The early Condottieri are sometimes compared with British Leander-class light cruisers because their size and firepower look similar on paper. Even the lightly protected Leanders placed roughly three inches of armour around their magazine box. The smaller Arethusa class also combined deck and belt protection with one-to-three-inch magazine armour, although it was slower. Against those examples, the Italian ship's 24-millimetre belt and 23-millimetre turret faces look closer to splinter protection than a cruiser citadel. The comparison makes the operational cost of treating speed as armour concrete.
Notable Point · 1:32:35-1:33:53
British magazine protection exposes the early Condottieri tradeoff
Comparing Leander and Arethusa protection shows that similar British cruisers sacrificed speed but protected their magazines far more seriously.