The closing assessment distinguishes the torpedo-boat destroyer from the later fleet destroyer. The earlier type emerged to counter torpedo boats, while the mature destroyer screened the fleet and fought other destroyers. In this interpretation, Italian design and construction kept the ships closer to the older model after the strategic problem had changed. French destroyer doctrine made its own questionable compromises, but both navies designed around an assumption that they could dictate the pace and form of a future war. This is striking because Italian naval thinkers of the 1920s and 1930s otherwise looked closely at future warfare. The criticism is that destroyer design remained confined by one theatre's First World War experience.
Notable Point · 1:08:39-1:11:30
Why Italian ships remained torpedo-boat destroyers
The final assessment distinguishes torpedo-boat destroyers from fleet destroyers and argues that Italian design stayed trapped in an Adriatic First World War model.