What-If BB Cavour in German service

[Haijun watcher]

I remember reading that the Italian battleship Conte di Cavour, while undergoing repairs at Trieste from damage suffered at the Taranto raid, was seized by the Germans after Italy changed sides in September, 1943.

Wasn't there a slight chance she should could have been completed for her to be used as a raider against Allied shipping in the Med.? Or perhaps to be used in shore bombardment against Allied ground forces advancing up Italy? Couldn't Luftwaffe forces in Northern Italy have provided the ship with some cover?

Some of you may say there could have been manning issues with the Kriegsmarine's limited manpower in Italy. But then again, the crew could have been recruited from sailors pressed into service by Mussolini's Italian Social Republic, the government that held control of Northern Italy with the Germans from 1943-45.

Still, the Germans did use a number of captured Regia Marina warships in Northern Italian coasts during the last 2 and a half years of the war, such as during the Battle of the Ligurian Sea.

With the above alternate history scenario in mind, is there a 1/700 or 1/350 model of the ship kit out there that can used to depict the ship in German service?

Would one use the same colour scheme used by German warships in more northern waters? Or would their paint schemes be similar to other ex-Regia Marina ships in the region?

[JasonW]

I remember reading that the Italian battleship Conte di Cavour, while undergoing repairs at Trieste from damage suffered at the Taranto raid, was seized by the Germans after Italy changed sides in September, 1943.

Wasn't there a slight chance she should could have been completed for her to be used as a raider against Allied shipping in the Med.? Or perhaps to be used in shore bombardment against Allied ground forces advancing up Italy? Couldn't Luftwaffe forces in Northern Italy have provided the ship with some cover?

Some of you may say there could have been manning issues with the Kriegsmarine's limited manpower in Italy. But then again, the crew could have been recruited from sailors pressed into service by Mussolini's Italian Social Republic, the government that held control of Northern Italy with the Germans from 1943-45.

Still, the Germans did use a number of captured Regia Marina warships in Northern Italian coasts during the last 2 and a half years of the war, such as during the Battle of the Ligurian Sea.

With the above alternate history scenario in mind, is there a 1/700 or 1/350 model of the ship kit out there that can used to depict the ship in German service?

Would one use the same colour scheme used by German warships in more northern waters? Or would their paint schemes be similar to other ex-Regia Marina ships in the region?

Regia Marina, Waveline and Delphis all did her or her sister in 1/700. I think HP may have done her in 1/700 as well.

[GMG4RWF]

really no chance - target practice for Allied fleet/air forces.