Roma 1943
Marker: recorded wreck position (Second World War).
Key facts
| Name | Roma | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1943 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Second World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | battleship | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Nationality / flag | Kingdom of Italy | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | Royal Italian Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Conflict | World War II | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | Mediterranean Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | Sardinia | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 5 km from land |
| Position | 41.1578, 8.2931 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
Roma, named after two previous ships and the city of Rome, was the third Littorio-class battleship of Italy's Regia Marina (Royal Navy). The construction of both Roma and her sister ship Impero was due to rising tensions around the world and the navy's fear that only two Littorios, even in company with older pre-First World War battleships, would not be enough to counter the British and French Mediterranean fleets in case of a possible Franco-British alliance. As Roma was laid down almost four years after the first two ships of the class, some small improvements were made to the design, including additional freeboard added to the bow.
Roma was commissioned into the Regia Marina on 14 June 1942, but a severe fuel shortage in Italy at that time prevented her from being deployed; instead, along with her sister ships Vittorio Veneto and Littorio, she was used to bolster the anti-aircraft defenses of various Italian cities. In this role, she was severely damaged twice in June 1943, from bomber raids on La Spezia.
Diving & visiting
The sunken vessel was found in June 2012, by the underwater robot Pluto Palla, designed by Italian engineer Guido Gay. It was discovered about 30 km (19 mi) off the northern coast of Sardinia, at a depth of around 1,000 m (3,281 ft). On 10 September 2012, a memorial ceremony was held on an Italian frigate over the spot where Roma went down. Giampaolo Di Paola, himself a former naval officer and at the time defence minister, at the ceremony described the dead sailors as "unwitting heroes who found their place in history because they carried out their duty right until the end". The last living Roma crewman who was on board during the attack died in May 2025.
Location
- Recorded position: 41.1578, 8.2931 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Mediterranean Sea
- Nearest coast: Sardinia
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Italian battleship Roma (1940) (revision 1362018992), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Wreck discovery”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- U-301 1943 · 107 km
- HMS Shakespeare 180 km
Other wrecks of the World War II
- USS Genesee 1942
- USS Lexington 1942
- USS Peary 1942
- USS Satterlee 1942
- USS Yorktown 1942
- HMS Dasher 1943
- HMS Harvester 1943
- HMS Hurricane 1943
- HMS Hurworth 1943
- HMS Lightning 1943
All 599 wrecks of the World War II →
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