The recent Alpha Strike update in War Thunder revealed that addition of the Heavy Cruiser known as the RB Bolzano. It's available for Italy at Rank IV. While protection may not be that good, firepower is truly superb with good mobility. Today we'll take a closer look at this ship.
A Look Back
Let's start with a bit of a historical background. The Bolzano was ordered during the late 1920s as part of larger rearmament program for the Italian Navy. It's actually a one-off construction which had the design aspects of the older Trento combined with the design of the more advanced Zara class. After its commissioning in 1933, it had what can be described as an uneventful initial interwar service.
However during World War II it played a significant role in different naval fights like the Battle of Calabria and even the Battle of Cape Spartivento. In particular, the Bolzano was able to prove just how good its design was especially when it came to surviving several deadly torpedo attacks. Then in 1943, the Bolzano was scuttled by her very own crew in the port of La Spezia. This was because Italy was on the verge of surrendering and it seemed that German occupation was just around the corner, and doing it was a good way to prevent the Bolzano from being captured.
Weapons System
As mentioned the RN Bolzano continues to design legacies of the Trento and Zara class cruisers while at the same offer a mix of most prominent features found on both ship classes. One of the aspects that's clearly from the Zara class are its armament. The RN Bolzano has been eight 8-inch cannons. This means it can effectively engage most ships except the most heavily armored ones. It also has secondary and tertiary weapons that's composed of 100 mm, 37 mm ,and 13 mm machine guns.
Better Protection
Now when it comes to protection, what the Bolzano has is better compared to the Trento class. Main features include a main belt composed of only 70 mm in thickness and 100 mm strong barbettes along with conning tower. This level of protection though can't withstand damages especially when it comes to intense fighting or large-caliber shells.
Because the ship has only modest protection, this lets the Bolzano have displacement that's relatively low especially for this class. As a result, the ship can reach speeds of as much as 68 km/h. This makes it one of the game's fastest cruisers.
What do you think? Excited to try out the RN Bolzano?
War Thunder is available for the PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and the Xbox Series X/S.
