Giuseppe Fioravanzo
Encyclopedia
Giuseppe Fioravanzo was an Italian
admiral
.
Giuseppe Fioravanzo was one of the "intellectuals" of the Regia Marina
; together with admirals Bernotti and Di Giamberardino he was one of the main authors of the development of Italian naval doctrine between the two World Wars. After serving with distinction in the Italo-Turkish War
and the First World War, from the 1920s he started his activity as a naval theorist and writer besides continuing his military career. During the Second World War
, having been promoted to Divisional Admiral
, he held important commitments, both operational and related to General Staff. After the war he directed the Historical Office of the Italian Navy
for many years.
, a town about 20 km southeast of Padua
in north-east Italy
, although the family, of noble heritage, hailed from Florence
.
He entered the Italian Naval Academy
in 1909 and graduated as a guardiamarina (Sub-lieutenant
) in 1912.
He was still a cadet when he participated in the Italo-Turkish War
aboard the battleship Benedetto Brin
.
in the Raggruppamento Marina (Navy Group). The first nucleus of the Group was formed by crewmen of the Amalfi cruiser
after its sinking in July 1915. The crew manned gun batteries of mixed calibers that engaged the enemy on the sea frontline.
Fioravanzo commanded one of the 152-mm batteries and distinguished himself, along with a fellow soldier equal in rank named Parona, on 15 and 16 May 1916 in engaging Austrian-Hungarian forces near Duino
and hindering their advance towards Monfalcone
. In July Fioravanzo's battery (numbered 97 bis) was transferred near Monfalcone to be deployed against Monte San Michele for use in the planned battle for the conquest of Gorizia
. Later on it was moved back to Punta Sdobba.
, Croatia
).
In 1923, after advancing to senior officer status he took command of the torpedo boat
Calliope, an old vessel of the Pegaso class, with which he was sent to the Dodecanese
to protect Italian interests threatened by tensions between ethnic Greeks
and Turks
.
At the same time Fioravanzo began to publish his articles in the Rivista Marittima (Maritime Magazine) as well as his first books of naval theory, in so doing becoming one of the most promising officers of the Navy. He was among those Navy officers who supported the idea that the Italian Navy should build and deploy aircraft carriers of its own.
He then served as a subaltern on the newly-commissioned cruiser Trieste, and subsequently he assumed command of the destroyer Freccia and of the related 7 torpedo boat squadron.
During the Second Italo-Abyssinian War
, which resulted in a serious political crisis between Italy and Great Britain
, Fioravanzo was Chief of Staff
of the Commander-in-Chief
of the Reunited Naval Forces, a body set up in September 1935 to give a framework of homogeneity for the employment and command criteria of the two squadrons into which the Italian Navy was then divided — this at a time when a clash with Great Britain
seemed inevitable.
From 14 January to 12 October 1936 he was in charge of the light cruiser
Armando Diaz
and in that same year he took over the Naval Command School and the destroyer Aquila, head of a set of three torpedo boat squadrons which were affiliated with the school.
The School command, in addition to its institutional role of preparing promising ship captains for promotion to higher ranks, also had the secondary task of participating in the control of the Strait of Sicily
. In this function Commander Fioravanzo also played a role in blockading the Strait to prevent USSR-shipped supplies from reaching Republican-held ports in Spain
.
).
During his early period at Rome, in the Staff, Fioravanzo had the function of assistant Admiral in the Supermarina war room. He was able to follow the course of operations directly, along with other assistant admirals who rotated around the clock. Thus he oversaw all the operations in which the Italian Navy was involved during the first twenty months of war, including, together with Admirals Ferreri and De Courten, Operation Gaudo, that led to the Battle of Cape Matapan
.
Above all Fioravanzo was responsible for the Navy Department of Special Studies: the actual "study office" of the then Regia Marina
. As such Fioravanzo studied most projects of Navy "special operations" and the related deployment of forces. He was the one who, well before the war, devised the first draft of the plan for the forthcoming invasion of Malta, dubbed Operation C3
. The Department of Special Studies was concerned not only in projects, but also in the rewriting of tactical regulations, of operational statistics, of the writing of articles for magazines and newsletters, and of propaganda (via radio also).
