allows and continue to grow and develop my skills in SB art and AU history writing. Please enjoy, comments and questions welcome!
Historical overview, 1880-1900:At the start of the new decade, the Kingdom was financially and militarily on the rise, but it was destined to face its first serious challenges. As the capital ship construction boom leveled off with the Stretto Di Messina class by 1885, the navy focused on expanding its fleet of torpedo boats, gunboats, and auxiliaries, while the army (badly in need of an overhaul) got the bulk of the military funding for the second half of the decade. Geopolitically, the situation was heating up. Austria had, as they frequently made it known, felt trapped in the Adriatic by the Sicilians in Italy and the Ottomans and Greeks in the Balkans for a long time, and wanted to make their move to neutralize threats to their vital maritime artery. On paper, the Austrian and Sicilian fleets were rather evenly matched, with 7 capital ships each. The Sicilians had the numerical edge in terms of secondary combatants and torpedo craft, though the Austrian sloops and gunboats typically packed a heavier armament. The Sicilian fleet was overall more modern, however, and benefitted from not being sidelined by the army in terms of funding and importance like their Austrian adversaries. Sicilian dockyard facilities were in better shape and better-equipped to handle the fleet, training and morale were higher, and her ships were generally in better condition. On land, Austria was far and away superior, outnumbering the Sicilian army by over 100,000 men. However, this was the hammer which had no anvil on which to strike, as the Sicilian fleet’s superiority and the complication of Italian politics outside of Sicily, with some areas swearing allegiance to Austria and some adamantly opposing them, effectively precluded the Austrian land force’s involvement in the conflict.
The Austrians had one particular card up their sleeve that their rivals didn’t count on: the element of surprise. For years, tensions were mounting, and the Sicilians did begin to escort merchant vessels in the Adriatic with some naval forces here and there, coastal defense drills were conducted, and the fleet was kept ready. However, the prevailing attitude was that Austria would do nothing but talk, as the French were keen on not joining a war against Sicily for fear of destabilizing their Italian sphere of influence. Therefore, Austrian naval forces suddenly swept down on a lightly-escorted Sicilian convoy, sinking its escorts (the sloops Vittoria and Campione) and wrecking 9 transports. They then sailed for the base at Brindisi with 3 capital ships, with the goal of destroying the weaker 2a Squadra Navale as it lay at anchor in the base. However, some picket boats from the battle prior managed to reach the base and warn the fleet, which sallied forth to meet the Austrians with 3 capital ships of their own. In the gunfight that followed, the Sicilians managed to hold their own, sinking an outdated Austrian broadside ironclad and damaging the ram Erzehezog Ferdinand Max along with a number of smaller craft and torpedo boats. The Austrians had proven that their fleet was indeed a threat, but had taken a capital ship loss against that of several second-line Sicilian combatants, as well as several secondary vessels of their own. The initiative was back in Sicilian hands, and they moved in additional reinforcements from Crete and Naples to secure the entrance to the Adriatic. They would starve the Austrians out.
The Austrian High Command, frustrated that their expensive, world-class army couldn’t be brought to bear against a nation it would surely crush, demanded that the fleet sail again and sweep the Sicilians from the sea. The Sicilian Admiralty was, of course, expecting this, and had arranged 6 of its battleships against the Austrians in the Adriatic, with nearly 1 ⁄ 3 of its strength still in reserve. The Austrians tried again to challenge the Sicilians at the 2nd Battle of Brindisi, where they attempted for the second time to force their way to the main Sicilian fleet base in the Adriatic and either destroy or capture it to clear the way for a landing in Southern Italy. The Sicilians were waiting, and engaged the Austrians in full force on May the 20th, 1889. Both fleets met in a choppy sea, unusual for Adriatic conditions, at first trading fire from a distance. The Austrians then closed the gap, attempting to engage in ram warfare. The Sicilians quickly showed them how outdated such tactics were, annihilating the recently-repaired Ferdinand Max with their superior gunnery before plastering the remainder of the battle line with shells. The Austrians claimed the ram Imperatore with torpedo craft, but their battleships failed to score any kills. The Austrian fleet scattered upon the arrival of Stretto Di Messina and Conte Di Calabria on the horizon, which were far more powerful than anything in their inventory.They would not sail again in force for the remainder of the war, which went on for a further 2 years. These were relatively quiet, as the Austrian fleet, terrified by the Sicilian armored monsters that now awaited them, would not leave port. The Austrians finally signed a peace agreement in June of 1891, establishing territorial waters and clear conduct for merchant vessels in the Adriatic.
Having humiliated a supposedly-first rate military and proved the worth of their armed forces, the Sicilians were now in a secure position. Having witnessed Austria’s impotence in the face of the Sicilian fleet, the bulk of Italian city-states including the Papal State moved to the French camp. The only Italian city-state that remained in the Austrian camp was the Kingdom of Modena, a decision that would lead to great turmoil later on. In the wake of the Austrian defeat, the Sicilian fleet received additional funding. The monarchy now set its sights on consolidating its position as a respected power. Indeed, with the 3rd largest fleet in the Mediterranean, it was already a force to be reckoned with, but as the Germans, Belgians, French, and British carved up Africa amongst themselves, the Sicilians were not about to be left out. Sicilian investors had been active in Africa for a long while now, and a number of Sicilian companies were active in Zanzibar, parts of Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Madagascar. Immediately upon the conclusion of hostilities with Austria, the Kingdom of Zanzibar was placed under Sicilian “protection.” Sicilian companies had gained such power over the area that they had literally bought out the government, and 9,000 Sicilian marines walked into the capital at Mogadishu on November the 15th, 1891.
With the former Kingdom of Zanzibar now belonging to Sicily, a jumping-off point for further expansion was established. For the first time in the history of the Empire (as it was now frequently referred to domestically) , the Royal Corps of Colonial Troops (Reale Corpo Truppe Coloniali) was established. Numbering some 25,000 colonial auxiliaries in Egypt and now East Africa, these professional soldiers would serve as the primary combatants on behalf of the Empire in Africa, supported as needed by the regular, European army. They benefited from the same regular training as the army, though were led by an exclusively white officer corps and were lower on the equipment priority list than the European army, though they still boasted breech loading rifles and artillery, as well as a small machine gun corps. Native sailors were even accepted into the Colonial Flotilla, part of which was rebased to Somalia and renamed the Flotta del Oceano Indiano, numbering two monitors, two gunboats, four torpedo boats, and twelve other armed vessels plus eight non-combatants and transports.
