The early Condottieri could reach about 37 knots and had useful Mediterranean range, six-inch guns, and torpedoes. Their belt, deck, and turret protection was too thin to resist ordinary cruiser or even destroyer gunfire, while the vulnerable forward aviation arrangement remained. A crew of roughly five hundred made these cruiser-sized hulls far less expendable than the flotilla craft their design resembled. They made more sense as enlarged destroyers than as balanced cruisers.
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Early Condottieri behave like enlarged destroyers
The Giussano group achieved destroyer-like speed and torpedo power but carried only splinter-level protection in a cruiser-sized hull.