Italian monitor Faà di Bruno

Faà di Bruno

Faà di Bruno was an Italian monitor built during World War I. Completed in 1917, the ship played a small role in the 11th Battle of the Isonzo later that year. She was decommissioned in 1924, but returned to service as the floating battery GM 194 at the beginning of World War II and was towed to Genoa and where she spent the rest of the war. The ship had her guns disabled when the Royal Navy bombarded Genoa in 1941. GM 194 was captured by the Germans after the Italian Armistice in 1943 and was turned over to the puppet (Italian Social Republic) that they installed afterward. She was scuttled at the end of the war and subsequently scrapped.

Development and description

Faà di Bruno was built when 40-caliber Cannone navale da 381/40 guns from the s became available after their construction was suspended in 1916. Her guns were built by Ansaldo-Schneider and originally destined for the Cristoforo Colombo. She displaced , with a length between perpendiculars of , a beam of and a draft of . Faà di Bruno was powered by two surplus Thornycroft vertical triple-expansion steam engines from discarded torpedo boats. One Kess boiler provided enough steam to provide a total of between them. On her sea trials the ship reached a maximum speed of , but her maximum speed in service was about . The ship's navigation bridge was placed on a prominent tripod mast abaft the gun turret. Faà di BrunoTemplate:'s crew consisted of 45 officers and enlisted men.

Her Cannone navale da 381/40 guns could elevate +15° and her twin-gun turret could traverse 30° to either side. They fired an armor-piercing shell at a muzzle velocity of . She was fitted with four 40-caliber Ansaldo anti-aircraft (AA) guns. They fired a high explosive shell at a muzzle velocity of 700 m/s. The ship also mounted two 39-caliber water-cooled Vickers-Terni 1915/1917 light AA guns. Their shells were fired at a muzzle velocity of .

Faà di BrunoTemplate:'s hull was surrounded by a concrete cofferdam thick that was strapped to her hull. Faà di BrunoTemplate:'s deck armor had a thickness of . It sloped down from the center and had a peak of . Her guns were mounted in an open-topped turret covered by an armored dome. The turret sides had a total thickness of in three layers and its barbette had armor thick.

Service

File:Monitor Faa di Bruno2.png

Faà di Bruno in 1917

Faà di Bruno was laid down on 10 October 1915, even before the battleships were officially suspended, by the Venetian Arsenal to a design by Rear Admiral Giuseppe Rota that was essentially that of a self-propelled barge as she lacked a bow. The ship was launched on 30 January 1916 and commissioned on 1 April 1917. Her first action came during the 11th Battle of the Isonzo in August 1917. Together with the Italian monitor and the British monitors and , she bombarded Austro-Hungarian positions with little noticeable effect. She was driven ashore in a storm in November, but was not salvaged for almost a full year.

She was stricken from the Navy List on 13 November 1924, but was placed back into service at the beginning of World War II as the floating battery GM 194. She was towed from Venice to Genoa, where she remained for the rest of the war. When the Royal Navy bombarded Genoa on 9 February 1941, she only fired three times at the British ships because one of the first British shells damaged the cables that provided electrical power to her guns. She was captured by the Germans after the Italian armistice and was turned over to the puppet (National Republican Navy). GM 194 was scuttled in Savona at the end of the war and was subsequently scrapped.

External links

• Illustrated description
• Faa di Bruno Marina Militare website