Italian cruiser Alberico da Barbiano

Alberico da Barbiano was an Italian Condottieri class light cruiser, that served in the Regia Marina during World War II. She was named after Alberico da Barbiano, an Italian condottiero of the 14th century.

Launch and Sea Trials
Da Barbiano was launched on 23 August 1930. During her trials she managed to reach a speed of 42.05 kn, but to do that the propulsion was pushed to 123,479 hp, far beyond the safety limits. She could only maintain this speed for about 30 minutes.

Service history
On July 9, 1940 she was present at the Battle of Calabria (Punto Stilo). Because of the weakness of the class on September 1 she was assigned as a training ship but on March 1, 1941 was placed in active service. On 12 December 1941 she left port together with her sister ship Alberto di Giussano. Both she and her sister were being used for an emergency convoy to carry gasoline for the German and Italian mobile formations fighting with Rommel's Afrika Korps. Jerry cans and other metal containers filled with gasoline were loaded onto both cruisers and were placed on the ships' open decks. The thinking behind using these two cruisers for such a dangerous mission was that their speed would act as a protection. Nonetheless, the ships were intercepted by Allied destroyers guided by radar and sunk on 13 December 1941, in the Battle of Cape Bon.