Aircraft Carrier Impero

Book excerpt: From 1941, Italy had been developing a top-secret project to install guided rocket weapons aboard aircraft carriers. Campini Capron s revolutionary guided rocket weapon, the DAAC, which would later become Hitler s Henschel HS-117 Schmetterling ( Butterfly ), was the selected projectile. Classified intelligence on the V-1 flying bomb and other aircraft projects were acquired and then discarded when Ansaldo s naval architect, Lino Campagnoli (1911 1975), issued plans for the Impero battleship to be transformed into a modern fleet carrier. Previously unpublished documentation reveals how the last of the four state-of-the-art Littorio-class battleships, which was in advanced completion (hull components and engines installed), was destined for conversion into a modern aircraft carrier. This is an exhaustive historical review of the Impero and Regia Marina s (Royal Navy) developments as well as the dramatic story of the lack of co-operation and strategic insight with Regia Aeronautica before and during the war (1922-1943). Also, a final evaluation of the revolutionary Pugliese anti-torpedo system, based on unpublished German and Russian documentation, is assessed.