Giuseppe Cesare Abba was an Italian destroyer. Commissioned into service in the Italian (Royal Navy) in 1915, she served in World War I, playing an active role in the Adriatic campaign. Reclassified as a torpedo boat in 1929, she participated in the Mediterranean and Adriatic campaigns of World War II. In 1943, she switched to the Allied side, operating as part of the Italian Co-belligerent Navy for the remainder of the war. She served in the postwar Italian Navy (Marina Miltare) and was reclassified as a minesweeper in 1954. She was stricken in 1958.
Construction and commissioning Giuseppe Cesare Abba was laid down at the () in Sestri Ponente, Italy, on 19 August 1913. She was launched on 25 May 1915 and completed and commissioned on 6 July 1915.
Service history World War I 1915 World War I broke out in 1914, and the Kingdom of Italy entered the war on the side of the Allies with its declaration of war on Austria-Hungary on 23 May 1915. Giuseppe Cesare Abba was commissioned just over seven weeks after Italy declared war. On the night of Giuseppe Cesare Abba, serving as flagship of her squadron, got underway with her sister ship and the French Navy destroyer to search for the Austro-Hungarian Navy submarine U-3, which had made an unsuccessful attack on the Italian auxiliary cruiser in the Adriatic Sea east of Brindisi, Italy. Arranged in a radial pattern, the three destroyers first followed the route between the point of the attack and the Austro-Hungarian Navy base at Cattaro, then zigzagged in a northerly direction, and then headed south. At 04:52 on 13 August, Bisson sighted U-3 — which had suffered a mechanical breakdown – on the surface and sank her with gunfire. Giuseppe Cesare Abba rushed to the scene upon receiving the report of the sighting, arriving in time to see U-3 sink.
On the afternoon of 6 December 1915, Giuseppe Cesare Abba, the protected cruiser , the scout cruiser , the auxiliary cruiser Città di Catania, the minelayers and , and the destroyers , , and departed Taranto, Italy, to escort a convoy to Vlorë (known to the Italians as Valona) in the Principality of Albania. The convoy — made up of the troopships , , , and — carried 400 officers, 6,300 non-commissioned officers and soldiers, and 1,200 draft animals. The convoy reached Vlorë at 08:00 on 7 December 1915.
At approximately 09:00 on 29 December 1915 Giuseppe Cesare Abba and other destroyers departed Brindisi with the protected cruiser and the British Royal Navy light cruiser to join other formations of Allied warships in pursuing an Austro-Hungarian force composed of the scout cruiser and the destroyers , , , , and , which had bombarded the harbor at Durrës (known to the Italians as Durazzo) on the coast of Albania, sinking the Greek steamer and two sailing ships while losing Lika, which struck a mine. Giuseppe Cesare Abba did not play a significant role in the subsequent clash, known as the First Battle of Durazzo, in which Helgoland and British and French cruisers suffered minor damage and French destroyers sank Triglav.
1916
On the night of while the protected cruiser and the destroyers , , , and operated in distant support, Giuseppe Cesare Abba and the destroyers , , and escorted the coastal torpedo boats and as 34 PN and 36 PN towed the motor torpedo boats MAS 5 and MAS 7 to a point off Durrës. MAS 5 and MAS 7 then dropped their tow cables at 00:15 on 26 June and raided the harbor at Durrës, launching torpedoes at 01:45 and rejoining Giuseppe Cesare Abba′s formation at 02:40. The attack resulted in serious damage to the 1,111-gross register ton steamship , and all the Italian ships returned to base safely.
On 3 August 1916 Giuseppe Cesare Abba, under the command of Capitano di fregata (Frigate Captain) Petrelluzzi, got underway with the destroyer to support an attack by nine aircraft against Durrës, but during their voyage to the Albanian coast the two ships were diverted to Molfetta, Italy, which had come under bombardment by an Austro-Hungarian force composed of the protected cruiser , the destroyers and , and the torpedo boats and . Ardente suffered a mechanical breakdown and had to fall back to join a French destroyer squadron led by the destroyer , which was coming up to reinforce the Italian ships. Meanwhile Giuseppe Cesare Abba continued alone even after sighting the Austro-Hungarian submarine U-20 at 08:20. She sighted the Austro-Hungarian ships at 09:00 and tried to close with them to open fire, but the much larger and better-armed Aspern thwarted Giuseppe Cesare Abba by placing herself between the Italian ship and the Austro-Hungarian torpedo boats. The French destroyer squadron arrived on the scene and joined the pursuit, but the Allied ships gave up the chase when the Austro-Hungarian ships reached a point only from Cattaro.
During the night of Giuseppe Cesare Abba, Ippolito Nievo, and Rosolino Pilo escorted 34 PN and the coastal torpedo boats and as they towed the motor torpedo boats MAS 6 and MAS 7 for another attack on Durrës, which failed because of the presence of torpedo nets in the harbor.
