Friedrich

The Italian navy equipment was not that good.

One criticism is that it lacked range. It was a navy built solely for the Mediterannean. In the "what if" scenarios of taking Gibraltar the role of the Italian ships would be limited.

A second is overall ship design philosophy. The Italians seem to have had a sports-car mentality in designing their ships. Higher speeds and lighter armour were commonplace and the quality of Italian armour plate was inferior inch-for-inch to their counterparts because of the poor state of the Italian steel industry.

Gunnery Technology was poor (and there's no point having a ship if it can't hit anything) which was compounded by human factors.

A lot of money was poured into the Cavours and Dorias. They were not good platforms to start with and you have to question whether newer builds would have been a better investment. This is difficult in the postwar environment I admit. By the time they saw action, the re-bored 12" guns (to 13.4") still lacked punch. I would question how they compared to the German 11" for example.

The Littorios were inferior to their contemporaries. The KGV's and North Carolinas did not waste displacement on seperate heavy AA and secondary armament and their gunnery tech was better, even before radar is taken into account.

Jumbo

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"Capital! We're nearly out of ammunition! Now we can get at them with the bayonet!" General Paddy Gough, 1st Sikh War