Among Fioravanzo's most important tasks and initiatives it is worth mentioning that in May 1941, he collaborated with Regia Aeronautica
Generals Cappa and Mattei to write a series of norms aimed at easing the cooperation between the Navy and the Air Force, until that time very poor, and to create and publish the so-called "blue bulletin" that, every two weeks, updated operational commands on the activity of Italian and British Navy Forces during the previous fortnight; moreover, the Admiral added his own critical remarks to the description of the most significant actions.
The joint Navy-Air Force study had been encouraged by Chief of Staff Ugo Cavallero
who in fact used admiral Fioravanzo, Army General Antonio Gandin (who would later be executed at Cephallonia) and Air Force General Mattei like a full-blown inter-forces commission. In Cavallero's aims, the study was meant to elaborate the so-called mass action against the British Mediterranean Fleet, necessary to acquire the supremacy at least in the central Mediterranean Sea
in view of a decisive offensive towards Egypt. The plan was never carried out if not partially, but there is little doubt that this study inspired positively the later strategy of the Italian Navy.
On 25 March 1942 he moved aboard ship to take command of the 9th Naval Division, which consisted of the Vittorio Veneto class battleships. The first combat action in which he participated was the contrast to British Operation Vigorous
, which goal was to take a supply convoy from Alexandria, Egypt
to Malta
. This action took place in the wider naval clashed known as the Battle of Mid-June or Operation Harpoon
and Fioravanzo participated on orders from Admiral Angelo Iachino
, the higher commander at sea. The action of the 9th Division, together with that of the 3rd and 8th Division, forced the British to abandon the mission with no ballistic contact between the two sides.
In January 1943 the Italian fleet was reorganized and Fioravanzo, on January 6, left the command of the 9th Division and the following day he took the lead of the 5th Division formed by the old refurbished battleships of the Cavour and Duilio class. It was a purely "platonic" command: the refurbished battleships were in a reserve position, had no fuel and their operational deployment was not planned, and at any rate it had to be ruled out even for the 9th Division battleships, since the trend of the war was by then unfavorable for Italy.
On March 14, 1943 he became the leader of the 8th Naval Division, replacing Admiral Raffaele De Courten. In this capacity he was ordered to shell Palermo
, which had fallen into the hands of the Allies
some days before. This brought a negative turn in Fioravanzo's career: due to the anticipated return of the Division without accomplishing the mission, Supermarina (the Regia Marina
High Command) decided to leave him ashore and replace him with Admiral Luigi Biancheri. The disembarkement and the loss of the leading position made it impossible for Fioravanzo to be promoted to Vice Admiral
though remaining in active service. In practice, his career was over. Paradoxically, he was decorated with the Croce di Guerra
for that action.
The mission began on the evening of 6 August 1943 when the Admiral, set sail from Genoa
towards La Maddalena
(Sardinia
) with the Division formed by light cruisers Giuseppe Garibaldi
and Duca d'Aosta
. In the evening of the next day, the Division left La Maddalena bound for Palermo
, where the Allied ships were riding at anchor. Garibaldi, however, had engine troubles and therefore could not develop more than 28 knots of speed. And furthermore neither cruiser was equipped with radar
.
The sighting by the aerial reconnaissance
of unknown ships en route towards 8th Division led Fioravanzo to consider that he was going to clash with an Allied naval force under conditions of sharp inferiority. Considering the risk of losing two cruisers, but above all the lives of 1,500 crew members without being able to cause significant damage to their opponent, Fioravanzo decided not to complete the mission and sail back to La Spezia
although well-aware that this meant the end of his own career.
After the war, it was ascertained through perusal of US archives that USS Philadelphia
and USS Savannah
were heading towards 8th Division with an escort of destroyers. Thus, retrospectively, Fioravanzo's decision turned out to be the most sensible.
