The three Re Umberto-class ships paired 13.5-inch guns with an 18.5-knot speed and a range of roughly four to six thousand nautical miles. Those figures made them high-quality Mediterranean battleships and serious contenders for the starting point of the later type. Their limitation was an incomplete technological combination: most retained compound engines rather than triple-expansion machinery. Their French-manufactured steel armour was strong for its time but was not Harvey armour. The class came close to the later battleship formula without integrating all of its defining features.
Notable Point · 40:47-43:08
Re Umberto and Italy’s near-miss battleship design
The fast Re Umbertos show how close Italian designers came to the later battleship formula, while machinery and armour kept them outside it.