Since the late 1870’s, Sicilian investors had been active in Madagascar, and as a result a significant amount of Sicilian workers and immigrants (some 1,500) had moved to the island or visited for work. Along with them, of course, came Catholic missions to the region. From the start, there was great animosity between the traditional faiths of the island and missionaries, and there were many incidents of violence, but never did they lead to deaths. However, in August of 1893, five Sicilian Catholic Missionaries were summarily executed in the Madagascaran capital of Antananarivo. Following this, a wave of reprisals against Sicilians and Westerners in general swept across the island. Europeans were chased from their homes under the threat of death, European businesses were looted and burned, and all attempts to westernize the island and its people were totally reversed.
In order to beat the French to the punch on seizing the island, Sicily launched a full-scale military operation against the Kingdom. The largest deployment of military force by a European nation against an African nation since the Zulu war, the Sicilians mobilized some 15,000 Colonial troops and 13,000 European soldiers in the largest invasion in Sicilian history. Escorting the invasion fleet were the battleships Stretto Di Messina and Conte di Calabria, as well as two protected cruisers, five gunboats, two sloops, and thirty-two other armed cutters, brigs, and assorted small vessels. The Sicilians brought with them some 150 artillery pieces, 115 machine guns, and over 1,500 mounted troops both colonial and regular army. Royal troops boasted modern rifles and specialty weapons like the Gatling gun and the Hotchkiss revolving cannon.
The invasion began with a series of naval bombardments of settlements along the island’s northern shoreline as the fleet fired every available gun at the coast. Simultaneously, as the guns blared overhead, marines and colonial troops rowed ashore and established a series of beachheads at a number of coastal settlements and villages. After brief struggles with local warbands and attempts by warriors to board vessels of the fleet at anchor from canoes under the cover of darkness (which were quickly thwarted), a secure footing had been established to carry the fight inland. Over the following week, the entire invasion force had been landed, and the expedition into the interior of the island began. At first, the various warbands dispatched to fight the Sicilians were quickly brushed aside, but as the terrain worsened and became more mountainous, the advance slowed. Heavy equipment and artillery became difficult to transport across the uneven terrain, and ambushes by native archers and warriors firing arrows and rolling boulders down onto unsuspecting troops took their toll against the invaders. Over 100 Sicilians were killed. The advance was halted the following week. Over ¼ of the island had been seized and some 1,500 native warriors killed or captured, but the pace had drastically slowed, with only 2 small villages captured in the last week, as the invasion reached it’s 3rd month.
The Sicilian General Staff (based on the Prussian model) now made a series of changes. The force received a new commander, General Bartolomeo Mattei. A veteran of conflicts against Egyptian extremists in Sinai and a gifted trainer of troops, Mattei was a superb tactician who understood warfare in extreme terrain. He immediately changed the approach to the conflict. He ran down the invasion force to about 15,000 men, concentrated in light infantry units and mounted cavalry. The rest of the heavy equipment and infantry were dispatched to guard objectives against insurgents and counterattacks. This new, mobile force resumed it’s offensive in earnest in early November, 1893. In 3 weeks time, they had killed or captured another 2,000 native warriors for the loss of 70 Sicilians. They reached the capital by the 21st of November, and surrounded it. Mattei demanded the surrender of the King and his government, and issued a peace ultimatum. Either the King surrender and his life would be spared and he would be treated favorably, or future prisoners would be given no quarter, and, as Mattei put it, “Antananarivo would be subjected to a bombardment so powerful it would shake the heavens.” The natives, of course, refused, sending back the head of a captured Sicilian private in response. The order was given to bring up the heavy equipment, which arrived after about a week and a half of transport time. Then, from a network of earthworks and emplacements, the bombardment of the capital began. The shelling lasted for three days, and was nearly constant. The navy funneled shells and supplies to the siege force, and simultaneously two brigades of mounted troops cut off and destroyed a native army of nearly 5,000 men further south. The losses were too much, and the King finally surrendered with most of his capital in ruins. Occupation of the island was completed in its entirety by 1895, with a network of Catholic, pro-Sicilian militias helping the occupying forces to round up resistance fighters and establish a string of fortified strongholds and encampments to help police the new territory. Overall, laws were pretty lenient. A new, native governor was installed in place of the King, Italian became the 2nd language of the island, and Sicilian government funds helped to rebuild the capital and improve infrastructure.
Order of battle of the Sicilian Royal Army-invasion of Madagascar:
Specifically formed for the invasion, all invasion forces were subordinated to the III Army, which comprised the following formations. The Army of Egypt was only temporarily subordinated to III Army Staff under General Mattei, and returned to its former command after the first 3 weeks of combat operations when it became clear it would not be needed. Garrison and security operations were transferred from III Army to the newly formed Madagascar Corps after the island was secured. The Madagascar Corps comprised 3 colonial infantry regiments, a field artillery regiment, 2 machine gun battalions, a fortress artillery battalion, a cavalry regiment, and assorted support services units. It would continue to serve in the Sicilian military for years to come.
