The Royal Navy's February 1941 bombardment of Genoa brought HMS Malaya, Ark Royal, Renown, Sheffield and ten destroyers against the port. The force combined a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship, an aircraft carrier, a battlecruiser and a Town-class cruiser, showing the scale and variety of combat power Britain could concentrate. Faà di Bruno was damaged and effectively sunk during the attack, then later scuttled and scrapped. Because the monitor lay in shallow water, however, its condition differed from a ship lost in the open Mediterranean. The comparison with Pearl Harbor and Taranto shows how water depth could turn sinking into a recoverable setback rather than an irreversible loss.
Notable Point · 4:15-6:41
Operation Grog and shallow-water survival at Genoa
Faà di Bruno's damage at Genoa introduces Operation Grog's powerful British force and the importance of shallow water in determining whether a sunk ship was recoverable.