the italian throne, visited the ship while she was in Messina on 17 July 1942. By August, the surviving Italian heavy cruisers, Bolzano, Trieste, and had been reorganized as the 3rd Division. On 11 August, the three cruisers sortied to intercept a British convoy, but were eventually ordered back after the Luftwaffe denied air support. In the return trip, Bolzano was torpedoed by the submarine , causing extensive damage. The torpedo explosion started a fire, prompting the crew to flood the forward magazines to prevent the fire from spreading to them and detonating the propellant charges stored there. To keep her from sinking, her crew beached the ship on the island of Panarea. The ship was listing 45 degrees and the crew had to abandon the ship. The fire burned through the next day, until some of the crew were able to return to extinguish it. She remained there until 15 September, by which time damage control parties had shored up the damaged hull enough to allow tugs to tow her back to Naples, where she entered the drydock so the damage could be inspected. Temporary repairs were effected, and in October she was transferred further north, to La Spezia, where permanent repairs would be completed. While she was awaiting repairs, the Regia Marina considered rebuilding the ship into a hybrid cruiser-aircraft carrier. This would have required removing the bridge structure and forward gun turrets, and splitting the forward funnel to vent on either side of the ship so a flight deck and hangar could be installed. The proposal came to nothing, however, as the Italian war economy could not spare the necessary resources to repair Bolzano, let alone convert her. Piecemeal repairs were made as material became available through early 1943, but she remained out of action. On 5 June, American B-17 bombers attacked La Spezia but did not damage Bolzano. On 3 September 1943, Italy surrendered to the Allies, and on 8–9 September, German troops occupied La Spezia. As the ship was still in an unusable condition, her crew did not scuttle Bolzano, instead leaving her partially afloat. During the German occupation, they cannibalized Bolzano and the also-damaged Gorizia for useful parts but otherwise did not make use of her. On the night of 21–22 June 1944, a team of British and Italian frogmen—Italy having re-entered the war on the side of the Allies—entered La Spezia using Chariot