 Only seventeen days after Italy's entry into the war, "Espero" was sunk during the Battle of the Espero Convoy as she covered the convoy's retreat, the first surface engagement between Allied and Italian warships.The ship was the first Italian destroyer to be lost in World War II.The "Turbine"-class destroyers were enlarged and improved versions of the preceding s. They had an overall length of , a beam of and a mean draft of .