Historynerd

I'm not going to pick out a fuss, but I just want to point out that this joke, like many others of the same kind about the same thing (for example, the "one gear fowards, four gears in reverse" one) are in contradiction with a little known and somewhat tragic truth. The truth that one flaw that the Italian tanks carried with them for a long time (all save the ones built from 1943) was their underpowered engine, and therefore reduced speed both on road and on broken ground. This meant that the Italian tankers not only could not effectively pursue a beaten enemy, but, more importantly, were unable to disengaged if defeated in battle; especially in the later engagements, against overwhelming force and equipment, they could do nothing but literally charge the enemy, hoping to get a few of them before being destroyed. And they did, knowing they couldn't even run away, like after all these years many people believe they did. I hope that, in this light, I won't offend anyone if I say that jokes like this don't make me laugh.

This was the so-called "H Review" (Rivista H), done in honour of Hitler's visit in Italy. It pretty much involved most of the Italian naval forces, and no less than 85 submarines were present. There has been some discussion about it, in retrospective. Some find it an impressive show of force, some accuse the Regia Marina of having fallen victim to the show business and having put on an "equestrian show". An Italian admiral present wrote that "M. seemed satisfied, H. not that interested, and his chief sailor [likely Admiral Raeder] managed only to ask us wheter we do these kind of things with bad weather.".

Thank you! Actually, the discussion about the Pugliese TDS is rather complicated, also because I have a feeling that not many of the historians who commented on it have looked at the actual damage suffered by the ships so equipped, as stated on primary sources (i.e. damage reports compiled by the Regia Marina). And I believe that this bit about the system actually increasing damage, rather than reducing it, was stated by someone who did not properly look at such sources, but came to that conclusion on his own. The recent book by Erminio Bagnasco and Augusto De Toro on the Littorio-class battleships (which i heartily recommend to everyone, although it's pricey) showed, in my opinion, that some of the criticism is excessiv,, relative to the ships where its dimensions were optimal (as on the older rebuilt battleships its dimensions were inadequate and therefore the system was of limited efficacy). For example, about the damage suffered by the Littorio at Taranto, it's interesting to note that the flooding caused by the third torpedo hit was not attributed to an avoidable weakness of the TDS, but to other design and damage control flaws (the latter of whom partly corrected later in the war) and to the hurried fitting out of the ship. However, the authors do not try and hide the fact that, as weapon research went on and better and more powerful torpedoes were developed, the Pugliese system (which they detail as having been conceived in the final years of WWI and first tested in the 1920s) was becoming more and more inadequate, and it somewhat showed during the war, as the damage suffered by the Vittorio Veneto at the hands of HMS Urge was more limited thanks to the structural robustness of the ship rather than the Pugliese TDS, which failed completely. About that, though, I believe that one has to remind that the Littorio-class battleships were the earliest Washington-type battleships to be finalized and built, with their projects dating from the early 1930s. Therefore, while I don't want to make this an excuse or anything, I believe it would be (to a degree, let me be clear) foolish to expect from them performances and defences that few would have envisioned back then. - I don't know anything about a "spaghetti tuesday", therefore you may already know more than me about this. Sorry.

I'm sorry, but this is wrong. When the city of Genoa was liberated, the carrier was found to be damaged, but still floating. The attack had failed to cause her sinking. In fact, after being towed where she wouldn't be in the way, she remained there all alone until she was scrapped.

To be completely honest, while this article (which I did not read) may be valid, from my previous readings it is my opinion that, except for details about the Imperial Japanese Navy, the site is not that well-researched, especially in how it comes to conclusions, and how it has not been updated with more recent data. I was especially puzzled by the comparison between the various battleships designs; I cannot recommend it as a worthwhile example of its kind.

I don't think that it's a merely Italian custom to have cities with a coat of arms, and noble houses that hold a title after the city with different coat of arms.

Ehm... no. That is the coat of arms of the city of Aosta. The coat of arms of the House of Savoia-Aosta is this:

The Dukes of Aosta were a cadet branch of the House of Savoy. Their coat of arms was a mere variant of that of the latter.

Ok, let's go Red! A2!

Finally! She's here!!! Bliss... And before everything else, no, I don't know what the boots stand for. Not in the slightest. Pretty much what I expected. Ok, not quite the escalator part, I admit, but the rest, yep! About mountains... does anybody know that Italy and France have a still-going territorial dispute among them about the Mont Blanc peak? Although, it's the Frenchs' fault. They drew a map and said it was theirs, while it should really be split. D'Aosta, can you give them a lesson, please? XD I admit you almost got me with this one! But I looked around, and I finally found an Arpitan dictionary. It's interesting, though, that she proclaims both to wish to speak that language, and also not to be very fond of the Fascist government. If nothing else, because during the Fascist regime this and other minority languages and dialects were all but proscribed, and toponymies sounding foreign were Italianized (so, all the upper Aosta Valley had their names replaced, till 1945).

C2.

C2, till the final stretch!

C2.

"FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!" Sorry, I had to say it. I love that movie as well, as I am interested in space exploration as well...

C2