Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The Italian Conte di Cavour-class battleship "Giulio Cesare" served in the Regia Marina in both World Wars before joining the Soviet Navy. Her keel was laid down on June 24, 1910 at Cantieri Ansaldo, Genua. She was launched October 15, 1911, and construction was completed May 14, 1914. Giulio Cesare (Italian for Julius Caesar) had no active missions during World War I and was renovated in 1926. From 1928 to 1933 she was used as an artillery training ship, then went into the yards for extensive modifications. Between 1933 and 1937 her length was increased by 10.3 meters, and she was given new armored decks and new propulsion machinery that uprated her to 93,000 horsepower (yielding 28 knots). During the Battle of Punta Stilo on July 9, 1940, Giulio Cesare was hit by a 15-inch shell as HMS Warspite set the record for naval gunnery against a moving target at well over 24,000 meters (26,000 yards). Giulio Cesare was assigned to covering convoys until 1942, when she was declared obsolete for operative missions and used for training purposes only. After the war Giulio Cesare, for compensation of war damages, was ceded to the Soviet Union who commissioned her as Novorossiisk. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.