Italian destroyer Giuseppe Missori

Giuseppe Missori was laid down at the {{lang|it|Cantieri navali Odero}} ({{langx|en|Odero Shipyard}}) in Sestri Ponente, Italy, on 19 January 1914. She was launched on 20 December 1915 and completed and commissioned on 7 March 1916.{{sfn|Fraccaroli|1970|p=72}}

World War I was raging when Giuseppe Missori entered service. On 3 May 1916 Giuseppe Missori, under the command of Capitano di corvetta (Corvette Captain) Ferrero, got underway with her sister ship {{ship|Italian destroyer|Francesco Nullo|1914|2}} and the scout cruisers {{ship|Italian cruiser|Cesare Rossarol||2}} and {{ship|Italian cruiser|Guglielmo Pepe||2}} to provide distant support to the destroyers {{ship|Italian destroyer|Fuciliere|1909|2}} and {{ship|Italian destroyer|Zeffiro|1904|2}} as they laid a minefield{{sfn|Favre|pp=127, 129, 133, 197, 250, 266, 284}} in the Adriatic Sea off Šibenik (known to the Italians as Sebenico) on the coast of Austria-Hungary.{{sfn|Favre|pp=98}} Off Punta Maestra, the Italian formation sighted four Austro-Hungarian Navy {{sclass|Huszár|destroyer|2}}s and six Austro-Hungarian torpedo boats and steered to attack them.{{sfn|Favre|pp=127, 129, 133, 197, 250, 266, 284}} While the Austro-Hungarian ships headed toward the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Pola with the Italians in pursuit, three Austro-Hungarian seaplanes attacked the Italian ships. The Italians repelled the attack, but at 15:50, after an Austro-Hungarian cruiser and two additional Austro-Hungarian torpedo boats departed Pola to support the Austro-Hungarian ships, the Italian force gave up the chase and withdrew.{{sfn|Favre|pp=127, 129, 133, 197, 250, 266, 284}} Meanwhile, Fuciliere and Zeffiro succeeded in laying the minefield during the night of {{nowrap|3–4 May 1916.{{sfn|Favre|pp=98}}}}

On 12 June 1916, escorted by Cesare Rossarol and Guglielmo Pepe as far as the Austro-Hungarian defensive barrage, Giuseppe Missori and Francesco Nullo supported Fuciliere, Zeffiro, the destroyer {{ship|Italian destroyer|Alpino|1909|2}}, and the coastal torpedo boats {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|30 PN||2}} and {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|46 PN||2}} as they forced the port of Poreč (known to the Italians as Parenzo) on the western side of Istria, a peninsula on Austria-Hungary's coast, at dawn.{{sfn|Favre|pp=96, 127, 129, 132}} On {{nowrap|1–2 November 1916}}, Giuseppe Missori, Francesco Nullo, Guglielmo Pepe, and the scout cruiser {{ship|Italian cruiser|Alessandro Poerio||2}} made ready to provide possible support to an incursion by MAS motor torpedo boats into the Fasana Channel on the southwest coast of Istria.{{sfn|Favre|pp=127, 129, 133, 197, 250, 266, 284}}

An Austro-Hungarian Navy force consisting of the scout cruiser {{SMS|Helgoland|1912|2}} and the destroyers {{SMS|Balaton||2}}, {{SMS|Csepel||2}}, {{SMS|Lika|1917|2}}, {{SMS|Orjen||2}}, {{SMS|Tátra||2}}, and {{SMS|Triglav|1917|2}} left the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro on 18 October 1917 to attack Italian convoys. The Austro-Hungarians found no convoys, so Helgoland and Lika moved to within sight of Brindisi to entice Italian ships into chasing them and lure the Italians into an ambush by the Austro-Hungarian submarines {{ship|SM|U-32|Austria-Hungary|2}} and {{ship|SM|U-40|Austria-Hungary|2}}. Giuseppe Missori got underway from Brindisi with the scout cruisers {{ship|Italian cruiser|Aquila||2}} and Sparviero, the destroyers {{ship|Italian destroyer|Antonio Mosto||2}} and {{ship|Italian destroyer|Indomito|1912|2}}, the British light cruisers {{HMS|Gloucester|1909|6}} and {{HMS|Newcastle|1909|6}}, and the French destroyers {{ship|French destroyer|Bisson||2}}, {{ship|French destroyer|Commandant Bory||2}}, and {{ship|French destroyer|Commandant Rivière||2}} to join other Italian ships in pursuit of the Austro-Hungarians, but after a long chase which also saw some Italian air attacks on the Austro-Hungarian ships, the Austro-Hungarians escaped and all the Italian ships returned to port without damage.{{sfn|Favre|pp=127, 129, 133, 197, 250, 266, 284}}

