RM Zara (CA-1930)

 

Back to Italian Navy page:


The previous Trento class were good ships of their type, but they still had many shortcomings. Too much reliance on speed, not enough armour, those were the main problems. The Zara class did a few things to alleviate these problems, the hull was fifty feet shorter, a good saving in weight, but most of all, with the connivance of Il Duce, the ships standard weight was nearly 2000 tons more than the 10,000 ton limit. How could they lose.

With those advantages the Zara class turned out to be the best of the heavy cruiser of the late 20's early 30's before the world went back to smaller cruisers. The cruisers of the late 1930's were built with no limits and were definitely a different class of ship. They still had some of the disadvantages of the Trento's, the awkward main armament, the awkward aircraft handling arrangements, the fixed torpedoes were removed and not replaced.



The magic wand is ready to go!



I like the way it has turned out, the chunky turrets give it a 'tough' look. Changing to a cross deck catapult doesn't take away from the good looks of the Italian cruisers.
 

Displacement 12,200 tons std 15,500 tons full load
Length 600 ft
Breadth 72 ft
Draught 22 ft
Machinery 2 shaft, steam turbines, 100,000shp
Speed 30 knots
Range 5000 miles at 10 knots
Armour 5.9" side, 2" deck, 5.9"/3"/2" turrets
Armament

8 x 8" (4x2)

16 x 4" (8x2)

8 x 37mm (4x2)

14 x 20mm (14x1)

Aircraft 2
Complement 820
Notes RM Zara

RM Fiume

RM Pola

RM Gorizia


The quality of computer driven artwork is getting better all of the time. Below is a very nice look at the real time line Zara bridge structure.



 

Back to Italian Navy page: