Vincenzo Giordano Orsini was the third of four s built for the Italian (Royal Navy) during World War I. Commissioned in 1917, she participated in the later stages of that war's Adriatic campaign. Reclassified as a torpedo boat in 1929, she was serving in the Red Sea Flotilla when Italy entered World War II in June 1940. She was scuttled in 1941 to prevent her capture by Allied forces during the East African campaign.
Design
The ships of the Giuseppe Sirtori class were long at the waterline and long overall, with a beam of and a mean draft of . They displaced standard and up to at full load. They had a crew of 98 officers and enlisted men. The ships were powered by two steam turbines, with steam provided by four Thornycroft water-tube boilers. The engines were rated to produce for a top speed of , though in service they reached as high as from around . At a more economical speed of , the ships could cruise for .
Vincenzo Giordano Orsini was armed with a main battery of six guns. Her light armament consisted of a pair of anti-aircraft guns and two machine guns. She was also equipped with four torpedo tubes in two twin launchers, one on each side of the ship. The ship also carried ten naval mines.
Construction and commissioning Vincenzo Giordano Orsini was laid down at the shipyard in Sestri Ponente, Italy, on 2 February 1916. She was on launched on 23 April 1917 and completed and commissioned on 12 May 1917.
Service history World War I 1917 After entering service, Vincenzo Giordano Orsini operated in the Adriatic Sea in the Adriatic campaign as flagship of her destroyer squadron. Her first commanding officer was Capitano di fregata (Frigate Captain) Ernesto Burzagli — a future admiral and Senator of the Kingdom of Italy — who also served as commander of the squadron.
During the night of 13–14 August 1917, Vincenzo Giordano Orsini got underway from Venice, Italy, with the rest of her squadron (the destroyers , , and ), another destroyer squadron composed of , , , and , and a destroyer section composed of and to intercept an Austro-Hungarian Navy force made up of the destroyers , , , , and and six torpedo boats which had supported an air raid by 32 aircraft against Venice which hit the San Giovanni e Paolo Hospital, killing 14 people and injuring approximately 30 others. Only Vincenzo Giordano Orsini made brief and fleeting contact with the Austro-Hungarian ships. She had to discontinue her pursuit when she approached Austro-Hungarian minefields and lost sight of the Austro-Hungarian formation, which then returned to its base without difficulty.
On 29 September 1917, Vincenzo Giordano Orsini, now under the command of Capitano di fregata (Frigate Captain) Vaccaneo, who also served as the commander of her destroyer squadron, put to sea with the rest of her squadron (Franceco Stocco, Giovanni Acerbi, and Giuseppe Cesare Abba), the scout cruiser Sparviero (flagship of Prince Ferdinando of Udine, who had overall command of the formation), and a destroyer squadron made up of Ardente, , and Audace to support a bombing attack by 10 Italian Royal Army Caproni aircraft against Pola in Austria-Hungary. At about the same time, Austro-Hungarian seaplanes attacked Ferrara, Italy, setting fire to the airship M.8. An Austro-Hungarian force made up of the destroyers , Streiter, , and Velebit and the torpedo boats , , and , as well as a fourth torpedo boat, according to some sources, was at sea to support the attack. Alerted to the Austro-Hungarian air attack, the Italian ships headed for the waters off Rovinj (known to the Italians as Rovigno) on the assumption that the Austro-Hungarian ships would pass through the area while returning to base. At 22:03, Sparviero sighted unknown ships about away. They were, in fact, the Austro-Hungarians, and at 22:05 the opposing groups opened fire on one another. The gunfire became intense when the opposing ships closed to a range of . According to Italian sources, the clash ended at 22:30, when the two formations lost contact because they were on divergent courses and, although the two sides regained contact at 22:45, they lost it completely after a few minutes without achieving significant results. According to Austro-Hungarian sources, Sparviero was hit and suffered serious damage, after which she left the battle line, prompting the other Italian ships to cease fire and withdraw as well, while on the Austro-Hungarian side Velebit was damaged by an Italian projectile which disabled her steering system and started a fire. Streiter took Velebit in tow, but then two Italian destroyers arrived on the scene and closed to a range of , before moving away after Streiter, Velebit and the torpedo boats opened fire on them.
After its defeat in the Battle of Caporetto on the Italian front, the Italian Royal Army retreated to the Piave River in November 1917. During the retreat, Vincenzo Giordano Orsini and the rest of her squadron had orders to slow advancing Austro-Hungarian Army troops by bombarding them in enfilade and to oppose Austro-Hungarian ships attempting to bombard Italian forces. At 10:35 on 16 November 1917, the Austro-Hungarian coastal defense ships and arrived off Cortellazzo, Italy, and began a bombardment targeting the Italian lines and artillery batteries. Italian coastal artillery immediately returned fire, and Italian aircraft made three attacks on the Austro-Hungarian ships. Budapest and Wien ceased fire at 11:52 to avoid interfering with Austro-Hungarian troops on the front and withdrew, but they returned to the area at 13:30 and resumed fire at 13:35. Vincenzo Giordano Orsini departed Venice with Animoso, Ardente, Audace, Francesco Stocco, Giovanni Acerbi, and Giuseppe Cesare Abba to counter the bombardment. Operating west of the area under bombardment, the destroyers supported an attack by the Italian motor torpedo boats MAS 13 and MAS 15 which, combined with the three air attacks and attacks by the Italian submarines and , interfered with the bombardment and ultimately forced Budapest and Wien to withdraw.