On the night of {{nowrap|1–2 July 1918}} Giuseppe Missori and the destroyers {{ship|Italian destroyer|Audace|1916|2}}, {{ship|Italian destroyer|Francesco Stocco||2}}, {{ship|Italian destroyer|Giovanni Acerbi||2}}, {{ship|Italian destroyer|Giuseppe La Masa||2}}, {{ship|Italian destroyer|Giuseppe Sirtori||2}}, and {{ship|Italian destroyer|Vincenzo Giordano Orsini||2}} provided distant support to a formation consisting of the torpedo boats {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|Climene|1909|2}} and {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|Procione|1905|2}} and the coastal torpedo boats {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|15 OS||2}}, {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|18 OS||2}}, {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|48 OS||2}}, {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|3 PN||2}}, {{nowrap|{{ship|Italian torpedo boat|40 PN||2}},}} {{nowrap|{{ship|Italian torpedo boat|64 PN||2}},}} {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|65 PN||2}}, and {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|66 PN||2}}. 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.{{sfn|Favre|pp=127, 129, 133, 197, 250, 266, 284}} Meanwhile, an Austro-Hungarian force consisting of Balaton, the destroyer {{SMS|Csikós||2}}, and the torpedo boats {{SMS|TB 83F||2}} and {{SMS|TB 88F||2}} had put to sea from Pola late on the evening of 1 July to support an Austro-Hungarian air raid on Venice.[http://www.mateinfo.hu/destroyer-actions.pdf THE ACTIVITIES OF DESTROYERS DURING THE WAR] 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.{{sfn|Favre|pp=127, 129, 133, 197, 250, 266, 284}} 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 Giuseppe Missori, Audace, and Giuseppe La Masa 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.{{sfn|Favre|pp=127, 129, 133, 197, 250, 266, 284}} On the Italian side, Francesco Stocco suffered damage which set her on fire and killed and injured some of her crew.{{sfn|Favre|pp=191–192, 222, 250, 271, 273, 284}} 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.{{sfn|Favre|pp=127, 129, 133, 197, 250, 266, 284}}

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 3 November, Giuseppe Missori got underway from Venice with Audace, Giuseppe La Masa, and the destroyer {{ship|Italian destroyer|Nicola Fabrizi||2}} and rendezvoused with Climene and Procione, which had departed Cortellazzo. The Italian ships then proceeded to Trieste, which they reached at 16:10. There they disembarked 200 members of the Carabinieri and General Carlo Petitti di Roreto, who proclaimed Italy's annexation of the city to a cheering crowd.{{sfn|Favre|pp=127, 129, 133, 197, 250, 266, 284}}{{cite magazine|last=La Racine |first= R. B. |title= In Adriatico subito dopo la vittoria |language=it|magazine= Storia Militare |number= 210 |date= March 2011}} On 5 November 1918, Giuseppe Missori, Giuseppe La Masa, the battleship {{ship|Italian battleship|Ammiraglio di Saint Bon||2}}, and the destroyers {{ship|Italian destroyer|Giuseppe Cesare Abba||2}} and {{ship|Italian destroyer|Rosolino Pilo||2}} entered the port at Pola, the site of an important Austro-Hungarian Navy base, after which units embarked on the ships occupied the city over the following days. World War I ended with an armistice between the Allies and the German Empire on 11 November 1918.

