Found the crate of Battleship "ROMA" after 69 years

[Fenice_1965]

The news is of 2 hrs ago.
A team of researchers has found the crate of Battleship "Roma", the flagship of Regia Marina, after 69 years at 1000 mts depth.
The battleship was sunk september 9th 1943 by Do 217 armed with Fritz X bombs. Was the first use of guided bombs in History. 1350 died in the event. ~S~

[Jones]

By 'crate' you mean 'hull,' right?

[Fenice_1965]

Oppps sorry I mean the wreck.
:)

[IceFire]

Not to nitpick but the Roma was the first ship to be successfully sunk by Friz X guided bombs. I remember reading (and then just checked again) about prior combat uses although they were not recognized at the time by the Allies as radio controlled bombs.

After the Roma, the USS Savannah was the next victim but was hit with only one Fritz X and was, after hours of damage control, able to limp out of combat.

There's quite a few instances where the bomb was used I was surprised to find out. Quite a few ships were hit despite the weapon being used by only one unit.

[Whacker]

Found this link with some pictures of the ship and the story:

http://www.bobhenneman.info/roma.htm

There's quite a few instances where the bomb was used I was surprised to find out. Quite a few ships were hit despite the weapon being used by only one unit.

Aye. Thus proving the effectiveness of guided or "smart" weapons vs spray 'n pray. That said, there's still something poetic about a good old fashioned carpet bombing. :cool:

[Fenice_1965]

This is the most complete site I found, unfortunately it seems to be italian only, but maybe Google translator can do the job....

http://www.regianaveroma.org/RegiaNaveRoma_2009/INDEX.htm

[ACE-OF-ACES]

Thus proving the effectiveness of guided or "smart" weapons vs spray 'n pray.
Not to nitpick too much.. but the term 'smart' weapon is usally reserved for weapons that are of the 'fire and forget' type.. As in they have enough 'smarts' of their own that they don't require any human interaction/control after they are launched.

With that said the Fritz X was not a 'smart' bomb in that it was controled/guided to the target by a human, in the form of radio contorls.

One of the first, or maybe even the first, true 'smart' bombs used to shink ships in WWII was the USN Bat bomb. It was a true 'smart' bomb in that it used onboard radar to guide 'itself' to the target. Here is a neat vidoe of the BAT from WWII

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISdfoXxmgCwThe antiship variant of the Bat (SWOD Mark 9 Model 0) eventually saw combat service beginning in April 1945 off Borneo, dropped by PB4Y Privateers (one bomb mounted under each wing) at altitudes of 15,000 to 25,000 feet (4,6007,600 m) at airspeeds of 140 to 210 knots (260-390 km/h). Several Japanese ships were sunk, including a destroyer at a range of 20 nmi (37 km). Several Bats were also fitted with modified radar systems (SWOD Mark 9 Model 1) and dropped on Japanese-held bridges in Burma and other land-based targets.