Italian destroyer Ostro (1928)

Ostro was one of eight Turbine-class destroyers built for the Regia Marina in the 1920s, named for the southerly wind Ostro that is common in the Mediterranean and Adriatic. Gio. Ansaldo & C. laid her down at its Genoa shipyard on 29 April 1925, launched her on 2 January 1928 and completed her on 9 October. Two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft with steam from three Thornycroft boilers, gave the class 40,000 shaft horsepower, and her fuel oil gave a range of 3,200 nautical miles at 14 knots. She served in the 1st Squadron of the I Destroyer Flotilla at La Spezia, cruised to Spain in 1929 and the Aegean in 1930, and played a minor role supporting the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. In the Second World War a torpedo dropped by a British aircraft hit her stern ammunition depot, and she sank ten minutes later with 42 of her crew killed or missing. Her guns were later used to reinforce the defences of Bardia.