3502 CICOGNA C15 1943 ITALIAN GABBIANO – CLASS CORVETTE

Gabbiano is the name of a class of Italian WWII corvettes that were built between 1939-1942 / 1943. A single ship of this type was about 59 meters long and 8.7 meters wide. Full displacement did not exceed 750 tons, and the maximum speed was around 17-18 knots. The armament mostly consisted of a single 100mm cannon, 7 20mm AA cannons, 2 450mm torpedo tubes and depth charges. Gabbiano-class corvettes were built with the idea of creating cheap ships for the protection of their own convoys, with the highest possible anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capabilities, which would also be as simple as possible to build. It was assumed that they would operate mainly in the Mediterranean basin. Overall, they proved to be a very successful type of unit that did an excellent job of the role for which it was designed and built. Until the signing of the ceasefire by Italy (1943), there were about 30 units of this class in the Regia Marina. Almost all of them were taken over by the Germans and actively used by them. After 1945, those units that survived the conflagration of World War II were incorporated into the Italian Navy, and the last unit of this type was withdrawn only in 1975!