The Strait of Messina needed denial more than battleship guns

Did Italy station battleship-caliber guns at the Strait of Messina, and what difference would such batteries make?

No major-caliber batteries are identified there, and the narrow, easily blocked strait made other defenses adequate; batteries near Marsala or farther west could be more strategically troublesome.

Heavy and light anti-aircraft guns, castles, and the geography already discouraged hostile passage through Messina. This is a tentative assessment rather than a specialist study of the site, but long-range batteries covering broader sea lanes would matter more than oversized guns in the narrows.