A new book by a leading naval historian. Sequel to the bestseller "Mussolini's Super Battleships". All about the famous Italian dreadnoughts of the Giulio Cesare type, which were designed as one of the most powerful ships in the world, but the history of their military service is striking in its absurdity and fatal bad luck - it was not without reason that there were rumors that some kind of curse was hanging over these battleships. Having gone through both world wars, they did not inflict any damage on the enemy. The first volleys of their powerful guns were directed against their own compatriots, and the first victims of their shells were civilians and children. Three of the five ships of this series did not die on the high seas, but at anchorages in sheltered and well-equipped bases - Leonardo da Vinci and Conte di Cavour sank on the Taranto roadstead (the first from an internal explosion, the second from being hit by a single torpedoes), and the Giulio Cesare itself, transferred after the war on reparations to the Soviet Union and renamed Novorossiysk (the largest trophy ever introduced into another fleet!), Exploded in the Sevastopol Bay on October 29, 1955, and the secret this tragedy, which claimed the lives of more than 600 of our sailors, has not yet been unraveled.This book, richly illustrated with hundreds of unique drawings and photographs, tells about the unenviable fate, unfortunate service and the mysterious death of the pride of the Italian and Soviet fleets.< /p>