Faà di Bruno Italian Monitor
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 Repubblica Sociale Italiana (Italian Social Republic) that they installed afterward. She was scuttled at the end of the war and subsequently scrapped.
Faà di Bruno was built when 40-caliber Cannone navale da 381/40 guns from the Francesco Caracciolo-class battleships became available after their construction was suspended in 1916.
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 Alfredo Cappellini and the British monitors Earl of Peterborough and Sir Thomas Picton, 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 Marina Nazionale Repubblicana (National Republican Navy). GM 194 was scuttled in Savona at the end of the war and was subsequently scrapped.
General Characteristics
| Type: | Monitor |
| Displacement: | 2,854 long tons (2,900 t) (standard) |
| Length: | 55.56 m (182 ft 3 in) |
| Beam: | 27 m (88 ft 7 in) |
| Draft: | 2.24 m (7 ft 4 in) |
| Installed power: | 1 boiler465 ihp (347 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 2 shafts; 2 triple-expansion steam engines |
| Speed: | 3.31 knots (6.13 km/h; 3.81 mph) (trials) |
| Complement: | 45 |
| Armament: | 1 × twin 381 mm (15 in) guns 4 × single 76.2 mm (3 in) AA guns 2 × single 40 mm (1.6 in) AA guns |
| Armor: | Deck: 40 mm (1.6 in) Turret: 110 mm (4.3 in) Barbette: 60 mm (2.4 in) |