-II Corps (the bulk of the invasion force)
-Corps HQ/Signals (included 1 machine gun battalion)
- IV Infantry Division
“Aquila”
-VII Infantry Division
“Brindisi”
-III Marine Regiment
“Lagunari di Palermo”
-V Cavalry Regiment
“Lancieri di Sicilia”
-XI Field Artillery Regiment
-III Army Support Services Division
-XX Military Information Service Battalion
-V Engineer Regiment
-III Military Police Battalion
-XXI Machine Gun Battalion
-VIII Heavy Artillery Regiment
-Esercito d’Egitto (strategic reserve in Egypt, not deployed)
-Army HQ/Signals (included 1 machine gun battalion)
-I Egyptian Infantry Division
“Granatieri di Suez”
-II Egyptian Infantry Division
“Guardiani del Nilo”
-III Egyptian Infantry Division
“Gladiatori di Ismailia”
-V Egyptian Cavalry Regiment (unnamed)
-IV Camelry Regiment (unnamed)
-V Egyptian Horse Artillery Regiment (unnamed)
-II Cretan Infantry Regiment
“Heraklion”
-III Fortress Artillery Battalion (Crete garrison)
The Italian situation at the end of the 19th century: All told, Sicily had profited vastly from the invasion. Madagascar and its resources were now at the disposal of the Empire, the army had proven itself as capable as the navy, and Sicily was now a player in African Colonial affairs. However, for all their posturing and imperial ambitions, the Sicilians now had to funnel more and more money into Madagascar to improve infrastructure and the militia, money which was badly needed by a naval fleet which needed to expand in order to fulfill it’s new commitments in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. However, as the 19th century drew to a close, conditions in Europe were worsening. The Italian states were constantly at odds with each other and the major powers of Europe were starting to draw battle lines. On the morning of April the 29th, 1898, a collective of representatives from Parma, Modena, Lucca, Sardinia-Piedmont, the Vatican, France, and Austria met in Torino to discuss the possibility of uniting Italy north of Rome into a Kingdom. Negotiations failed to reach any common ground, however, and had to be aborted as a war between the pro-French and pro-Austrian Italian states almost resulted. The fire of unification once again subsided, and the Sicilians backed down from the edge of war, for now. However, the Kingdom still had great difficulties to face. The nation’s debt had skyrocketed during the war for Madagascar, and the fleet program of 1895 ran up a bill that proved a daunting task to repay. The country’s economy stalled, and the King’s liberal economist team was left scratching their heads about what to do. With inflation soaring, the long-privatized Sicilian economy needed to adapt to survive. The aging King Francesco II was happy to delegate more and more power to parliament, as he lacked the energy to tackle these issues.
As a result, a block of paternalist conservative politicians led by nationalist strongman Vittorio Cavallero seized a majority in parliament, and immediately began to pursue strong interventionist and state capitalist policies. Utilities, railways, the ports, several shipping lines, and the nation’s central bank were either nationalized or provided generous subsidies to save them from bankruptcy, and the state rolled out a brand-new suite of social programs designed to alleviate poverty and get the people back on their feet. Inspired by Bismarck’s social programs in Germany just a few years prior, Cavallero’s government provided unemployment subsidies, food assistance, benefits to single mothers, paid vacations, housing assistance, among others. Support for Socialist parties in the country crumbled, as the working class overwhelmingly supported the state. Programs of public works were launched too, including a huge new dock complex for a ferry service between Sicily and the mainland, including space for railway ferries. Several ships were ordered by the transport authorities as part of the new line in order to provide shipyards with income. In addition to civilian public works, the army provided a new source of labor when it began construction on a string of fortresses along the northern frontier, featuring massive concrete bunkers, underground staging areas, armored ammunition depots, and concealed artillery positions. Defenses at naval bases like Taranto, Brindisi, and Naples were also improved, including the construction of a huge new fort at Palermo bearing the name of the victor of Madagascar, Generale Mattei. It sported huge 305mm coast-defense guns protected by impregnable concrete ramparts. The country’s military was once again the focal point of a large part of its political actions, and Cavallero’s support amongst the armed forces was cemented.
In 1897, King Francesco II died. The nation fell into a deep mourning for the King who had presided over the Kingdom for over 30 years. However, the Kingdom now ran into a dilemma. Francesco II had only daughters, and the laws of the Sicilian throne barred females from ascension. As such, a suitable heir had to be found. The choice was immediately obvious: Crown Prince Alfonso. 56 years old and a veteran of both the army and navy, Alfonso was a man of herculean energy and huge ambition. In addition, he was well-liked in European diplomatic circles. He immediately set about rebuilding the importance of the throne in Sicilian politics, rallying support from soldiers, sailors, and the Church. By Royal decree, he re-privatized many parts of the Sicilian economy including shipbuilding and several banking institutions, but otherwise worked closely with the Cavallero government in establishing a strong, paternalistic conservative state. Alfonso’s ascension to the throne brought with it some drastically important changes in the nation’s geopolitical stance. He was a personal friend and frequent hunting partner to the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, and had been tutored on the matters of the throne by the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and his family. Furthermore, he had strong ties to the Spanish Royal family, and the nations became intimately close. Alfonso used his connections to position the Kingdom firmly in the pro-German camp. In so doing, he guarded the nation’s interests in the Adriatic by aligning with Austria’s most important ally, barring Austria from any further hostility towards Sicily (which had largely been abated anyway since the establishment of peace between the two countries.) Furthermore, he negotiated extensively to bring Spain and the Ottomans into the pro-German fold, expanding what would eventually become the Central Powers into an alliance that controlled huge amounts of resources and strategically important territories. The expansion of the German camp terrified the Entente powers, as the French and British realized the jeopardy their interests in the Mediterranean were in. They did all they could, the British fortified Malta and built ships for the Greeks, while the French trained both the Serbian and Greek armies, providing them with weapons and equipment as well.
