The class was laid down in 1939, too late for most of the program to produce useful wartime service. Attilio Regolo's namesake was Marcus Atilius Regulus, consul in 267 and 256 BC and commander against Carthage at the Battle of Cape Ecnomus. The warship entered service in 1942 but soon had her bow shattered by a torpedo from the British submarine HMS Unruffled. Months of repair consumed the time before the Italian armistice, after which the ship was interned at Port Mahon in Spain. Transferred to France under the 1947 peace settlement, she became Chateaurenault and underwent a lengthy destroyer-oriented rebuild. Service through 1961 demonstrates that the underlying hull was useful even though its original navy received little wartime return on the investment.
Chapter · 22:42-27:23
Late construction left useful ships with almost no Italian wartime career
Ships laid down as war approached entered service too late, while Attilio Regolo's torpedo damage and transfer to France illustrate the class's truncated wartime use.