After World War I, Giuseppe Missori′s armament was revised, giving her five {{convert|102|mm|0|adj=on}}/35-caliber guns, two {{convert|40|mm|adj=on}}/35-caliber guns, and four {{convert|450|mm|1|adj=on}} torpedo tubes,[http://www.marina.difesa.it/storiacultura/storia/almanacco/Pagine/LMNO/missori.aspx Marina Militare] (in Italian). and, according to some sources, two {{convert|65|mm|adj=on}} machine guns.[http://www.navypedia.org/ships/italy/it_dd_pilo.htm Da Navypedia.] Her full-load displacement rose to {{convert|900|t|lt|0|abbr=off}}.

On the morning of 6 August 1928 Giuseppe Missori and Giuseppe Cesare Abba, serving as flagship of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, got underway from Poreč (Parenzo) to take part with numerous other ships in an exercise in the Adriatic Sea. Plans called for the flotilla to escort the light cruiser Brindisi and scout cruiser Aquila while they cruised from Poreč to Pola and back and included a simulated attack on the formation by the submarines {{ship|Italian submarine|F14||2}} and {{ship|Italian submarine|F15||2}}.{{cite web | url=http://www.grupsom.com/Sommergibili/F14/TragediaF14.html | title= Regio Sommergibile F 14. Agonia e morte di un sommergibile | access-date=17 June 2011 | archive-date=4 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304115939/http://www.grupsom.com/Sommergibili/F14/TragediaF14.html | language=it}}Giorgio Giorgerini, Uomini sul fondo. Storia del sommergibilismo italiano dalle origini a oggi, pp. 109–111 (in Italian). At 08:40, under clear skies, with rough seas and rising winds, Giuseppe Cesare Abba sighted F14′s periscope only a few meters off her starboard beam, and signaled "submarine to starboard abeam" to the other ships, making no mention of the F14′s proximity to her. Her signal prompted the crew of Giuseppe Missori, a short distance astern of Giuseppe Cesare Abba, to focus attention to starboard of their ship, the apparent direction of the expected simulated attack, rather than ahead, where F14 had been sighted just abeam of Giuseppe Cesare Abba. By the time Giuseppe Missori′s crew sighted F14 ahead of their ship, the two vessels were only {{convert|160|to|180|m|yd|sigfig=2}} apart. Both Giuseppe Missori and F14 took evasive action, but too late to avoid a collision, and Giuseppe Missori rammed F14. F14 sank quickly {{convert|7|nmi}} west of the Brijuni archipelago. Efforts to rescue men trapped aboard the wreck of F14 failed, and they eventually died of asphyxiation by chlorine gas.{{cite web|url=http://www.trentoincina.it/dbunita2.php?short_name{{=}}Missori |title=Torpediniera Giuseppe Missori |language=it}} Giuseppe Missori suffered a damaged bow in the collision and entered dry dock for repair.[http://www.trentoincina.it/mostrapost.php?id=23 La tragedia del sommergibile F.14] (in Italian).

Giuseppe Missori was reclassified as a torpedo boat on 1 October 1929. From 1936 to 1938, she took part in the Italian intervention on behalf of the Spanish Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, patrolling the Strait of Sicily to prevent the smuggling of supplies to Spanish Republican forces.

World War II broke out in September 1939 with Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland. Italy joined the war on the side of the Axis powers with its invasion of France on 10 June 1940. At the time, Giuseppe Missori was part of the 6th Torpedo Boat Squadron, along with Giovanni Acerbi, Giuseppe Sirtori, and Rosolino Pilo. During the war, she mainly served as an escort, operating on convoy routes in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Libya, in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, in the waters of Sicily, and in the Adriatic Sea. On {{nowrap|27–28 June 1940}} Giuseppe Missori and Rosolino Pilo transported supplies and 52 soldiers from Taranto, Italy, to Tripoli, Libya.[http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4006-19JUN04.htm Fall of France, June 1940]

From {{nowrap|8 to 10 February 1941}} Giuseppe Missori, the destroyer {{ship|Italian destroyer|Turbine|1927|2}}, and the torpedo boats {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|Castore||2}} and {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|Orsa|1937|2}} escorted the first convoy carrying troops of the German Afrika Korps. The convoy, composed of the steamers {{SS|Alicante||2}}, {{SS|Ankara||2}}, and {{SS|Arcturus|????|2}}, had to stop temporarily at Palermo, Sicily, to avoid the British Royal Navy's Force H.[http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4102-29FEB01.htm Force H, February 1941] Giuseppe Missori began her return voyage to Italy at 08:30 on 11 February 1941, when she and the auxiliary cruiser {{ship|Italian cruiser|Deffenu||2}} departed Tripoli to escort the steamers {{SS|Bainsizza||2}}, {{SS|Motia||2}}, {{SS|Sabaudia||2}}, and {{SS|Utilitas||2}} to Palermo and Naples. After two unsuccessful attacks by the British submarine {{HMS|Truant}}, the first at {{coord|33|36|N|012|53|E}} and the second at {{coord|33|46|N|012|57|E}}, the convoy returned to Tripoli. It got back underway at 23:30 on 11 February arrived in Italy without further incident.

On 10 April 1941 Giuseppe Missori got underway from Palermo with the torpedo boats {{ship|Italian destroyer|Generale Carlo Montanari||2}} and {{ship|Italian torpedo boat|Perseo|1935|2}} to escort a convoy made up of the steamers {{SS|Bosforo||2}} and {{SS|Ogaden||2}} and the tankers {{SS|Persiano||2}} and {{SS|Superga||2}} to Tripoli. A British formation composed of the destroyers {{HMS|Jervis||6}}, {{HMS|Janus|F53|6}}, {{HMS|Mohawk|F31|6}}, and {{HMS|Nubian|F36|6}} sortied from Malta to intercept the convoy but did not find it, and on 11 April, the British submarine {{HMS|Upholder|P37|6}} unsuccessfully attacked the convoy off Cape Bon, Tunisia. On 12 April, however, the British submarine {{HMS|Tetrarch|N77|6}} torpedoed and sank Persiano at {{coord|33|29|N|014|01|E|name=Persiano}}.[http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4104-31APR01.htm German raiders and British armed merchant cruisers, April 1941]

In the aftermath of the destruction of an Italian convoy by British destroyers on 16 April 1941 in the Battle of the Tarigo Convoy, Giuseppe Missori took part in operations to rescue the convoy's survivors.[http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4104-31APR02.htm Battle for Greece, Action off Sfax, April 1941]

On 3 June 1941 the "Aquitania" convoy, composed of the merchant ships {{SS|Aquitania||2}}, {{nowrap|{{SS|Beatrice Costa||2}},}} {{SS|Caffaro||2}}, {{SS|Montello||2}}, and {{SS|Nirvo||2}} and the tanker {{SS|Pozarica||2}}, departed from Naples for a voyage to Tripoli escorted by Giuseppe Missori and the destroyers {{ship|Italian destroyer|Aviere|1937|2}}, {{ship|Italian destroyer|Camicia Nera||2}}, {{ship|Italian destroyer|Dardo|1930|2}}, and {{ship|Italian destroyer|Geniere|1938|2}}. On 4 June, while the ships were about {{convert|20|nmi|0|lk=in}} from the Kerkennah Islands, they came under attack by British planes which hit Montello and Beatrice Costa. Montello exploded and sank with no survivors, while Beatrice Costa suffered such serious damage that her crew abandoned ship and Camicia Nera sank her.[http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4106-33JUN01.htm Inshore Squadron, Tobruk, June 1941]Giorgio Giorgerini, La guerra italiana sul mare. La Marina tra vittoria e sconfitta 1940–1943, pp. 469-470 (in Italian).

In 1943 Giuseppe Missori was assigned to the 3rd Torpedo Boat Group in the Ionian and Lower Adriatic Maritime Military Department along with Francesco Stocco, Giuseppe Cesare Abba, Giuseppe Sirtori, and the torpedo boats {{nowrap|Enrico Cosenz and Giuseppe Dezza.[http://xoomer.virgilio.it/ramius/Militaria/regia_marina_8_settembre_1943.html La Regia Marina all'8 settembre 1943] (in Italian).}}