The Kingdom ended the 19th century in a much different position than it started. With powerful allies, an overseas empire, and one of the most respected fleets in Europe, but a society in the midst of reform and an insecure future, as tensions rose and battle lines were drawn. The Greeks regularly threatened war over Crete and the Aegean islands, and the Balkan nations were continually at odds with each other. Meanwhile, the Russians, British, and French stared down the Germans, Austrians, and Ottomans-with Sicily now swept up in the midst of it all. Alfonso continued to push for expansion of the military and the Central Powers alliance, and increasing relations with friendly nations around the Mediterranean and Europe, but only time would tell what would ultimately unfold…
Fleet modernization in the 1890s:
With the victory over Austria fresh in their minds, and new commitments to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, the Sicilian Fleet was badly in need of reorganization and modernization. Dockyard facilities were expanding, both in the civilian and military shipbuilding sectors, and the fleet was eager to take advantage of new innovations. The Sicilian Fleet at the start of the 1890’s was still a motley collection of ships, and the main goal of the new fleet program was consistency, modernization and standardization (expanding the fleet was only a secondary priority now.) A British Naval mission was welcomed in 1885, and it had great effect on the fleet’s organization, helping to develop effective maintenance timetables, improve gunnery training, crew health, and ship cleanliness. The Navy’s crews were ready for new ships. However, the question was which challenge should the new program center around meeting? The nation’s enemies were in the midst of programs of their own at this time-Austria was rapidly rebuilding it’s lost strength after its humiliation in the Adriatic, and the French were in the midst of a building spree of their own, eager to outdo the British Mediterranean Fleet. New players were entering the mix as well. The Ottomans had just ordered a handful of new combatants, including capital ships, in German yards, and the Greeks were buying up ships left and right, ranging from second-hand French destroyers to brand new British cruisers. The fleet was instructed to prepare for a mild expansion, but major modernization. Its capital ships were now obsolescent, and the bulk of its old ironclads more or less useless. These units were mothballed or scrapped, while the existing turret and barbette battleships were retained in service and modernized with as much new equipment as possible. This left the fleet with 3 active, relatively modern battleships-far less than was deemed acceptable in the current circumstances. So, the Naval Design Board in Palermo was instructed to prepare preliminary designs for a new class of battleships as early as the end of 1888. Requirements were conventional- 305-mm guns, adequate armor to resist guns of the same caliber, 18 knot top speed, and range to steam from Sicily to Madagascar. They did, however, incorporate a heavier secondary battery than their predecessors, in light of the growing torpedo boat threat from France and Austria. Displacement was set at 11,500 tons nominal. The Admiralty’s ideal figure was for a capital ship strength of 6 battleships and 4 armored cruisers to be established under the new program. The rest of the fleet was to remain more or less the same size, but again with a focus on modernization and standardization. The fleet’s existing light units, with the exception of a handful of cruisers and gunboats, were to be replaced by a new suite of light cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats. Colonial combatants like gunboats would be budgeted for in the next fleet program, as colonial commanders stated that they could get by with what they had for the time being. Design work on the battleships finished by the end of 1888, as planned, and the ships laid down a few months later. It would be 1891-93 before they were commissioned. The rest of the ships under the program started building in 1895. All told, the program budgeted for 3 new battleships, 4 armored cruisers, 4 light cruisers, and 8-12 new destroyers. Between 16-24 torpedo boats were planned for as well, but they were to be paid off under the subsequent fiscal year. It was the most costly Sicilian fleet program to date, but when successfully completed the fleet would be on an equal footing with most of the major players in the Mediterranean. The plan was for the navy to enter the next century with a balanced fleet, and the ability to replace its 3 oldest heavy units within the next 5 years as new capital ships came off the slipways. Plans were already in place to retire the turret ship Regno Delle Due Sicilie by 1890, however the ship was to be retained in service for another 5 years until funds could be allocated for 3 ships to replace her and the Stretto Di Messina-class battleships, extending their service life to1895. Modernization on the fleet’s existing capital ships was considered low priority as funds were to be set aside for replacements around 1895-96, but all were kept in excellent condition and peak readiness for the time being. All ships of the program were completed and in commission by 1898-99, and the fleet entered the new century with a reasonably modern arsenal, and a much higher degree of professionalism and organization than in years prior. However, tensions in Europe were rising, and even the expenses of the fleet program would prove insufficient to keep up with the naval arms race, and it wouldn’t be long before the Sicilian fleet would once again be forced to reevaluate its equipment and prepare for yet another round of spending…
![[ img ]](https://i.imgur.com/BEqDHEl.png)
![[ img ]](https://i.imgur.com/LjhPg4J.png)
-Ferdinando-I class battleships:
Displacement:
13,200 tons nominal, 14,500 tons full load
Length: 115 meters (377 feet)
Beam: 22.9 meters (75 feet)
Draught: 8.4 meters (27 feet)
Machinery:
12 Cylindrical boilers, 2-Shaft Vertical Compound steam engines, 10,000 ihp
Principessa Maria Teresa: 8 Fire-tube boilers, 2-shaft Triple Expansion steam engines, 12,000 ihp
Performance:
Speed: 16 knots max. 2,200 nm range at 9 knots
Principessa Maria Teresa: 17.5 knots max, 2,337 nm range at 10 knots
Armor:
Compound armor,
Belt: 203-mm,
Barbettes: 290-mm,
Upper battery and belt: 150-mm,
Deck: 35-mm maximum,
Conning tower: 180-mm
Armament: 2x2 305mm/35 RBL, 10x1 150mm/35 RBL, 8x1 120mm/35, 10x1 47mm/30 QF, 4x 432mm Torpedo tubes (2 on each beam)
Principessa Maria Teresa: 2x1 305mm/35 RBL, 8x 150mm/35 RBL, 8x 120mm/35, 2x1 65mm/30 QF, 12x1 47mm/30 QF, 2x 432mm Torpedo tubes (1 on each beam)
Developed in response to the aging status of the fleet’s remaining three relatively modern battleships, this trio of vessels were all laid down in 1888 after nearly six months of debate in the nation’s parliament, with vicious opposition from social democrats and liberal politicians (who were eventually bribed and even deceived about the size and cost of the ships.) The first two ships, Ferdinando-I and Regina Maria Carolina were both ordered from Castellammare di Stabia just south of Naples, while the third ship of the class, Principessa Maria Teresa (later changed to Regina Maria Teresa following the Sicilian alliance with Austria) was ordered from the CMT civilian yard in Taranto. They were intended to rival British and French developments, and were by far the largest ships yet operated by the fleet, being some of the largest vessels in the Mediterranean at the time.
Overall they were considered a far more balanced design than any of their predecessors, and thoroughly modern. They eschewed the all-big gun, small secondary battery configuration of their predecessors, as well as the traditional en echelon main battery arrangement in favor of a pair of twin barbettes fore and aft, with a towering superstructure bristling with secondary guns (in light of the rising threat of French torpedo boats.) The first two ships were completed to the original design, while the final, Principessa Maria Teresa encountered numerous delays and postponements as a result of the inexperience in delivering high-tech capital ships by CMT. In addition, the assembly line for the ship’s 305mm guns was sabotaged (the French were accused, but the culprit was never found) after completion of the first two barrels. The admiralty design board resolved to simply use the existing pair of guns rather than wait for the line to be repaired, which would take months. In the search for a solution, the Germans were contacted, and thankfully had a pair of turrets completed for their Brandenburg-class battleships that could rapidly be adapted to fit the Sicilian artillery. Thankfully, the barbette diameters were close enough, and hoists, training and elevation gear, and ammunition handling equipment could be made work, though the ship had a slightly lower rate of fire than her sisters.