When the Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces was signed, Fioravanzo was the military commander of the city of Taranto
and offered to replace Admiral Da Zara, in charge of taking the Italian warships to Malta
, in case he could not bring himself to do so. Later, during the co-belligerence
with the Allies, Fioravanzo was part of the commission tasked with epurating (substituting) Regia Marina
personnel who had compromised themselves with Fascism.
. The legend was later disspelled when, in the early 1970s, the decisive role of ULTRA
in the Battle of the Mediterranean was made public. In addition to being the director of the Historical Office, Fioravanzo directed the Maritime Magazine to which he had been contributing since the 1920s with nearly fifty articles on a wide variety of naval-related subjects.
Fioravanzo left the direction of the Historical Office in 1959, succeeded by Admiral Aldo Cocchia, one of the protagonists of the "battle of convoys". However his work as a naval writer did not come to an end. During the 1960s and early 1970a the Historical Office, which he had directed for nearly ten years, published his works dedicated to naval actions in the Mediterranean and to the organization of the Navy in a series of books on the history of Regia Marina
(some of them posthumous). They are mandatory reading for all those who want to deepen their knowledge of history of the Italian Navy in the tragic period of World War II.
Admiral Fioravanzo died in Rome on 18 March 1975. As he requested in his last will, his entire personal archive was donated to the historical archive of the Comune of Monselice
.
Through his Admiral status in World War II he contributed to the improvement of the collaboration between Regia Marina
and Regia Aeronautica
which allowed to operate in a manner more adherent to the reality of the conflict. The air and naval successes of Summer 1942 are also partly due to the effort made by Regia Aeronautica
Generals and by himself.
He was operatively involved in the Battle of Mid-June as battleships commander; as leader of the 8th Division he was involved in the negative episode of the aborted Palermo shelling which cost him both leadership and career. However correct was his interpretation of the tactical situation, this was acknowledged only later, in retrospect.
From the doctrinal point of view Fioravanzo was an advocate of naval aviation
from very early on. His main work was La guerra sul mare e la guerra integrale (War at sea and combined warfare) in which he arrived as far as predicting a real inter-forces strategy. However, when the book was published in 1931, the time was not ripe yet for the Italian military to adopt such a doctrine. His strategical vision consisted of a defensive-active tactic. A smaller Navy like the Regia Marina
should have avoided a resolutive clash, instead trying to keep its own communication lines open. Differently from his colleague Di Giamberardino, Fioravanzo never thought that the major naval battle was the key of the strategy; viceversa, one or more naval battles would be sparked only by contrasts on the respective aims - nothing else than traffic operations.
Battle of the Mediterranean
Italian Co-Belligerent Navy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
.
Giuseppe Fioravanzo was one of the "intellectuals" of the Regia Marina
Regia Marina
The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
; together with admirals Bernotti and Di Giamberardino he was one of the main authors of the development of Italian naval doctrine between the two World Wars. After serving with distinction in the Italo-Turkish War
Italo-Turkish War
The Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War was fought between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy from September 29, 1911 to October 18, 1912.As a result of this conflict, Italy was awarded the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania, Fezzan, and...
and the First World War, from the 1920s he started his activity as a naval theorist and writer besides continuing his military career. During the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, having been promoted to Divisional Admiral
Divisional Admiral
Divisional admiral or division admiral is a commissioned officer rank in several navies.It is a two-star flag rank, equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the Royal Navy and the rank of rear admiral in the United States Navy.-Belgium:...
, he held important commitments, both operational and related to General Staff. After the war he directed the Historical Office of the Italian Navy
Italian Navy
Italian Navy may refer to:* Pre-unitarian navies of the Italian states* Regia Marina, the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of Italy * Italian Navy , the navy of the Italian Republic...
for many years.
