Giovanni Acerbi was the second of four s built for the Italian (Royal Navy) during World War I. She played an active part in the later stages of that war's Adriatic campaign, including a significant role in that campaign's largest surface action, the Battle of the Strait of Otranto in 1917. Reclassified as a torpedo boat in 1929, she was serving in the Red Sea Flotilla when Italy entered World War II in June 1940. She was disabled in September 1940, stripped of her armament, and either scuttled or sunk in 1941.
Design
The ships of the Giuseppe Sirtori class were long at the waterline and long overall, with a beam of and a mean draft of . They displaced standard and up to at full load. They had a crew of 98 officers and enlisted men. The ships were powered by two steam turbines, with steam provided by four Thornycroft water-tube boilers. The engines were rated to produce for a top speed of , though in service they reached as high as from around . At a more economical speed of , the ships could cruise for .
Giovanni Acerbi was armed with a main battery of six guns. Her light armament consisted of a pair of anti-aircraft guns and two machine guns. She was also equipped with four torpedo tubes in two twin launchers, one on each side of the ship. The ship also carried ten naval mines.
Construction and commissioning Giovanni Acerbi was laid down at the shipyard in Sestri Ponente, Italy, on 2 February 1916. She was launched on 14 February 1917 and completed and commissioned on 26 February 1917.
Service history World War I Battle of the Strait of Otranto, 1917
On the night of , the Battle of the Strait of Otranto began when the Austro-Hungarian Navy staged a two-pronged attack against the Otranto Barrage in the Strait of Otranto aimed both at destroying naval drifters — armed fishing boats that patrolled the anti-submarine barrier the barrage formed — and, as a diversionary action, at destroying an Italian convoy made up of the steamers , , and , escorted by the destroyer , bound from the Kingdom of Greece to the Principality of Albania. In the battle's first action, which lasted from 03:06 to 03:45 on 15 May, the Austro-Hungarian destroyers and attacked the convoy, sinking Borea and Carroccio, seriously damaging Verità, and inflicting lighter damage on Bersagliere. The scout cruisers , , and then attacked the drifters, sinking 14 of them between 04:20 and 05:47.
At Brindisi, Italy, Giovanni Acerbi had lit her boilers at 03:30 and was ready for sea at 04:00. News of the attacks reached Brindisi at 04:10, and at 04:50 the British Royal Navy light cruiser — limited by mechanical problems to a maximum speed of — and the Italian destroyers and departed Brindisi, heading northeast to intercept the Austro-Hungarian naval formation. At 05:36 Giovanni Acerbi, under the command of Capitano di corvetta (Corvette Captain) Vannutelli, got underway in company with the British light cruiser — serving as flagship of the Italian Contrammiraglio (Counter Admiral) Alfredo Acton — and the Italian destroyer .}The Battle of the Otranto Straits: Controlling the Gateway to the Adriatic Dartmouth, Giovanni Acerbi, and Simone Schiaffino rendezvoused with Bristol, Rosolino Pilo, and Antonio Mosto and combined into a single formation under Acton′s command between 06:56 and 07:12, limiting all the ships to Bristol′s maximum speed of . The Italian scout cruiser joined the formation at 07:40. While making on a course of 035º at 07:45, the Allied ships sighted smoke astern, which they soon identified as Balaton and Csepel, returning from their attack on the convoy. At either 07:50 or 8:00, according to different sources, Acton ordered Aquila and the destroyers to attack Balaton and Cespel while the larger ships maneuvered to cut off their escape route toward the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro. At 08:10, Aquila and the destroyers steered to attack Balaton and Csepel, working up to with Aquila in the center at the head of the formation, Antonio Mosto and Simone Schiaffino on her starboard side, and Giovanni Acerbi and Rosolino Pilo to port. At 08:15 the two sides opened fire at one another at a range of . The Italians hit Balaton immediately, but the Austro-Hungarians quickly scored a hit on Aquila that immobilized her, after which Balaton and Cespel moved close to the coast of Dalmatia, under the protection of Austro-Hungarian coastal artillery batteries, and outdistanced their pursuers.
At 08:45, Helgoland, Novara, and Saida arrived on the scene from the southwest, heading towards the immobilized Aquila. Antonio Mosto and Giovanni Acerbi joined the two British light cruisers, moving into formation aft of Bristol, and at around 09:05, with Dartmouth in the lead, Dartmouth, Bristol, Antonio Mosto, and Giovanni Acerbi positioned themselves between Aquila and the three Austro-Hungarian scout cruisers. The Allied ships opened fire on the Austro-Hungarians at 09:30 at a range of . The three Austro-Hungarian ships retreated to the northwest with the Allied formation in pursuit and continuing to fire at ranges of between and . Initially Dartmouth led the Allied column, followed in order by Bristol, Giovanni Acerbi, and Antonio Mosto, although Bristol began to lag behind Dartmouth because of her trouble maintaining speed. Giovanni Acerbi opened fire at a range of , then, acting on the initiative of her commanding officer, passed the lagging Bristol and took position behind Dartmouth. Due to Bristol′s low top speed, the distance between the two formations increased continuously, from at 09:45 to at 10:00, to at 10:20, and to at 10:24. The weight of the fighting fell almost exclusively on Dartmouth and Giovanni Acerbi, the only destroyer in a suitable position to fire. In the exchange of gunfire, all the major ships were damaged: Bristol was hit three times, Dartmouth four, and Saida once, while Helgoland suffered three hits and Novara eleven, inflicting damage which immobilized Novara.