Other changes on the third ship included two less secondaries, re-arranged fighting tops, lack of flagship facilities, one less funnel as a result of eight instead of twelve boilers, two additional 47mm QF guns, and two less torpedo tubes. She did, however, incorporate a new 65mm QF piece atop both her turrets which later became standard naval ordnance. The first two vessels were delivered in 1891-92, respectively, while the third was commissioned in 1895. Ferdinando-I and Regina Maria Carolina were attached to the 1a Squadra Navale in Naples, while Principessa Maria Teresa became flagship of the 2a Squadra Navale in Brindisi, taking over Regno delle Due Sicilie’s role.
Of the three ships, none were active in time to participate in the invasion of Madagascar, though completed they were still working up and not officially attached to a combat formation yet. The first pair of ships served relatively quietly, though Regina Maria Carolina represented the Kingdom during the intervention in the boxer rebellion, providing fire support for coalition marine landing parties. From 1898-99, Ferdinando-I went on a global cruise, visiting Austria, the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Japan, the USA, Cuba, Portugal, Spain, Germany, and England before returning home almost a year later. Both her and Regina Maria Carolina were taken in hand for modernization from 1903-1905, emerging with a revised secondary battery, W/T gear, updated fire control directors, landing their torpedo tubes, and several other minor changes. The newly rechristened Regina Maria Teresa meanwhile was modernized a year later, receiving oil spraying gear for her boilers, among other things.
Both Ferdinando-I and Regina Maria Carolina were mothballed in 1910, as dreadnoughts were coming off the slipways. Regina Maria Teresa, on the other hand, was deemed more satisfactory due to having less use on her hull, and was selected to form a new division in 1910, the 3a Squadra Navale at Heraklion, in Crete. She would later be reinforced with the armored cruiser San Marco, two protected cruisers, a scout cruiser, and seven destroyers, among other small combatants. At the start of the Great War, she was the only Sicilian battleship stationed in Crete, and faced the combined might of the Greek fleet that was planning to retake Crete. Thankfully for her, she was soon reinforced with a Sicilian battlecruiser and armored cruiser, two Austrian dreadnoughts and an Austrian protected cruiser, and an Ottoman dreadnought and Ottoman light cruiser, as well as four more destroyers from each country. Together, this force engaged the Greek invasion fleet of a first class dreadnought, a second class dreadnought, two pre-dreadnoughts, an armored cruiser, two scout cruisers, and five destroyers.
The fight was a tough one. In heavy seas, unusual for the Aegean, the fleets met on a cloud afternoon on November the 15th, 1914, and engaged each other at range. Regina Maria Teresa engaged the Greek armored cruiser Georgos Averof, landing three hits on the ship, forcing her to flee to port. She herself was hit five times by the Greek pre-dreadnoughts Navarinon and Mykale. Despite the Central Powers victory, Regina Maria Teresa was badly damaged, her old hull taking heavy punishment from Greek 305mm guns, and she had to be towed back to Heraklion where she was berthed in drydock at the naval base there. There was talk of repairing her, but with her low speed and weak main battery, it was determined she would do more harm than good in a battle line against modern dreadnoughts, and she was declared a constructive total loss. Her main gun turrets were removed and emplaced in concrete barbettes guarding the Sicilian fortress at Heraklion by Sicilian army engineers, manned by her former crew for the remainder of the war. From 1919-1920, she was broken up by a salvage firm on the eastern end of Crete, the same yard that had broken up her sisters from 1911-1913.
![[ img ]](https://i.imgur.com/ikIR6t5.png)
-San Marco-class armored cruisers:
Displacement:
10,224 tons nominal, 10,679 tons full load
Length: 135 meters (443 feet)
Beam: 20.4 meters (67 feet)
Draught: 7 meters (23 feet)
Machinery:
14x Water-tube boilers, 2-shaft Vertical Triple Expansion steam engines 4,400 ihp
Performance:
Speed: 24.5 knots, 4,800-6200 nm range at 9 knots
Armor:
Belt: 200mm
Belt ends: 100mm
Barbettes: 150mm
Upper battery and belt: 90mm
Deck: 50mm
Conning tower: 250mm
Armament:
2x2 254mm/40 RBL, 14x1 150mm/35 RBL, 12x1 47mm/30 QF, 4x 432mm Torpedo tubes (2 per beam)
Initially conceived as second-class battleships before being redesigned and reclassified as armored cruisers, this class of two ships held the distinction of being the largest and most powerfully armed cruisers in the Mediterranean when commissioned. They were developed in response to fears that the financially-constrained Greek navy would attempt to substitute large cruisers for battleships to save money, and as a result were intended to outgun anything the Greeks could build. Both were laid down at the naval basin at Brindisi, to a design by Castellammare di Stabia and outwardly resembled small battleships. Sicilian naval tradition prevailed and a very heavy ram bow was fitted, though it would never be used, and despite being considered less than handsome, the ships were well-liked by their crews as spacious and reliable.
Overall arrangement, particularly in terms of superstructure design, followed the Ferdinando-I class battleships, however reduced to two funnels and a single large pole mast amidships. The cruisers boasted a very heavy secondary battery, again to combat the constant threat of torpedo boats and destroyers. Despite the power of this armament, the bulk of the guns were mounted rather low and could get particularly wet in rough conditions, though this was a rare occurrence in the calmer waters of the Mediterranean. Both were laid down in 1895 and both commissioned in 1897 and 1898, respectively.
San Marco was attached to the 1a Squadra Navale at Naples while San Giorgio joined the 2a Squadra at Brindisi, reinforcing the new battleship Principessa Maria Teresa. Both served relatively quietly for their early lives, with San Giorgio sent to Brazil for four months in 1901 to train Brazilian sailors. When the Great War started in 1914, San Marco was attached to the newly-established 3a Squadra Navale, facing the guns of the Greek fleet in the Aegean. During the battle of November the 15th, San Marco engaged the Greek scout cruiser Bouboulina at medium range, hitting her twice with her main guns and five more times with her secondaries, which crippled the Greek ship. The final hit from her secondary guns caused a massive explosion of her torpedo magazine, and the Greek ship sank stern-first. In return, San Marco took two heavy hits from the Greek battleship Salamis and seven hits from destroyers and Bouboulina. Taking on water, she limped back to Heraklion and was berthed in drydock. Three months later she was back at sea, and captured or sank some 17 Greek merchant vessels from 1915-1916. In early 1917, she was redeployed to the Atlantic theater and engaged by an Anglo-French flotilla of an armored cruiser, a scout cruiser, and three destroyers. She was hammered at long range by superior Entente gunnery, and lost one of her engines. Limping and unable to outrun the enemy, she sank in approximately 350 feet of water just north of Spain, most of her crew escaped and were taken prisoner by the British and French.