On 28 November 1917, an Austro-Hungarian Navy force consisting of Dinara, Huszár, Reka, Streiter, the destroyers and , and the torpedo boats , , , and attacked the Italian coast. While Dikla, Huszár, Streiter, and the torpedo boats unsuccessfully attacked first Porto Corsini and then Rimini, Dinara, Reka, and Triglav bombarded a railway near the mouth of the Metauro, damaging a train, the railway tracks, and telegraph lines. The Austro-Hungarian ships then reunited and headed back to the main Austro-Hungarian naval base at Pola. Vincenzo Giordano Orsini, Animoso, Aquila, Ardente, Ardito, Audace, Francesco Stocco, Giovanni Acerbi, Giuseppe Cesare Abba, Giuseppe Sirtori, and Sparviero departed Venice and, together with reconnaissance seaplanes, pursued the Austro-Hungarian formation. The seaplanes attacked the Austro-Hungarians without success, and the Italian ships had to give up the chase when they did not sight the Austro-Hungarians until they neared Cape Promontore on the southern coast of Istria, as continuing beyond it would bring them too close to Pola.
1918
The Regia Marina planned a raid under the command of Capitano di fregata (Frigate Captain) Costanzo Ciano against the Austro-Hungarian Navy base at Pola by the small boat , but had to abort the raid during attempts on the nights of 8–9 April, 12–13 April, 6–7 May, 9–10 May, and 11–12 May 1918. At 17:30 on 13 May, Vincenzo Giordano Orsini, Animoso, Francesco Stocco, Giovanni Acerbi, Giuseppe Sirtori, the coastal torpedo boats and , the motor torpedo boats MAS 95 and MAS 96, and Grillo got underway from Venice to attempt the raid again, with the MAS boats towing Grillo. Grillo dropped her tow line at 02:18 on 14 May and began her attempt to penetrate the harbor at Pola. Grillos attack, conducted between 03:16 and 03:18, achieved no success and resulted in Grillos destruction. Austro-Hungarian searchlights illuminated the MAS boats waiting offshore at 03:35 and again at 03:40, so they withdrew and rejoined the supporting destroyers at 05:00. The Italian force then headed back to port.
On the night of 1–2 July 1918 Vincenzo Giordano Orsini — by then under the command of Capitano di corvetta (Corvette Captain) Domenico Cavagnari, a future admiral and Regia Marina chief pf staff — and Audace, Francesco Stocco, Giovanni Acerbi, Giuseppe Sirtori, and the destroyers and provided distant support to a formation consisting of the torpedo boats and and the coastal torpedo boats , , , , , , , and . While 15 OS, 18 OS, and 3 PN, towing dummy landing pontoons, staged a simulated amphibious landing to distract Austro-Hungarian troops in support of an Italian advance on the Italian front, 48 OS, 40 PN, 64 PN, 65 PN, and 66 PN bombarded the Austro-Hungarian lines between Cortellazzo and Caorle, proceeding at low speed between the two locations, with Climeme and Procione in direct support.
An Austro-Hungarian force consisting of the destroyers Balaton and and the torpedo boats and had put to sea from Pola late on the evening of 1 July to support an Austro-Hungarian air raid on Venice. After an Italian MAS boat made an unsuccessful torpedo attack against Balaton, which was operating with a faulty boiler, at first light on 2 July, the Italian and Austro-Hungarian destroyers sighted one another at 03:10 on 2 July. The Italians opened gunfire on the Austro-Hungarians, who returned fire. During the brief exchange of gunfire that followed, Balaton, in a more advanced position, suffered several shell hits on her forward deck, while Audace, Giuseppe La Masa, and Giuseppe Missori fired on Csikós and the two torpedo boats, scoring a hit on Csikós in her aft boiler room and one hit on each of the torpedo boats. On the Italian side, Francesco Stocco suffered damage which set her on fire and killed and injured some of her crew. While Giovanni Acerbi remained behind to assist Francesco Stocco, the Austro-Hungarians withdrew toward Pola and the Italians resumed operations in support of their own torpedo boats.
By late October 1918, Austria-Hungary had effectively disintegrated, and the Armistice of Villa Giusti, signed on 3 November 1918, went into effect on 4 November 1918 and brought hostilities between Austria-Hungary and the Allies to an end. On the morning of 4 November, Vincenzo Giordano Orsini, Francesco Stocco, Giovanni Acerbi, and Giuseppe Sirtori got underway from Venice with the battleship , flagship of Contrammiraglio (Counter Admiral) Guglielmo Rainer, in command of the operation, to take possession of Fiume.R. B. La Racine, In Adriatico subito dopo la vittoria, in Storia Militare No. 210, March 2011 (in Italian). During the voyage, Giovanni Acerbi and Vincenzo Giordano Orsini were detached, Giovanni Acerbi to occupy Opatija (known to the Italians as Abbazio) and call at Volosko (known to the Italians as Volosca) on 4 November, and Vincenzo Giordano Orsini to occupy Lošinj (known to the Italians as Lussino).