Ship Viareggio of the Ship Alghero between 30 April and 1 May they stopped in the Port of Mahon, awaiting the start of the annual Spanish-led exercise SPANISH MINEX, focused on mine countermeasures operations. Nave Alghero is currently included in the NATO permanent minesweeper system, while Nave Viareggio will participate in the same activity under the banner of EUROMARFOR, a European initiative that brings together the navies of France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
On the occasion of the stop, almost eighty years after the tragic sinking of the battleship Roma, the crews of the two minesweepers, accompanied by Mr. Mario Cappa, member of the "Menorcamica" Association and passionate disseminator of this painful page of Italian naval history, paid homage to the sailors who fell in September 1943, as a result of a violent air attack carried by German Air Force aircraft with the release of the first bombs radio guided.
Two bombs hit the ship: the first in the aft area of the unit, at the height of the anti-aircraft towers on the starboard side, which went through the hull causing a leak and exploded underwater; the second instead struck the unit forward, in correspondence with the 381 mm elevated tower, causing the explosion of the launch charges of the forward ammunition depot. The consequent damage caused the sinking of the ship in less than 20 minutes Roma, in the Gulf of Asinara. 1.393 sailors from the unit lost their lives.
The survivors, recovered by the naval units sent to their rescue, were 622. Three hundred of these were landed in Mahon where they received help at the local naval hospital located on the Isle of Rey. The hospital, built in 1711, was later converted into the "Memorial Acorazado Roma", a beautiful museum curated by the Association, which allows visitors to consult images, documents and memorabilia of Italian sailors, and which preserves some artifacts of the battleship , whose wreck was discovered in 2012.
At the end of the visit, the crews of Nave Alghero of the Ship Viareggio they commemorated the sailors of the battleship Roma laying a wreath in front of the war memorial in the Memorial.