San Giorgio, meanwhile, started the war in the western Mediterranean, and joined a joint Sicilian-Spanish fleet operating against the British and French. On May 7th, 1914, she joined a fleet that sailed forth to deter a French attempt to attack the Balearic Islands, a major central powers naval base. Later that year, she provided fire support to Spanish troops during the capture of Gibraltar, essentially forcing the Entente out of the Mediterranean. With the Greeks having capitulated by early 1917, she provided fire support to Central Powers forces capturing Genova, and together with Spanish, Austrian, and Ottoman forces, engaged what was left of the French Mediterranean fleet in September 1917, south of Nice. She was hit four times by the French battlecruiser Beveziers, and limped to occupied Genova where she was patched up before sailing back to Sicily for proper repairs. It took to the end of the war to get her floating again, and she spent the winter of 1919 patrolling off the coast of the newly-formed Socialist Republic of Italy, ensuring safe passage of Sicilian merchant shipping through the waters nominally controlled by the Kingdom’s new Socialist nemesis.
In 1921, she was decommissioned and slated for scrapping, but the Ethiopian government stepped in and offered to buy her. Ethiopia had never had a real naval force or even a coastline, but with their acquisition of French and British-controlled Eritrea as a reward for their siding with the Central Powers and helping achieve victory in Africa, they were scrambling to buy ships. San Giorgio was sold to the Ethiopians and renamed Menelik-II after the former Emperor. Commissioned into the Ethiopian fleet in 1923, she was initially crewed by Sicilian sailors, but eventually enough Ethiopians were trained to operate her, and she sailed for the first time with an all-Ethiopian crew on October 9th, 1924. Despite being quite outdated by this time, she was sent to Sicily to be modernized. She received updated fire control directors, her boiler count was halved and replaced with high-pressure oil-fired units, and her engines were refurbished. She lost a funnel, receiving a single large funnel forward with a tilted cap, two masts, and a revised, French-inspired bridge arrangement, designed by the Ethiopian admiralty committee. The secondary battery and casemates were landed and entirely plated over, with three twin 100-mm mounts in their place, as well as four twin and four single 13.2-mm anti-aircraft machine guns. Torpedo tubes were also landed. For the money they spent, the Ethiopians could probably have built a brand new cruiser, but she was recommissioned into the fleet in 1928, after four years of rebuilding, with a pompous ceremony attended by Sicilian and Ottoman naval officers, and was reclassified as a coast defense ship and training vessel. During the Second World War, Menelik-II headed the Ethiopian fleet in the Red Sea, siding again with the Reichspakt (victorious Central Powers.) She joined the Sicilian 1a Squadra Navale in the Western Mediterranean in 1941, but before she could see any action she was torpedoed twice by a French Commune submarine off Sardinia and sank with the loss of ⅔ of her crew. She was never salvaged. She would later be replaced by another Sicilian-built purchase, and her name was transferred to an ex-German cruiser purchased in 1934.
![[ img ]](https://i.imgur.com/s5X4EdN.png)
-Immacolata Concezione-class protected cruisers:
Displacement: 2,500 tons nominal, 2,800 tons full load
Length: 90 meters (295 feet)
Beam: 12.8 meters (42 feet)
Draught: 5 meters (17 feet)
Machinery: 6 x Fire-tube boilers, 2-Shaft Vertical Triple Expansion steam engines 4,750 ihp
Performance:
Speed: 18 knots maximum, 2,500-2,800 nm range at 9 knots
Armor:
Deck: 50mm
Conning tower: 90mm
Armament: 4x1 150mm/35 RBL, 6x1 120mm/35 QF, 4x147mm/30 QF, 2x1 Gatling guns, 4x 432mm torpedo tubes (2 per beam)
Developed in response to an 1889 Navy requirement for an affordable, multirole vessel that could fulfill the part of both a fleet cruiser and a colonial flagship, this class of 4 relatively small but well-equipped protected cruisers would influence Sicilian fleet doctrine and design for years to come. Unlike with the fleet’s battleships, cruiser design emphasis was placed on powerful but cost-effective multirole vessels capable of fulfilling multiple missions, rather than on sheer firepower and protection.
At a little over 90 meters long and displacing roughly 2,500 tons, these diminutive vessels nevertheless bristled with firepower and sported respectable protection. Their mixed battery of 150mm and 120mm pieces would not be repeated, however, as the performance of the two weapons was not vastly different, and the logistics of supplying the ships with two shells of roughly the same size and weight was a needless overcomplication caused by the inexperience of the Sicilian fleet in operating ultra-modern ships. Appearance was overall quite minimalistic, with a small, open-air bridge atop a small superstructure, a single funnel just aft of the bridge, and a pair of simple military pole masts. Consequently, they were cheap and quick to build, and proved stable gun platforms and fair seaboats.
Of the four ships, two were laid down at Castellammare di Stabia, another at CMT, and the final at the naval basin in Brindisi. All received names of Biblical events: Immacolata Concezione (Immaculate Conception), Santa Epifania (Holy Epiphany), Esodo (Exodus), and Ascensione (Ascension). I.C. and S.E., built at CdS, commissioned first, in 1896. They were both attached to the 1a Squadra Navale in Naples. Before the Great War, both served quite laid-back careers, which led to a reputation for poor discipline among their crews. Therefore, it was unsurprising when Immacolata Concezione ran aground during maneuvers off the Southern shore of Sicily in 1908, and was declared a constructive total loss and scrapped. Santa Epifania, meanwhile, concluded her service with the main fleet and was transferred to the Madagascar flotilla in 1910. At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, she joined a German-Sicilian raiding squadron and racked up 7 merchant steamers sunk or captured by the end of the year, but met a swift end in the summer of 1915 when a rogue torpedo launched by a convoy escort destroyer struck her in the bow and ignited her 150mm magazine. Only 54 of her crew survived.
