This unit that had been commissioned from the aforementioned shipyard by the Japanese Imperial Navy which had given it the name Kawakaze, following agreements between the Italian and Japanese governments in July 1916, while it was under construction, was bought by R. Marina to the same conditions that the Yarrow shipyards had agreed for the Kawakaze and the twin Urakaze. The 5 July was given the name Intrepido, later (25 September) changed to Audace.
This destroyer differed from the others already in service in the Navy both for the decidedly larger dimensions, both in relation to the main characteristics and to the different on-board arrangements. Of high displacement, 1250 t, a very sturdy hull made of high-strength steel and with very thick plates, very well compartmentalized, the artillery armament that was not installed in Glasgow but in Naples, when 9 came in January 1917, consisted of seven single 102 / 35 systems, and two anti-aircraft 40 / 39 machine guns and four 450 mm twin-side torpedo launchers. the engine apparatus was configured on two 22.000 hp Brown-Curtiss turbines powered by three boilers with a speed of 30 knots.
It proved to be a robust unit, of safe operation and reliability and of good marine qualities. Completed of the Italian armament, in March of the 1917, after a brief period of training in the Lower Tyrrhenian, he moved to Brindisi, his operational location.
Source: Military Navy
