Proposed rebuild of Ancona

[Karle94]

After years of service the cruiser Ancona was quite worn out as spare parts for the ship was not readibly available. By the early 30s she was withdrawn from service and served as spare parts for the other two ex-German cruisers Taranto and Bari. In 1936 two proposals were put forth: Refit the ship as a self-propelled floating AA battery by removing most of the boilers, superstructure and outfit the ship with new fire-control and no less that 13 twin 100mm anti-aircraft mounts. The other proposal was to remove some of the fore-most boilers, and convert her into a colonial cruiser as Taranto and Bari had. The proposal further needed the remaining boilers to be removed and new ones installed as they were worn out. In the end, nothing was to be done due to economic reasons and the ship was scrapped.

Ancona as an AA ship:


Ancona as a colonial cruiser: