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RN Miraglia (courtesy of USMM, Priore Collection). A NEW BOOK has revealed how Germany’s most important ally during World War Two, Italy, might have stolen Nazi V1 rocket technology with the intention of creating a game-changing weapon. The book also details an Italian warship that was due to carry the Nazi-designed V-1 rocket that caused terror in the UK during the blitz and this new secret weapon. From 1941, Italy had been developing a top-secret project to install guided rocket weapons aboard aircraft carriers. Campini Capron’s revolutionary guided rocket weapon, the DAAC, which would later become Hitler’s Henschel HS-117 Schmetterling (‘Butterfly’), was the selected projectile. Classified intelligence on the V-1 flying bomb and other aircraft projects were acquired and then discarded when Ansaldo’s naval architect, Lino Campagnoli (1911–1975), issued plans for the Impero battleship to be transformed into a modern fleet carrier. The new revelations come in Davide F Jabes and Steffano Sappino’s new book, Aircraft Carrier Impero: The Axis Powers’ V-1 Carying Capital Ship, which is published by Fonthill Media. Fonthill Media / mediadrumworld.com