in under the forecastle and a fixed catapult was mounted on the centerline at the bow. Zaras secondary battery was revised several times during her career. Two of the 100 mm guns and all of the 40 mm and 12.7 mm guns were removed in the late 1930s, and eight 54-cal. guns and eight guns were installed in their place. Two 15-cal. star shell guns were added in 1940. Service history Zaras keel was laid down on 4 July 1928 at the Odero-Terni-Orlando (OTO) shipyard at Muggiano, La Spezia; she was launched on 27 April 1930, and her construction was completed on 20 October 1931, when she was commissioned into active service. During sea trials, Zara reached a speed of , but this was with the ship's machinery forced to give . This was not representative of in-service performance, however, and normal maximum at-sea speed was about . The ship was presented with her battle flag in her namesake city, now Zadar, Croatia. In August 1932, Zara took part in fleet training exercises in the Gulf of Naples; King Victor Emmanuel III came aboard the ship on the 13th. She became the flagship of the First Naval Squadron in September. She took part in a naval review held for Benito Mussolini in the Gulf of Naples on 6–7 July 1933. Zara participated in another review on 27 November 1936, and Victor Emmanuel III, his son Umberto, Prince of Piedmont, Mussolini, and the Regent of Hungary, Miklós Horthy, all came aboard the ship. Another fleet review was held for the German Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, the German minister of defense, on 7 June 1937. On 16 September, the commander of the squadron transferred his flag to the battleship . A final peacetime naval review took place on 5 May 1938, held for the visit of Adolf Hitler. On 7 March 1939, Zara and her sister ships sortied from Taranto to intercept a squadron of Republican warships—three cruisers and eight destroyers—attempting to reach the Black Sea. The Italian ships were ordered not to open fire but merely to try to impede the progress of the Spanish ships and force them to dock at Augusta, Sicily. The Spanish commander refused and instead steamed to Bizerte in French Tunisia, where his ships were interned. A month later, from 7 to 9 April, Zara supported the Italian invasion of Albania without incident. She was