Roma

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Roma, named after two previous ships and the city of Rome, was the third Littorio-classbattleship of Italy's Regia Marina (Royal Navy). The construction of both Roma and her sister shipImpero was due to rising tensions around the world and the navy's fear that only two Littorios, even in company with older pre-First World War
battleships, would not be enough to counter the British and French
Mediterranean fleets in case of a possible Franco-British alliance. As Roma was laid down
almost four years after the first two ships of the class, some small
improvements were made to the design, including additional freeboard added to the bow.

Roma was commissioned into the Regia Marina
on 14 June 1942, but a severe fuel shortage in Italy at that time
prevented her from being deployed; instead, along with her sister ships Vittorio Veneto and Littorio,
she was used to bolster the anti-aircraft defenses of various Italian
cities. In this role, she was severely damaged twice in June 1943, from bomber raids on La Spezia. After repairs in Genoa through all of July and part of August, Roma was deployed as the flagship of Admiral Carlo Bergamini in a large battle group that eventually comprised the three Littorios, eight cruisers and eight destroyers. The battle group was scheduled to attack the Allied ships approaching Salerno to invade Italy (Operation "Avalanche") on 9 September 1943, but the news of the 8 September 1943 armistice with the Allies led to the operation being cancelled. The Italian fleet was instead ordered to sail to La Maddalena (Sardinia) and subsequently to Malta to surrender to the Allies.