twin mounts, twelve 64-caliber , and twenty-three 65-caliber 20 mm AA guns. Her hulk was damaged in an air raid and capsized on 23 February 1945. Refloated shortly after the end of the war, Conte di Cavour was scrapped in 1946. Giulio Cesare participated in the Battle of Cape Spartivento on 27 November 1940, but never got close enough to any British ships to fire at them. The ship was damaged in January 1941 by a near miss during an air raid on Naples; repairs were completed in early February. She participated in the First Battle of Sirte on 17 December 1941, providing distant cover for a convoy bound for Libya, again never firing her main armament. In early 1942, Giulio Cesare was reduced to a training ship at Taranto and later Pola. She steamed to Malta in early September 1943 after the Italian surrender. The unsuccessfully attacked the ship in the Gulf of Taranto in early March 1944. After the war, Giulio Cesare was allocated to the Soviet Union as war reparations in 1949, and renamed Novorossiysk, after the Soviet city on the Black Sea. The Soviets used her as a training ship when she was not undergoing one of her eight refits in their hands. In 1953, all remaining Italian light AA guns were replaced by eighteen 37 mm 70-K AA guns in six twin mounts and six singles. They also replaced her fire-control systems and added radars, although the exact changes are unknown. The Soviets intended to rearm her with their own 305 mm guns, but this was forestalled by her loss. While at anchor in Sevastopol on the night of 28/29 October 1955, she detonated a large German mine left over from World War II. The explosion blew a hole completely through the ship, making a hole in the forecastle forward of 'A' turret. The flooding could not be controlled and she later capsized with the loss of 608 men. Novorossiysk was stricken from the Navy List on 24 February 1956, salvaged on 4 May 1957, and subsequently scrapped. Notes Footnotes References Further reading External links Cavour class – Plancia di Comando Conte di Cavour Marina Militare website Battleship classes