The Italian Heavy Cruiser Pola

Book excerpt: -Pola- was a Zara-class heavy cruiser of the Italian Regia Marina operating during the Second World War. She was the fourth of four ships in this class (Zara, Fiume, and Gorizia were the other three), and she was built in the Odero Terni Orlando shipyard in Livorno in 1930, entering service in 1932. At the beginning of 1928, the Italian Regia Marina, not to be disadvantaged compared to other marinas, needed to build new cruisers that could be used with Trento-class ships, until the economic resources of the Italian Government allowed them to build new battleships or to renovate the old ones like Cavour or Giulio Cesare. Since there was a standstill in the building and in the study of projects, the only existing one was what the Navy Ministry had prepared for a Trento-class cruiser in which the thickness of the armor was increased to 150 mm.