The final pair of ships, Esodo and Ascensione, took a year longer to complete, building from 1895-1897. Both attached to the 2a Squadra Navale at Brindisi, their careers were somewhat more active. During the Balkan wars, Esodo patrolled off Albania and Greece, ensuring the safety of non-combatant and civilian vessels. On March 7th, 1913, she almost instigated a war between Greece and Sicily early, when two Greek destroyers steamed up to her and demanded that she retreat from Greek territorial waters (a charting error had placed her some 5 nautical miles within Greek seas.) Her skipper wisely backed down, though the vessel’s guns were loaded and trained on the enemy. Afterward she was attached to the 3a Squadra Navale at Heraklion. During the Great War she provided fire support along with the pre-dreadnought Regina Maria Teresa to Austro-Hungarian and Sicilian marines during the capture of the Greek Island of Corfu. From 1915-1916 both Esodo and Ascensione were attached to the strategic reserve of Central Powers naval forces in the Western Mediterranean, and were tasked with escorting convoys throughout the region, as well as screening troop transports during the capture of Malta. By 1917, both were thoroughly worn out. Ascensione was rebased to Eritrean ports to bolster Sicily’s Ethiopian allies during the last years of the war, while Esodo joined a large Austro-Ottoman-Sicilian squadron that shelled Athens during the capitulation of Greece in 1917. Unfortunately for the Sicilians, after their victory celebration in Athens was complete, Esodo struck a leftover Greek mine, and a massive explosion ripped her in half; all hands were lost.
Ascensione, meanwhile, survived the war, and was sold to Bulgaria in 1919. Though badly worn, the Bulgarians refurbished her machinery and fire control gear, and she served the newly-expanded Bulgarian navy under the name Smeli (Brave.) Sent back to Sicily for modernization in 1924, she received improved communications and fire control gear, revised masts and fighting tops, a redesigned funnel and bridge, and swapped all her guns for four new German-built 15cm Krupp DP-capable pieces, at Bulgarian request. Her torpedo tubes were removed, and four twin 13.2mm AA machine guns were added. She returned to service in 1927, only to be sunk by Romanian bombers during the Fourth Balkan War, 1938. She was later refloated but declared too far gone to be of any use, and scrapped over the next 3 years at a yard in the Ottoman Empire.
![[ img ]](https://i.imgur.com/U0lOTH7.png)
Soldato-class destroyer:
Displacement: 330 tons nominal,
Length: 58 meters (190 feet)
Beam: 6.4 meters(21 feet)
Draught: 3 meters (10 feet)
Machinery: 4x Water-tube boilers, 2-Shaft Triple Expansion steam engines, 4,900 ihp
Performance:
Speed: 27 knots, 2,000 nm range at 10 knots
Armament: 1x1 65mm/30 QF, 5x1 47mm/30 QF, 2x 432mm rotating torpedo tubes (2 fish per tube)
In the confined waters of the Mediterranean, the importance of small craft was more evident than probably anywhere else in the world. Therefore, when France and Austria began large-scale production of torpedo boats and so-called “torpedo boat destroyers” in the 1880’s and 90’s, the Sicilians were prompted to keep up. Thankfully for them, their close allies in the Ottoman Empire were one of the prime customers for French and German destroyers and torpedo boats, and were more than willing to allow Sicilian designers to examine their equipment.
It should come as no surprise then, that the first class of Sicilian torpedo boat destroyers was an amalgamation of design practices from across Europe. Sporting a French-esque silhouette with a rounded bow/forecastle and four small funnels in two sets, they exemplified the low-down, sleek nature of destroyer design and presented a small target to the enemy. In typical Sicilian fashion, they bristled with guns, carrying more firepower than most of their foreign contemporaries. However, their main punch lay in their torpedo armament, two single rotating tubes with two fish per tube, capable of firing on either broadside. The torpedoes themselves were licensed Austrian models, roughly the same as the famed Whitehead torpedo.
Initially, twelve ships of the design were ordered, but only eight were laid down, the remaining four being reordered to a new design (the succeeding Intrepido-class.) All were built at Castellammare di Stabia, while the four Intrepido-class vessels were ordered from CMT. Laying down in 1895, all were commissioned over the following two years, with four entering service with the 1a Squadra Navale and another four with the 2a Squadra Navale, respectively. They all received names of military personnel: Soldato (Soldier), Artigliere (Artilleryman), Cavalliere (Cavalryman), Granatiere (Grenadier), Lanciere (Lancer), Corazziere (Cuirassier), Alpinista (Mountaineer), and Fuciliere (Rifleman.)
By the time of the Great War, only Granatiere, Lanciere, and Fuciliere remained in service. Soldato was lost in a storm during reassignment to the Madagascar flotilla, Artigliere had been sold to Bulgaria and renamed Drazki, and the rest had been scrapped. The three remaining vessels were all attached to the 3a Squadra Navale at Heraklion, which served more or less as an informal reserve of the Sicilian main fleet until it was reinforced and prepared for action against the Greeks as an active battle squadron. Though they had been fitted with W/T gear, mixed coal/oil firing, and made capable to fire updated torpedoes, the effectiveness of these aging destroyers was definitely in question. The Greeks had some eight brand-new turbine powered destroyers in service, plus another six roughly the same age as the Sicilian ships. There was talk of turning them into fire-barges and setting them adrift towards Athens harbor, or manning them with skeleton crews on suicide missions to blast as much as they could in a Greek naval base before being destroyed. Thankfully, reason prevailed-somewhat. Despite being replaced in Sicilian service, and being outclassed by most enemy combatants, they were attached to the battle fleet during the first encounter with the Greek invasion force bound for Crete in 1914.
