Lo Sirocco It was a destroyer of the Royal Navy employed during the Second World War.
The fighter belonged to the class Mistral and – in addition to the homonymous unit and the Sirocco – there were the Grecale and the Libeccio. The destroyers of the class Mistral They were elegant in their lines, massive and equipped with a fair amount of stability. Furthermore, with speed and armament, “appropriate for the category and the era, the Maestrale, also called Venti, represented a successful class of destroyers.”1
Lo Sirocco It was conceived and designed at the Riva Trigoso shipyard in September 1931 and launched on 22 April 1934. The ship subsequently entered service in the Royal Navy on 21 October 1934.
The fighter - between 1937-1938 - took part in the military operations of the Spanish Civil War, providing escort services to the mercenaries that transported Italian volunteers to Spain. Subsequently, the Sirocco, Mistral, il Grecale and the Libeccio formed the 10th Destroyer Squadron.
With Italy's entry into the war in 1940, the fighter carried out - in the Mediterranean - both offensive and protection missions (escorting convoys to and from North Africa).
Lo Sirocco, during the conflict, also took part in water-mining missions. Furthermore, on 16 March 1942, the fighter successfully participated in theOperation Sirius.
On March 22, 1942, the Sirocco – commanded by frigate captain Francesco Dell'Anno – set sail from the port of Taranto to join the naval forces of the Royal Navy occupied in second Battle of Sirte, but it never arrived. In fact, in those hours a very violent storm raged and the Sirocco began to fail…on March 23, about 150 miles east of Malta, the destroyer sank due to the force of the sea.
The only survivors were the sergeant helmsman Michele Perugini and the sailor Domenico Frisenda.
Lo Scirocco, in almost two years of war, he had completed 96 missions, covering 33906 miles in 2288 hours of motion.2
The destroyer Sirocco She had a displacement of 1640 tons (2243 tons full load). Her dimensions were 106,7 x 10,15 x 3,31 (4,3 maximum) m.
The engine system consisted of 2 groups of turbines Parsons powered by 3 boilers Yarrow, 2 propellers, power 44000 HP. Speed was 32/33 knots (59/61 km/h).
The armament consisted of 120 mm guns, 40 mm anti-aircraft guns, 13,2 mm machine guns and 533 mm torpedo tubes. In addition, she was capable of carrying two depth charge hoppers.
The ship could count on a crew of about 200 men.
1 A. Fraccaroli, The Scirocco fighter, in Illustrated History n°183, 1973, p.125
2 See ibid
Photo: web / Navy
