Italian Heavy Cruisers

 Italy had two (or three) classed of Heavy Cruisers they built during the Inter-War Period. The Italian Heavy Cruiser was designed to support and supplement the battleline in addition to the more traditional cruiser roles in part because of the Battleship holiday or the treaty era. 

This made six ships in total, powerful units with 8" guns. 

The Trento Class were fast ships with a spread in trials of 35 knots.  Their armor was relatively light as they tried to stick close to the Washington Naval Treaty.   Still these ships had Protection broadly similar to near US contemporaries (Pensacola and Northampton) and might have been a little bette. 

The Bolazno is sometimes counted as part of this class and some times thought of a unique class with a newer and slightly faster powerplant and an improved 8" gun.  Still the hull form was broadly similar externally.  These three ships did serve together as the 3rd Cruiser Division of the Regia Marina (3a Divisione Incrociatori). 

The Zara's took a cut in speed (32 knots) but a considerable upgrade to armor making them among the best protected Heavy Cruisers of the period.  They retaining the 8" guns though they dropped the torpedos the Trento class carried. 

These three served together and sank more or less together as the 1st Cruiser Squadron (1a Divisione Incrociatori) at the Battle of cap Matapan. 

The Zara's were very effective ships often forcing British Cruisers to fall back on their battle line rather than mixing up cruiser vs cruiser as they were willing to do with Germans ships of the same type.