Pola was a heavy cruiser of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy), named after the Italian city of Pola (now Pula, Croatia). She was built in the Odero Terni Orlando shipyard in Livorno in the early 1930s and entered service in 1932. She was the fourth and last ship in the class, which also included , , and . Compared to her sisters, Pola was built as a flagship with a larger conning tower to accommodate an admiral's staff. Like her sisters, she was armed with a battery of eight guns and was capable of a top speed of .
Pola initially served as the flagship of the 2nd Squadron, and in 1940 she led the squadron during the battles of Calabria and Cape Spartivento, in July and November, respectively. During the latter engagement she briefly battled the British cruiser . Pola was thereafter reassigned to the 3rd Division, along with her three sister ships. The ship took part in the Battle of Cape Matapan in late March 1941. During the battle, she was disabled by a British aerial torpedo. Later, in a fierce night engagement in the early hours of 29 March, Pola, Zara, Fiume, and two destroyers were sunk by the British Mediterranean Fleet with heavy loss of life.
Design
Pola was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of . She displaced at full load, though her displacement was nominally within the restriction set in place by the Washington Naval Treaty. Her power plant consisted of two Parsons steam turbines powered by eight oil-fired Yarrow boilers, which were trunked into two funnels amidships. Her engines were rated at and produced a top speed of . She had a crew of 841 officers and enlisted men. Pola was designed to function as a squadron flagship, and so her forward superstructure was larger than that of her sisters, and was faired into the forward funnel.
She was protected with an armor belt that was thick amidships. Her armor deck was thick in the central portion of the ship and reduced to at either end. The gun turrets had 150 mm thick plating on the faces and the barbettes they sat in were also 150 mm thick. The main conning tower had 150 mm thick sides.
Pola was armed with a main battery of eight Mod 29 53-caliber guns in four gun turrets. The turrets were arranged in superfiring pairs forward and aft. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a battery of sixteen 47-cal. guns in twin mounts, four Vickers-Terni 40 mm/39 guns in single mounts and eight guns in twin mounts. She carried a pair of IMAM Ro.43 seaplanes for aerial reconnaissance; the hangar was located under the forecastle and a fixed catapult was mounted on the centerline at the bow.
Polas secondary battery was revised several times during her career. Two of the 100 mm guns and all of the 40 mm and 12.7 mm guns were removed in the late 1930s and eight 54-cal. guns and eight guns were installed in their place. Two 15-cal. star shell guns were added in 1940.
History
Pola, named for the eponymous city seized by Italy after World War I, was laid down at the Odero-Terni-Orlando shipyard in Livorno on 17 March 1931 and was launched on 5 December that year. Fitting-out work proceeded quickly, and the new cruiser entered service just over a year later at her commissioning on 21 December 1932. Pola participated in a naval review in the Gulf of Naples, where she hosted Italy's fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, on 6–7 July 1933. On 29 July 1934 she was formally given her battle flag in a ceremony in her namesake city. On 3 September 1936 she left Gaeta, bound for Spanish waters; she thereafter began a non-intervention patrol during the Spanish Civil War. From 10 September to 3 October, she was stationed in Palma de Mallorca to safeguard Italian interests there. Pola returned to Gaeta on 4 October.
Pola went on a short cruise to Italian Libya on 10–12 March 1937, with Mussolini aboard. On 7 June, she took part in a naval review in the Gulf of Naples held for the visiting German Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg. Another review took place on 5 May 1938 when the German dictator Adolf Hitler made a state visit to Italy. On 7 March 1939, Pola and her sisterships sortied from Taranto to intercept a squadron of Republican warships—three cruisers and eight destroyers—attempting to reach the Black Sea. The Italian ships were ordered not to open fire but merely to try to impede the progress of the Spanish ships and force them to dock at Augusta, Sicily. The Spanish commander refused and instead steamed to Bizerte in French Tunisia, where his ships were interned. The next month, on 7–9 April, Pola provided gunfire support to Italian forces occupying Albania.