Early career
He was born in MonseliceMonselice
Monselice is a town and municipality located in northeastern Italy, in the Veneto region, in the province of Padua.It is about 20 km southeast of the city of Padua, at the southern edge of the Euganean Hills .-History:...
, a town about 20 km southeast of Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
in north-east Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, although the family, of noble heritage, hailed from Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
.
He entered the Italian Naval Academy
Accademia Navale di Livorno
The Italian Naval Academy is a coeducational military university in Leghorn , which is responsible for the technical training of military officers of the Italian Navy.-The Hospital of St. James:...
in 1909 and graduated as a guardiamarina (Sub-lieutenant
Sub-Lieutenant
Sub-lieutenant is a military rank. It is normally a junior officer rank.In many navies, a sub-lieutenant is a naval commissioned or subordinate officer, ranking below a lieutenant. In the Royal Navy the rank of sub-lieutenant is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the British Army and of...
) in 1912.
He was still a cadet when he participated in the Italo-Turkish War
Italo-Turkish War
The Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War was fought between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy from September 29, 1911 to October 18, 1912.As a result of this conflict, Italy was awarded the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania, Fezzan, and...
aboard the battleship Benedetto Brin
Regina Margherita class battleship
The Regina Margherita was a class of battleships built for the Italian Regia Marina between 1898 and 1905. The class comprised two ships: Regina Margherita and Benedetto Brin....
.
First World War
He took part to the First World War in the northern Adriatic SeaAdriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
in the Raggruppamento Marina (Navy Group). The first nucleus of the Group was formed by crewmen of the Amalfi cruiser
Italian armored cruiser Amalfi
Amalfi was a of the Italian Royal Navy built in the first decade of the 20th century. She was a participant in the Italo-Turkish War and the First World War before she was sunk in July 1915....
after its sinking in July 1915. The crew manned gun batteries of mixed calibers that engaged the enemy on the sea frontline.
Fioravanzo commanded one of the 152-mm batteries and distinguished himself, along with a fellow soldier equal in rank named Parona, on 15 and 16 May 1916 in engaging Austrian-Hungarian forces near Duino
Duino
Duino is a town at the Adriatic coast in the municipality of Duino-Aurisina, part of the region of Friuli – Venezia Giulia in the province of Trieste, north-eastern Italy....
and hindering their advance towards Monfalcone
Monfalcone
Monfalcone is a town and comune of the province of Gorizia , located on the coast of the Gulf of Trieste. Monfalcone means "Mount of Falcon" in Italian....
. In July Fioravanzo's battery (numbered 97 bis) was transferred near Monfalcone to be deployed against Monte San Michele for use in the planned battle for the conquest of Gorizia
Gorizia
Gorizia is a town and comune in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, and it is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. Since 1947, a twin...
. Later on it was moved back to Punta Sdobba.
Inter-war years
After the First World War, in 1921, Fioravanzo was assigned for some time to the Navy military command of the city of Pola (now PulaPula
Pula is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, with a population of 62,080 .Like the rest of the region, it is known for its mild climate, smooth sea, and unspoiled nature. The city has a long tradition of winemaking, fishing,...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
).
In 1923, after advancing to senior officer status he took command of the torpedo boat
Torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...
Calliope, an old vessel of the Pegaso class, with which he was sent to the Dodecanese
Dodecanese
The Dodecanese are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, of which 26 are inhabited. Τhis island group generally defines the eastern limit of the Sea of Crete. They belong to the Southern Sporades island group...
to protect Italian interests threatened by tensions between ethnic Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
and Turks
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
.
At the same time Fioravanzo began to publish his articles in the Rivista Marittima (Maritime Magazine) as well as his first books of naval theory, in so doing becoming one of the most promising officers of the Navy. He was among those Navy officers who supported the idea that the Italian Navy should build and deploy aircraft carriers of its own.
He then served as a subaltern on the newly-commissioned cruiser Trieste, and subsequently he assumed command of the destroyer Freccia and of the related 7 torpedo boat squadron.
During the Second Italo-Abyssinian War
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...
, which resulted in a serious political crisis between Italy and Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, Fioravanzo was Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff
The title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...
of the Commander-in-Chief
Commander-in-Chief
A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...
of the Reunited Naval Forces, a body set up in September 1935 to give a framework of homogeneity for the employment and command criteria of the two squadrons into which the Italian Navy was then divided — this at a time when a clash with Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
seemed inevitable.
From 14 January to 12 October 1936 he was in charge of the light cruiser
Light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
Armando Diaz
Italian cruiser Armando Diaz
Armando Diaz was a light cruiser of the and the sister-ship of the . She served in the Regia Marina during World War II. She was built by OTO, La Spezia, and named after Armando Diaz, an Italian Field Marshal of World War I....
and in that same year he took over the Naval Command School and the destroyer Aquila, head of a set of three torpedo boat squadrons which were affiliated with the school.
The School command, in addition to its institutional role of preparing promising ship captains for promotion to higher ranks, also had the secondary task of participating in the control of the Strait of Sicily
Strait of Sicily
The Strait of Sicily is the strait between Sicily and Tunisia. It is about wide and divides the Tyrrhenian Sea and the western Mediterranean Sea from the eastern Mediterranean. Its maximum depth is ....
. In this function Commander Fioravanzo also played a role in blockading the Strait to prevent USSR-shipped supplies from reaching Republican-held ports in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
Second World War
When Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940, Fioravanzo was promoted to Contrammiraglio (Counter-Admiral). During the course of the war he was a Staff member until March 1942, when his assignments became of a mostly operational nature. In the meantime he had advanced to the rank of Ammiraglio di Divisione (Divisional AdmiralDivisional Admiral
Divisional admiral or division admiral is a commissioned officer rank in several navies.It is a two-star flag rank, equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the Royal Navy and the rank of rear admiral in the United States Navy.-Belgium:...
).
During his early period at Rome, in the Staff, Fioravanzo had the function of assistant Admiral in the Supermarina war room. He was able to follow the course of operations directly, along with other assistant admirals who rotated around the clock. Thus he oversaw all the operations in which the Italian Navy was involved during the first twenty months of war, including, together with Admirals Ferreri and De Courten, Operation Gaudo, that led to the Battle of Cape Matapan
Battle of Cape Matapan
The Battle of Cape Matapan was a Second World War naval battle fought from 27–29 March 1941. The cape is on the southwest coast of Greece's Peloponnesian peninsula...
.
Above all Fioravanzo was responsible for the Navy Department of Special Studies: the actual "study office" of the then Regia Marina
Regia Marina
The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
. As such Fioravanzo studied most projects of Navy "special operations" and the related deployment of forces. He was the one who, well before the war, devised the first draft of the plan for the forthcoming invasion of Malta, dubbed Operation C3
Operation Herkules
Operation Herkules was the German code-name given to a planned but never-executed Italo-German invasion of Malta during World War II...
. The Department of Special Studies was concerned not only in projects, but also in the rewriting of tactical regulations, of operational statistics, of the writing of articles for magazines and newsletters, and of propaganda (via radio also).
Among Fioravanzo's most important tasks and initiatives it is worth mentioning that in May 1941, he collaborated with Regia Aeronautica
Regia Aeronautica
The Italian Royal Air Force was the name of the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as a service independent of the Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946...
Generals Cappa and Mattei to write a series of norms aimed at easing the cooperation between the Navy and the Air Force, until that time very poor, and to create and publish the so-called "blue bulletin" that, every two weeks, updated operational commands on the activity of Italian and British Navy Forces during the previous fortnight; moreover, the Admiral added his own critical remarks to the description of the most significant actions.
The joint Navy-Air Force study had been encouraged by Chief of Staff Ugo Cavallero
Ugo Cavallero
Ugo Cavallero was an Italian military commander before and during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...
who in fact used admiral Fioravanzo, Army General Antonio Gandin (who would later be executed at Cephallonia) and Air Force General Mattei like a full-blown inter-forces commission. In Cavallero's aims, the study was meant to elaborate the so-called mass action against the British Mediterranean Fleet, necessary to acquire the supremacy at least in the central Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
in view of a decisive offensive towards Egypt. The plan was never carried out if not partially, but there is little doubt that this study inspired positively the later strategy of the Italian Navy.
