Italian cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi (1936)

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian Duca degli Abruzzi class light cruiser, that served in the Regia Marina during World War II. After the war she was retained by the Marina Militare and upgraded. She was built by CRDA, in Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard Trieste and named after the Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Decommissioned in 1953, Giuseppe Garibaldi was converted between 1957 and 1961, at the La Spezia shipyards, into a guided missile cruiser.

Design
The Duca degli Abruzzi class cruisers were the final version of the Condottieri class and were larger and better protected than their predecessors. The armament was also increased by two extra 152 mm guns, triple turrets replaced twins in the A and Y positions. The machinery was also revised which led to these ships having a slightly slower maximum speed than their predecessors.

1940

 * 9 July: Battle of Calabria. Along with her sister Duca degli Abruzzi she fired the first rounds of the battle. During the engagement, a 6" round from Giuseppe Garibaldi hit HMS Neptune, damaging her catapult and the reconnaissance aircraft beyond repair.
 * 1 September: Hats convoy
 * 29 September: Operation MB 5
 * 11 November: present during the Battle of Taranto when Italian fleet was attacked at anchor by Royal Navy aircraft

1941

 * 27 March: Battle of Cape Matapan. The commander of the ship was Captain Stanislao Caraciotti
 * 8 May: Tiger convoy
 * 28 July: damaged by British submarine HMS Upholder

1942

 * 3 January: Italian convoy M 43
 * 7 March: Operation V 5
 * 14 June: Action against convoy Vigorous for Malta

After the armistice (8 September 1943), she operated in the South Atlantic together with Allied ships against potential German raiders.

Recommissioning as a guided missile cruiser
After the war she was retained by the Marina Militare and modernized with minor changes  of the armament and a radar. She was decommissioned in 1953 and reconstructed as a guided missile cruiser.

The new ship was rebuilt in the La Spezia Arsenal starting from 1957, and, at her completion in 1961, she was named flagship of the Italian Navy.

The reconstruction included a complete overhauling of the superstructure, while the hull kept its original dimensions.

Apart from some minor changes, much of the latter's rebuilding included four launchers for US UGM-27 Polaris nuclear ballistic missiles. Despite the successful launching tests, the US never provided the missiles, due to political convenience. Instead the Italian Government set to develop an indigenous missile, called Alfa, with a successful program, officially halted by Italian Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ratification and failure of the NATO Multilateral Force.

The propulsion system remained the same. The rest of the armament was radically altered: a RIM-2 Terrier missile launcher made Giuseppe Garibaldi the first missile cruiser in Europe. The previous artillery was replaced by four 135/45 mm guns in two twin turrets and eight Oto Melara 76/62mm Type MMI AA guns.

Electronics included several radars and fire control systems.

She was decommissioned in 1971 and scrapped the following year.