Dartmouth, having closed with Saida, signaled the other Allied ships to follow. Perhaps because of smoke obscuring some of Dartmouth′s signal flags, Giovanni Acerbi probably noticed only the first flag, which alone meant "attack the enemy formation." Accordingly, she moved to within of the three Austro-Hungarian scout cruisers as they made preparations to take Novara under tow and opened fire at 11:15, continuing to fire at a very high rate at and closing to a range of . Had Giovanni Acerbi′s action been part of a coordinated attack covered by gunfire from the British light cruisers, the situation would have been favorable for Giovanni Acerbi to make a torpedo attack, but such support did not exist, and Giovanni Acerbi found herself alone and under fire by all three Austro-Hungarian scout cruisers. Their gunfire prevented her from getting close enough to launch torpedoes. Subsequently, one of Giovanni Acerbi′s guns jammed, so she withdrew to a range of to clear the jam. While her crew worked on the gun, Austro-Hungarian aircraft attacked her. At 11:36, Giovanni Acerbi′s radio picked up a transmission from Dartmouth of Acton's order to the other ships to regroup, so she gave up on her torpedo attack and rejoined the formation, reporting to Acton aboard Dartmouth that Novara was dead in the water.
The Allied ships discontinued the action and withdrew at 12:05 when they reached the vicinity of Cattaro and the Austro-Hungarian armored cruiser and destroyers and sortied to reinforce the three scout cruisers. Dartmouth, Giovanni Acerbi, and the Italian destroyers , , and joined up for the return voyage to Italy, during which the French Navy destroyers and joined them at 13:00. During the voyage, while the Allied ships were making , the Imperial German Navy submarine UC-25, operating under the Austro-Hungarian flag as "U-89," attacked them, hitting Dartmouth with a torpedo on her port side under her bridge. Dartmouth′s crew abandoned ship at 14:30, but she remained afloat and was towed to Brindisi, where she arrived at 03:00 on 16 May 1917.
Later 1917
During the night of 13–14 August 1917, Giovanni Acerbi got underway from Venice, Italy, with the rest of her squadron (the destroyers , and ), another destroyer squadron composed of , , , and and a destroyer section composed of 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 Venice which had hit the San Giovanni e Paolo Hospital, killing 14 people and injuring approximately 30 others. Only Vincenzo Giordano Orsini made brief and fleeting contact with the Austro-Hungarian ships. She had to discontinue her pursuit when she approached Austro-Hungarian minefieldsand lost sight of the Austro-Hungarian formation, which then returned to its base without difficulty.
On 29 September 1917, Giovanni Acerbi put to sea with the rest of her destroyer squadron (Franceco Stocco, Giuseppe Cesare Abba, and Vincenzo Giordano Orsini), the scout cruiser Sparviero (flagship of Prince Ferdinando of Udine, who had overall command of the formation), and a destroyer squadron made up of Ardente, , and Audace to support a bombing attack by 10 Italian Royal Army Caproni aircraft against Pola, Austria-Hungary. At about the same time, Austro-Hungarian seaplanes attacked Ferrara, Italy, setting fire to the airship M.8. An Austro-Hungarian force made up of the destroyers , Streiter, , and Velebit and the torpedo boats , , and ,THE ACTIVITIES OF DESTROYERS DURING THE WAR as well as a fourth torpedo boat, according to some sources, was at sea to support the attack. Alerted to the Austro-Hungarian air attack, the Italian ships headed for the waters off Rovinj (known to the Italians as Rovigno) on the assumption that the Austro-Hungarian ships would pass through the area while returning to base. At 22:03, Sparviero sighted unknown ships about away. They were, in fact, the Austro-Hungarians, and at 22:05 the opposing groups opened fire on one another. The gunfire became intense when the opposing ships closed to a range of . According to Italian sources, the clash ended at 22:30, when the two formations lost contact because they were on divergent courses and, although the two sides regained contact at 22:45, they lost it completely after a few minutes without achieving significant results. According to Austro-Hungarian sources, Sparviero was hit and suffered serious damage, after which she left the battle line, prompting the other Italian ships to cease fire and withdraw as well, while on the Austro-Hungarian side Velebit was damaged by an Italian projectile which disabled her steering system and started a fire. Streiter took Velebit in tow, but then two Italian destroyers arrived on the scene and closed to a range of , but moved away after Streiter, Velebit and the torpedo boats opened fire on them.
At 10:35 on 16 November 1917, the Austro-Hungarian coastal defense ships and arrived off Cortellazzo, Italy, and began a bombardment of forces on the Italian front, targeting the Italian lines and artillery batteries. Italian coastal artillery immediately returned fire, and Italian aircraft made three attacks on the Austro-Hungarian ships. Budapest and Wien ceased fire at 11:52 to avoid interfering with Austro-Hungarian troops on the front and withdrew, but they returned to the area at 13:30 and resumed fire at 13:35. Giovanni Acerbi departed Venice with Animoso, Ardente, Audace, Francesco Stocco, Giuseppe Cesare Abba, and Vincenzo Giordano Orsini to counter the bombardment. Operating west of the area under bombardment, the destroyers supported an attack by the Italian motor torpedo boats MAS 13 and MAS 15 which, combined with the three air attacks and attacks by the Italian submarines and , interfered with the bombardment and ultimately forced Budapest and Wien to withdraw.