The Italian light cruisers are compared with their Town- and Brooklyn-class contemporaries, with attention to their ten 6-inch guns and 34-knot speed. A range of roughly 4,125 miles at 12.7 knots was modest beside the endurance Britain needed for Pacific or South Atlantic patrols. The same figure was entirely credible for a navy designed to operate inside the Mediterranean. Cruiser endurance has to be judged against the navy's strategic geography, since the meaning of long range changes with the waters a fleet expects to cover.
Chapter · 24:00-34:44
Abruzzi-class cruisers and Mediterranean endurance
The Abruzzi class becomes a baseline for judging how cruiser range, armament, and displacement reflect the operating geography of its navy.