During the battle, Granatiere was lost while attempting a torpedo run on the Greek dreadnought Salamis, her skipper rather suicidally ignoring his superior’s orders to stay at the back of the battle line. Lanciere and Fuciliere managed to escape with only minor damage. They were then transferred to the navy’s coast defense command and stationed at Palermo harbor, where they were present for the French attempt to storm the heavily-fortified port in 1916. In concert with the hopelessly outdated Regno Delle Due Sicilie, which had been turned into a floating artillery battery, they heroically resisted French naval and marine forces attempts to storm Fort Mattei, Fuciliere torpedoing a French scout cruiser attempting to provide fire support to the landing forces. She was sunk by return fire, but not before both her torpedoes made contact and forced the French ship to retire. Lanciere, meanwhile, followed the Sicilian counterattack fleet that drove off the French supporting fleet and trapped the marines ashore. She took a 75mm shell to the bow and began to founder, so her crew beached her and joined the land-based defenders in repelling the French attack. Six of her crewmen were killed in the ensuing action, their names would later be applied to a future class of Sicilian destroyers.
![[ img ]](https://i.imgur.com/KbohsTj.png)
Intrepido-class destroyer:
Displacement: 360 tons nominal,
Length: 62 meters (203 feet)
Beam: 6.7 meters (22 feet)
Draught: 3 meters (10 feet)
Machinery: 4x Water-tube boilers, 2-Shaft Triple Expansion steam engines, 5.200 ihp
Performance:
Speed: 28 knots, 1.800 nm range at 10 knots
Armament: 2x1 65mm/30 QF, 2x1 47mm/30 QF, 2x 432mm rotating torpedo tubes (2 fish per tube)
When the Soldato-class ships were laid down, they were widely regarded as a competitive design, but not without their flaws. Too much emphasis had been placed on armament, and the hulls were cramped. Internal accommodation was abysmal, and even coaling the ships and loading torpedoes was made difficult by the close-quarters conditions aboard them. So, before they even came off the slipways, the Intrepido-class was laid down.
Essentially a lengthened, less crowded version of their predecessors, they featured a far more minimalist silhouette, with one less funnel, a small, diminutive bridge and mast arrangement, and less armament. They retained the same torpedo armament, however, and were a knot faster than their predecessors. They were named Intrepido, Impetuoso, Impavido, and Indomito. All four were laid down at the navy basin in Brindisi, and despite being built to be better than their predecessors, many Sicilian sailors reported despising the ships. During working up, three of the four ships suffered machinery troubles that required being out of action for almost a month, and they proved to be very wet in anything but calm seas. They remained in service long enough to be fitted with mixed firing gear for their boilers and W/T rigs, before being moved to active reserve in 1905. Impavido was sold to Bulgaria in 1906, and Impetuoso and Indomito were sunk as targets in 1910-1911.
Intrepido was the only ship that served long enough to see the Great War, and she spent the first year attached to the 3a Squadra Navale in Crete. She survived three encounters with the Greeks, taking only minor damage, before being transferred to the Spanish navy as a gesture of goodwill in 1915. She was renamed Pluton, and served as a coast-defense boat off the Basque coastline, where the rougher conditions of the Atlantic made her almost useless. She was eventually transferred to Spain’s forces in North Africa, where she saw action against French ships sailing out of Algeria. She managed to sink a French motor torpedo boat with her main battery, but a faulty torpedo exploded in her stern tube and essentially obliterated her stern. She sank stern-first, 12 crewmen were killed in the explosion, the rest were rescued by the French and became prisoners of war when the Spanish squadron retreated.
![[ img ]](https://i.imgur.com/FdwM1Rm.png)
N-1 Class torpedo boat:
Displacement: 150 tons nominal,
Length: 52 meters (170 feet)
Beam: 5.8 meters (19 feet)
Draught: 2 meters (6 feet)
Machinery: 2x Water-tube boilers, 2-Shaft Triple Expansion steam engines, 3,200 ihp
Performance:
Speed: 28.5 knots, 1.200 nm range at 10 knots
Armament: 2x1 47mm/30 QF, 3x 432mm rotating torpedo tubes (2 fish per tube)
While the focus of many naval building programs around Europe was on battleships, the Sicilians recognized they would never be able to compete with nations like England, France, Germany, and the United States in terms of capital ships alone. Their resources, funding, and dockyard facilities were already taxed as it was, so building any more capital ships was out of the question. One of the fleet’s main missions since its inception, however, had been the defense of the nation’s coasts and ports, and to that end it had developed an effective network of coast defense artillery emplacements and fortifications, reinforced at sea by small, fast-moving strike craft. Initially, this meant small, gun-armed launches, and later spar torpedo boats. With the advent of the self-propelled torpedo, these craft could finally pack enough punch to threaten the big ships of rival navies.
In light of these technological developments, the Sicilian navy issued a requirement for a class of no less than 20 fleet torpedo boats, that could function both in a pitched sea battle and as coast-defense combatants. However, they had very little design experience to draw from, and as a result turned to foreign designs. As with the Soldato-class destroyers, they were able to procure French design plans from their Ottoman allies, who had recently taken delivery of several French-built torpedo boats. Combined with local ordnance and torpedoes, they made formidable combatants. They were cheap, fast, and agile, and provided the navy with a degree of operational flexibility in home waters that they had hadn’t possessed in the past.
They were assigned the designations N-1 through N-20, a practice that the Sicilian navy would follow for most of the first half of the 20th century. Due to their small size and low-intensity construction, they were ordered from a variety of civilian yards, the bulk of the orders going to CMT. All built quickly and were in service the following year. 15 were split between the 1a and 2a Squadre Navale, with the rest going to the colonial flotilla, based in both Egypt and Somalia. By the time of the Great War, only N-16 through N-20 remained in service. N-5, 6, 7, and 10 were sold to the Ottoman Empire, N-8 and N-9 to the Bulgarians, and N-11 through N-15 were sold to the Persian Empire in a large arms package deal in 1910. The others were scrapped. The remaining four were in Crete for the start of the war, N-16 and N-20 being lost in the encounter with the Greek fleet off Heraklion, but not before a torpedo from N-20 sank a Greek destroyer. N-17 and 18 were stationed in Egypt from 1915 onward, after the 3a Squadra Navale had been reinforced and could take the fight to the Greeks. They served the rest of the war relatively quietly, defending the Suez Canal from Entente attack along with an Ottoman flotilla. After the war, the remaining boats were sold to Ethiopia, where one exploded due to decaying gun propellant and the other was sunk by Eritrean nationalist saboteurs in 1931.
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