Italian cruiser Raimondo Montecuccoli

Raimondo Montecuccoli was a Condottieri-class light cruiser serving with the Italian Regia Marina during World War II. She survived the war and served in the post-war Marina Militare until 1964.

Design
Montecuccoli, which gives the name to its own sub-class, was part of the third group of Condottieri class light cruisers. They were larger and better protected than their predecessors. She was built by Ansaldo, Genoa, and was named after Raimondo Montecuccoli, a 17th-century Italian general in Austrian service.

Career
Montecuccoli entered service in 1935 and was sent out to the Far-East in 1937 to protect Italian interests during the Sino-Japanese War, and returned home in November 1938 after being relieved by the ITALIAN CRUISER Bartolomeo Colleoni. During the war she participated in the Battle of Punta Stilo and in the successful Battle of Pantelleria. Initially at Pantelleria, she and the cruiser Eugenio di Savoia were kept at bay by the British smokescreen, though their combined fire disabled the British destroyer HMS Bedouin (F67). The convoy moved on to Malta but the cruisers shadowed it and Montecuccoli guns finished off the large tanker SS Kentucky, which had been crippled by aircraft and left behind by her escort. Despite her theoretical high speed, she was unable to overtake the damaged HMS Partridge.

She was badly damaged by USAAF bombers in Naples on 4 December 1942, with the loss of 44 of her crew, but having been repaired and just weeks before the armistice, on August 1943, she shelled without consequences a small Allied convoy off Palermo during the Allied invasion of Sicily. After the Armistice she was interned by the Allies and returned to Italy after the war to serve as a training cruiser until 1964.

Remains of Montecuccoli today
Some remains of the ship, along with several artillery pieces and armoured vehicles, are located at the Sunday City (it:Città della Domenica in Italian), originally called Spagnolia, theme and amusement park near Perugia, in Italy. There is the forward mast and a dual artillery mount, placed near the mast.