On 25 March 1942 he moved aboard ship to take command of the 9th Naval Division, which consisted of the Vittorio Veneto class battleships. The first combat action in which he participated was the contrast to British Operation Vigorous
Operation Vigorous
Operation Vigorous was a World War II Allied operation to deliver a supply convoy that sailed from Haifa and Port Said on 12 June 1942 to Malta. The convoy encountered heavy Axis air and sea opposition and returned to Alexandria on 16 June....
, which goal was to take a supply convoy from Alexandria, Egypt
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
to Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
. This action took place in the wider naval clashed known as the Battle of Mid-June or Operation Harpoon
Operation Harpoon (1942)
Not to be confused with Operation Harpoon Operation Harpoon was one of two simultaneous Allied convoys sent to supply Malta in the Axis-dominated Mediterranean Sea in mid-June 1942, during the Second World War. One convoy, Operation Vigorous, left Alexandria. The other, Operation Harpoon, travelled...
and Fioravanzo participated on orders from Admiral Angelo Iachino
Angelo Iachino
Angelo Iachino was an Italian admiral during World War II.-Early life and career:Born at Sanremo, Liguria, Iachino entered the Italian Naval Academy at Livorno in 1904, and graduated in 1907....
, the higher commander at sea. The action of the 9th Division, together with that of the 3rd and 8th Division, forced the British to abandon the mission with no ballistic contact between the two sides.
In January 1943 the Italian fleet was reorganized and Fioravanzo, on January 6, left the command of the 9th Division and the following day he took the lead of the 5th Division formed by the old refurbished battleships of the Cavour and Duilio class. It was a purely "platonic" command: the refurbished battleships were in a reserve position, had no fuel and their operational deployment was not planned, and at any rate it had to be ruled out even for the 9th Division battleships, since the trend of the war was by then unfavorable for Italy.
On March 14, 1943 he became the leader of the 8th Naval Division, replacing Admiral Raffaele De Courten. In this capacity he was ordered to shell Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, which had fallen into the hands of the Allies
Allies
In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...
some days before. This brought a negative turn in Fioravanzo's career: due to the anticipated return of the Division without accomplishing the mission, Supermarina (the Regia Marina
Regia Marina
The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
High Command) decided to leave him ashore and replace him with Admiral Luigi Biancheri. The disembarkement and the loss of the leading position made it impossible for Fioravanzo to be promoted to Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral
Vice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...
though remaining in active service. In practice, his career was over. Paradoxically, he was decorated with the Croce di Guerra
Croce di Guerra
The Croce di Guerra al Valor Militare is an Italian decoration for military valour.- Past recipients :* Edouard Izac, Lieutenant, United States Navy* Douglas MacArthur, General, United States Army...
for that action.
The mission began on the evening of 6 August 1943 when the Admiral, set sail from Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
towards La Maddalena
La Maddalena
La Maddalena is a town and comune located on the island with the same name, in northern Sardinia, part of the province of Olbia-Tempio, Italy.-The town:...
(Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
) with the Division formed by light cruisers Giuseppe Garibaldi
Italian cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi (1936)
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian Duca degli Abruzzi class light cruiser, that served in the Regia Marina during World War II. After the war she was retained by the Marina Militare and upgraded...
and Duca d'Aosta
Italian cruiser Emanuele Filiberto Duca d'Aosta
Emanuele Filiberto Duca d'Aosta was an Italian light cruiser of the fourth group of the , that served in the Regia Marina during World War II. She survived the war, but was ceded as war reparation to the Soviet Navy in 1949...
. In the evening of the next day, the Division left La Maddalena bound for Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, where the Allied ships were riding at anchor. Garibaldi, however, had engine troubles and therefore could not develop more than 28 knots of speed. And furthermore neither cruiser was equipped with radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
.
The sighting by the aerial reconnaissance
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
of unknown ships en route towards 8th Division led Fioravanzo to consider that he was going to clash with an Allied naval force under conditions of sharp inferiority. Considering the risk of losing two cruisers, but above all the lives of 1,500 crew members without being able to cause significant damage to their opponent, Fioravanzo decided not to complete the mission and sail back to La Spezia
La Spezia
La Spezia , at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the Liguria region of northern Italy, is the capital city of the province of La Spezia. Located between Genoa and Pisa on the Ligurian Sea, it is one of the main Italian military and commercial harbours and hosts one of Italy's biggest military...
although well-aware that this meant the end of his own career.
After the war, it was ascertained through perusal of US archives that USS Philadelphia
USS Philadelphia (CL-41)
USS Philadelphia , a Brooklyn class light cruiser of the United States Navy. She was the fifth ship named for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the 1950s, she was commissioned into the Brazilian Navy as Almirante Barroso....
and USS Savannah
USS Savannah (CL-42)
USS Savannah was a light cruiser of the Brooklyn-class. She was laid down on 31 May 1934 by the New York Shipbuilding Association in Camden, New Jersey; launched on 8 May 1937; sponsored by Miss Jayne Maye Bowden, the niece of Senator Richard B. Russell, Jr., of Georgia; and commissioned in the...
were heading towards 8th Division with an escort of destroyers. Thus, retrospectively, Fioravanzo's decision turned out to be the most sensible.
When the Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces was signed, Fioravanzo was the military commander of the city of Taranto
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
and offered to replace Admiral Da Zara, in charge of taking the Italian warships to Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
, in case he could not bring himself to do so. Later, during the co-belligerence
Co-belligerence
Co-belligerence is the waging of a war in cooperation against a common enemy without a formal treaty of military alliance.Co-belligerence is a broader and less precise status of wartime partnership than a formal military alliance. Co-belligerents may support each other materially, exchange...
with the Allies, Fioravanzo was part of the commission tasked with epurating (substituting) Regia Marina
Regia Marina
The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
personnel who had compromised themselves with Fascism.
After World War Two
From 1950 onwards he directed the Navy Historical office. In that period being the head of such office, he was involved in a controversy with journalist Antonio Trizzino, author of the pamphlet Navi e poltrone (Ships and armchairs). In his book Trizzino made accusations against the wartime Navy Staff, going as far as conjecturing that the admirals had betrayed the Italian Navy by favoring the Allied victory. Trizzino's book started the "legend" of a supposedly pro-British Regia MarinaRegia Marina
The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
. The legend was later disspelled when, in the early 1970s, the decisive role of ULTRA
Ultra
Ultra was the designation adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by "breaking" high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. "Ultra" eventually became the standard...
in the Battle of the Mediterranean was made public. In addition to being the director of the Historical Office, Fioravanzo directed the Maritime Magazine to which he had been contributing since the 1920s with nearly fifty articles on a wide variety of naval-related subjects.
Fioravanzo left the direction of the Historical Office in 1959, succeeded by Admiral Aldo Cocchia, one of the protagonists of the "battle of convoys". However his work as a naval writer did not come to an end. During the 1960s and early 1970a the Historical Office, which he had directed for nearly ten years, published his works dedicated to naval actions in the Mediterranean and to the organization of the Navy in a series of books on the history of Regia Marina
Regia Marina
The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
(some of them posthumous). They are mandatory reading for all those who want to deepen their knowledge of history of the Italian Navy in the tragic period of World War II.
Admiral Fioravanzo died in Rome on 18 March 1975. As he requested in his last will, his entire personal archive was donated to the historical archive of the Comune of Monselice
Monselice
Monselice is a town and municipality located in northeastern Italy, in the Veneto region, in the province of Padua.It is about 20 km southeast of the city of Padua, at the southern edge of the Euganean Hills .-History:...