On 8 September 1943, the Kingdom of Italy announced an armistice with the Allies and switched sides in the war, prompting Nazi Germany to begin Operation Achse, the disarmament by force of the Italian armed forces and the occupation of those portions of Italy not yet under Allied control. At the time, Giuseppe Missori was at Durrës (known to the Italians as Durazzo) on the coast of the Italian Protectorate of Albania. She, Rosolino Pilo, and the steamer {{SS|Marco||2}} bombarded German positions, but German forces captured her on 10 September 1943.{{Cite web |url=https://secondorisorgimento.blogspot.com/2010/01/una-ricerca-in-corso-il-caso-della.html |title=Secondo Risorgimento |access-date=1 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329225525/http://secondorisorgimento.blogspot.com/2010/01/una-ricerca-in-corso-il-caso-della.html |archive-date=29 March 2019 |language=it }}

Nazi Germany incorporated the ship into the Kriegsmarine with the name TA22.[http://www.warshipsww2.eu/shipsplus.php?language=E&id=62675 Italian Giuseppe Missori (MS), German TA 22 - Warships 1900-1950] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206211406/http://www.warshipsww2.eu/shipsplus.php?language=E&id=62675 |date=6 December 2013 }} Her first operation in German service — with her Italian crew still aboard to operate her, supervised by German personnel — was to escort a convoy of other Italian ships captured at Durrës — Rosolino Pilo, the auxiliary cruiser {{ship|Italian cruiser|Arborea||2}}, and the steamers {{SS|Argentina|????|2}} and {{SS|Italia||2}} — on a voyage to Trieste. The convoy departed Durrës on 25 September 1943. During the voyage, the Italian crew of Rosolino Pilo overwhelmed the German guards aboard their ship on 26 September, took back control of her, and steamed her to Allied-controlled Brindisi. TA22 and the rest of the convoy arrived at Trieste later on 26 September.

TA22′s Italian crew sabotaged her on 6 October 1943, but the Germans repaired her and returned her to service. On 25 June 1944, however, she suffered serious damage in an attack by British aircraft while operating southeast of Trieste. Towed to the Julian March,[http://www.atrieste.org/viewtopic.php?t=853 forum A Trieste ... :: View topic - Il sommergibile ed il bunker di Sistiana] (in Italian). she was deemed beyond worthwhile repair, laid up on 11 August 1944, and stripped of useful weapons and equipment.{{cite web|url=http://www.cpristavec.it/cb03.php|title=Title not stated|date=March 2018|language=it}}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} bot=InternetArchiveBot,

On 3 May 1945, TA 22 was scuttled at Muggia.{{sfn|Fraccaroli|1970|p=72}}{{sfn|Fraccaroli|1985|p=269}} Her wreck was refloated in 1949 and subsequently scrapped.

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{{reflist}}

• {{cite book

|first=Franco

|last=Favre

|title=La Marina nella Grande Guerra. Le operazioni navali, aeree, subacquee e terrestri in Adriatico

|trans-title=

|language=it

}}

• {{cite book|last=Fraccaroli|first=Aldo|title=Italian Warships of World War 1|year=1970|publisher=Ian Allan|location=London|isbn=0-7110-0105-7}}
• {{cite book|last=Fraccaroli|first=Aldo|chapter=Italy|pages=252–290|editor1-last=Gray|editor1-first=Randal|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921|year=1985|location=Annapolis |publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=978-0-87021-907-8}}
• {{cite book|author= Giorgio Giorgerini |title= La guerra italiana sul mare. La marina tra vittoria e sconfitta, 1940-1943|language=it|publisher= Mondadori |year= 2002|isbn= 978-88-04-50150-3|ref={{sfnref|Giorgerini}}}}
• {{cite book|last=Whitley|first=M.J.|title=Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia |year=2000|publisher=Cassell & Co|location=London|isbn=1-85409-521-8}}

{{Rosolino Pilo class destroyer}}

{{1928 shipwrecks}}

{{May 1945 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giuseppe Missori}}

{{DISPLAYTITLE:Italian destroyer Giuseppe Missori}}

Category:1915 ships

Category:Ships built by Cantieri navali Odero

Category:World War I destroyers of Italy

Category:Maritime incidents in 1928

Category:Spanish Civil War ships

Category:World War II torpedo boats of Italy

Category:Naval ships of Italy captured by Germany during World War II

Category:World War II torpedo boats of Germany

Category:Maritime incidents in May 1945

Category:Scuttled vessels

Category:Shipwrecks of Italy

Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Adriatic Sea