The technical preparation of the Regia Marina seemed, at first look, in line with the times and the other powers.

There were made, between years '20 and the end of years '30 many progresses in the ships' direction of shooting, and it was been adopted good mechanized systems of targeting, good clinometers and telemeters.

The adoption of great searchlights remote controlled, the equipment of illuminating shells, let alone the reduced blaze charges for the small guns and medium-caliber guns, gave the feeling of being on the same level with other Navy also in regard of the nocturnal combat.

This feeling of being technically prepared for modern aspects of war was found also in the field of submarines, thanks to the last types of torpedo of national construction, to the depth charges with an high increased explosive load and the automatic mines with anchorage systems capable to operate at great depth.

Unfortunately, in practical action, the Regia Marina, after painful directed experiences, had to find that existed serious gaps in its technical-scientific preparation, to which not always could be placed remedy in the course of the war, for the insufficient technical and industrial potentiality of Italy at the time.

It is a great pity that, before the entrance in war, the Italian Navy has not made treasure of the German war experience. Unfortunately it lacked, like already said for the submarines, every useful exchange of technical information between the two Navy, before and after the participation of Italy in the common war.

It is also true that all Navy were introduced to the beginning of the war with various technical disadvantages; just for example the torpedo operation, for Germans as Americans, had, for the first months of war, an uncertain and erratic operation, until that problem was fixed. However such technical deficiencies weighed little less in other Countries that not in Italy, because these Countries were much more developed in industrial organizations than Italy, and they did not have that lack of raw materials that negatively characterized the development of the industrial war activity of Italy.