Aircraft Carrier Impero The Axis Powers' V-1 Carrying Capital Ship [Hardcover]

From late 1941 Italy had been developing a secret project with her German allies to move the V1 wunderwaffen aboard aircraft carriers. Hitler required one million victims to get the British and American governments on their knees and force them to sign an honourable ceasefire. The personal archives of Ansaldos naval architect Lino Campagnoli (19111975), bring back to life the plans for a modern aircraft carrier, the unprecedented transformation of the Impero battleship into a fleet carrier. The new documentation reveals the draft terms of conversion of the last of the four Littorio class modern battleships which were in a state of advanced preparation (hull components and engines completed). In the period 194143 a series of plans was drawn for Imperos conversion to an aircraft carrier providing, inter alia, for the embarkation of Fi-103 (the German V1), to provide substance to Italo-German cooperation in strategic military sectors. The Kriegsmarines underwater tests on the protection of RN Imperos incomplete hull in 1944 put an end to the dream of using her as strategic weapons carrier.From late 1941 Italy had been developing a secret project to arm aircraft carriers with shipboard strategic weapons. Naval architect Lino Campagnolis archives unveil the plans of a fleet aircraft carrier, the converted Impero battleship, which was to be provided with embarked German V-1 as testified by the blueprints developed in 194143.