At 23:00 on 22 December 1916 Giuseppe Cesare Abba, Ippolito Nievo, and Rosolino Pilo got underway from Brindisi and headed for Cape Rodoni to intercept the Austro-Hungarian destroyers , , , and , which had attacked the Otranto Barrage in the Strait of Otranto and were returning to Cattaro after a clash with the French Navy destroyers , , Commandant Bory, , , and . The Italian destroyers did not find the Austro-Hungarian ships, but did encounter the French destroyers. The two groups of Allied ships were unable to coordinate their maneuvers and confusion ensued. At 01:40 on 23 December Giuseppe Cesare Abba sighted smoke on her port bow and turned north to investigate, accelerating to full speed. After recognizing Dehorter and Protet, she sighted Casque approachng her, but too late to avoid a collision, although neither Giuseppe Cesare Abba or Casque suffered serious damage. Giuseppe Cesare Abba backed away from Casque after the collision and was maneuvering in reverse when Boutefeu, which had narrowly avoided collisions with Ippolito Nievo and Rosolino Pilo, rammed Giuseppe Cesare Abba, killing a man who went missing. Again the damage was not serious, and all three damaged destroyers returned to port.
1917
On 11 May 1917 Giuseppe Cesare Abba got underway from Venice with Ardente, the destroyers and , and the new destroyer to intercept an Austro-Hungarian Navy force consisting of the destroyer and the torpedo boats , , and . They sighted the Austro-Hungarian ships at 15:30 at a range of about but were unable to engage the Austro-Hungarian ships before they escaped behind the protection of a minefield near the major Austro-Hungarian Navy base at Pola, and after approaching Pola the Italian ships gave up the chase and returned to Venice.
On the night of 13–14 August 1917 Giuseppe Cesare Abba left Venice with Animoso, Ardente, Audace, and the destroyers , , , , , and to intercept an Austro-Hungarian force made up of the destroyers , , , , and and six torpedo boats which had supported an air raid by 32 aircraft against the fortress of Venice which had struck San Giovanni e Paolo Hospital, killing 14 people and injuring around 30 others. Only Vincenzo Giordano Orsini managed to make brief and fleeting contact with the Austro-Hungarian ships before they escaped.
On 29 September 1917 Giuseppe Cesare Abba put to sea with Francesco Stocco, Giovanni Acerbi, Vincenzo Giordano Orsini, the scout cruiser Sparviero and a second formation made up of Ardente, Ardito and Audace to support a bombing raid by 10 Italian airplanes against Pola. They encountered an Austro-Hungarian force composed of Streiter, Velebit, the destroyers and , and four torpedo boats on a similar mission against an Italian airbase. The Italians opened fire just before midnight at a range of , but received the worst of the initial exchange as the Austro-Hungarians concentrated their fire on the leading ship, Sparviero. Sparviero was hit five times, but only three men were wounded, and one Italian destroyer was hit. As the Austro-Hungarians retreated towards the shelter of their minefields, the Italians crippled Velebit and set her on fire. Another Austro-Hungarian destroyer took her in tow and both sides returned to port after an inconclusive exchange of fire inside the minefields later that night during the predawn hours of 30 September.
On 16 November 1917 Giuseppe Cesare Abba, Animoso, Ardente, Audace, Francesco Stocco, Giovanni Acerbi, and Vincenzo Giordano Orsini got underway to respond to a bombardment carried out by the Austro-Hungarian coastal defense ships and against Italian artillery batteries and other coastal defenses at Cortellazzo, near the mouth of the Piave River. The destroyers supported an attack by the Italian motor torpedo boats MAS 13 and MAS 15 which, together with attacks by Italian aircraft and the Italian submarines and , disrupted the bombardment and forced the two Austro-Hungarian ships to withdraw. On 18 November 1917 Giuseppe Cesare Abba, Animoso, Ardente, and Audace bombarded the Austrian-Hungarian lines on the Italian front between Caorle and Revedoli.
On 28 November 1917, an Austro-Hungarian Navy force consisting of Dinara, Huszar, Reka, Streiter, the destroyers and , and the torpedo boats , , , and attacked the Italian coast. While Dikla, Huszar, Streiter and the torpedo boats unsuccessfully attacked first Porto Corsini and then Rimini, Dinara, Reka, and Triglav bombarded a railway near the mouth of the Metauro, damaging a train, the railway tracks, and telegraph lines. The Austro-Hungarian ships then reunited and headed back to the main Austro-Hungarian naval base at Pola. Giuseppe Cesare Abba, Animoso, Ardente, Ardito, Audace, Francesco Stocco, Giovanni Acerbi, Giuseppe Sirtori, Sparviero, Vincenzo Giordano Orsini, and the scout cruiser departed Venice and, together with reconnaissance seaplanes, pursued the Austro-Hungarian formation. The seaplanes attacked the Austro-Hungarians without success, and the Italian ships had to give up the chase when they did not sight the Austro-Hungarians until they neared Cape Promontore on the southern coast of Istria, as continuing beyond it would bring them too close to Pola.
1918 On 10 February 1918, Giuseppe Cesare Abba, Animoso, and Audace departed Venice to participate in a raid on Bakar (known to the Italians as Buccari) on the coast of Austria-Hungary. While Ardente, Ardito, Francesco Stocco, Giovanni Acerbi, Giuseppe Sirtori, and the scout cruiser stood by at Porto Levante in case they needed to support the operation, Giuseppe Cesare Abba, Animoso, and Audace towed the motor torpedo boats MAS 94, MAS 95, and MAS 96 to the pre-established "Point O," east of Sansego, where they passed their tow cables to the coastal torpedo boats , , and , then cruised off Ancona while the coastal torpedo boats towed the MAS boats closer to the coast and the MAS boats carried out the raid. The results of the raid — damage to one steamer — were militarily insignificant, but the raid was of great propaganda value in Italy, where it was celebrated widely as the "Bakar mockery" (Beffa di Buccari), aspects of which the Italian nationalist poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, who took part in the raid, orchestrated.