The Littorio was allocated to the USA as war reparations, but both the Americans and the British renounced to the Italian ships they were to receive, on the condition that they be scrapped in Italy.

The Marina Militare wanted to keep either her or her sister Vittorio Veneto in service, so they started to dismantle them... very slowly, trying to buy time. In the end, the Disarmament Commission lost patience and cut the chase by cutting their main guns and doing irreparable damage to her turbines, after which the only thing to do was to scrap them and get the scrap iron value.

So, neither ship went abroad. After returning from the Bitter Lakes, they spent their last years in Italy.

What's different in this one?

isn't this supposed to be the parent one, since this panel comes first before the other one?

dandan said:

What's different in this one?

look at Iowa.. waiting sneaking to play with the 2 other survivors.

Historynerd said:

The Littorio was allocated to the USA as war reparations, but both the Americans and the British renounced to the Italian ships they were to receive, on the condition that they be scrapped in Italy.

The Marina Militare wanted to keep either her or her sister Vittorio Veneto in service, so they started to dismantle them... very slowly, trying to buy time. In the end, the Disarmament Commission lost patience and cut the chase by cutting their main guns and doing irreparable damage to her turbines, after which the only thing to do was to scrap them and get the scrap iron value.

So, neither ship went abroad. After returning from the Bitter Lakes, they spent their last years in Italy.

Infact, the Peace Treaty allowed Italy to mantain two battleships, but, as the others were decided to be transferred as war reparations (Littorio to USA, Vittorio Veneto to GB, and Giulio Cesare to USSR) Italy would have mantained only the Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio, the oldest, and more obsolete, in its line.
Having then avoided to have to transfer the two major units to USA and GB (that already had too many battleships to scrap), the Italians asked to replace the Andrea doria and Caio Duilio with the two more modern units, or even only one of them (everyone knew that the era of battleships had ended, and they could have been used only as formal flagship of the fleet, or for other official purposes). The cutting of the main guns was requested by the USSR, that, at that point, considered them as formally "demolished", having lost their military value, but the western allies were not so lenient, and demanded them to be dismantled for real.
A pity. If things had been otherwise, maybe today the Littorio would be still afloat, as a floating museum (improbable though, since neither GB nor France had enough money to mantain the Vanguard and the Jean Bart, but those ships, being completed only after the war, had much less historical significance too).

All fear the American subs!
Those hungry catsharks and halfbeaks were truly the invisible reapers of the Pacific. And the full list goes on even further. (The pack that attacked Hayasui's fleet sent some 8,000 men to the abyss in exchange for Harder. Takao was crippled by USS Darter, the same sub that sank Atago. Some non-implemented ships like escort carriers and submarine chasers were devoured too. etc...)

This is actually quite clever.