Battleship Vittorio Veneto was one of the three Italian Littorio class battleships operating in the Second World War. She was one of the most modern and powerful battleships of her times. She was designed by General Umberto Pugliese and engineer Francesco Mazzullo. She was the first battleship to exceed the limit of 35,000 tons of displacement imposed in the Washington Naval Treaty. The keel of the Vittorio Veneto battleship was laid down by the Italian shipbuilder “Cantieri Riuniti dell’Adriatico”, in Trieste, on 28th October 1934.

She was launched on July 1937 and began her service in the Italian Fleet (Regia Marina) by August 1940. She was named in honour of the Italian victory at Vittorio Veneto in the First World War and she had three sisters ships: Littorio, Roma and Impero (the last one was never completed). She was armed with a main battery of nine 381 millimeters guns and three triple turrets. She was able to reach the speed of 30 knots (56 Km/h).