.
Conclusions
Amongst all the soldiers who attained Admiral rank in the military of unified Italy, Fioravanzo certainly occupied a relevant place. The combat experience he made in two World Wars, the conspicuous production of written material on naval history and theory, his exchange of ideas with colleagues such as Bernotti and Di Giamberardino contributed to making Fioravanzo one of the best-known Italian admirals both in Italy and abroad.Through his Admiral status in World War II he contributed to the improvement of the collaboration between Regia Marina
Regia Marina
The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
and Regia Aeronautica
Regia Aeronautica
The Italian Royal Air Force was the name of the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as a service independent of the Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946...
which allowed to operate in a manner more adherent to the reality of the conflict. The air and naval successes of Summer 1942 are also partly due to the effort made by Regia Aeronautica
Regia Aeronautica
The Italian Royal Air Force was the name of the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as a service independent of the Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946...
Generals and by himself.
He was operatively involved in the Battle of Mid-June as battleships commander; as leader of the 8th Division he was involved in the negative episode of the aborted Palermo shelling which cost him both leadership and career. However correct was his interpretation of the tactical situation, this was acknowledged only later, in retrospect.
From the doctrinal point of view Fioravanzo was an advocate of naval aviation
Naval aviation
Naval aviation is the application of manned military air power by navies, including ships that embark fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters. In contrast, maritime aviation is the operation of aircraft in a maritime role under the command of non-naval forces such as the former RAF Coastal Command or a...
from very early on. His main work was La guerra sul mare e la guerra integrale (War at sea and combined warfare) in which he arrived as far as predicting a real inter-forces strategy. However, when the book was published in 1931, the time was not ripe yet for the Italian military to adopt such a doctrine. His strategical vision consisted of a defensive-active tactic. A smaller Navy like the Regia Marina
Regia Marina
The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
should have avoided a resolutive clash, instead trying to keep its own communication lines open. Differently from his colleague Di Giamberardino, Fioravanzo never thought that the major naval battle was the key of the strategy; viceversa, one or more naval battles would be sparked only by contrasts on the respective aims - nothing else than traffic operations.
Promotions
- GuardiamarinaSub-LieutenantSub-lieutenant is a military rank. It is normally a junior officer rank.In many navies, a sub-lieutenant is a naval commissioned or subordinate officer, ranking below a lieutenant. In the Royal Navy the rank of sub-lieutenant is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the British Army and of...
(1912) - Sottotenente di Vascello (1914)
- Primo Tenente di VascelloLieutenantA lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
(1916) - Tenente di Vascello (1918)
- Capitano di corvettaLieutenant CommanderLieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
(1923) - Capitano di fregataCommanderCommander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
(1928) - Capitano di VascelloCaptain (naval)Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....
(1934) - Contrammiraglio (1 January 1939)
- Ammiraglio di DivisioneDivisional AdmiralDivisional admiral or division admiral is a commissioned officer rank in several navies.It is a two-star flag rank, equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the Royal Navy and the rank of rear admiral in the United States Navy.-Belgium:...
(1940) - Ammiraglio di squadraVice AdmiralVice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...
(1953)
See also
Military history of Italy during World War IIMilitary history of Italy during World War II
During World War II , the Kingdom of Italy had a varied and tumultuous military history. Defeated in Greece, France, East Africa and North Africa, the Italian invasion of British Somaliland was one of the only successful Italian campaigns of World War II accomplished without German support.In...
Battle of the Mediterranean
Battle of the Mediterranean
The Battle of the Mediterranean was the name given to the naval campaign fought in the Mediterranean Sea during World War II, from 10 June 1940-2 May 1945....
Italian Co-Belligerent Navy
Italian Co-Belligerent Navy
The Italian Co-Belligerent Navy , or Navy of the South or Royal Navy , was the navy of the Italian royalist forces fighting on the side of the Allies in southern Italy after the Allied armistice with Italy in September 1943...