The Royal Navy ship Roma (47,000 tons, 2,000 people), along with her sister ships Italia and Vittorio Veneto, set sail from La Spezia for Sardinia; Admiral Carlo Bergamini had not received clear orders and did not intend to surrender and hand over the ships to the Allies without a fight; near the island of La Maddalena, she was spotted by German planes that launched a surprise attack. The Roma initially did not even respond to fire, but was then hit by a new German remote-controlled bomb, killing Admiral Carlo Bergamini and 1,392 other Italian sailors.
