Operation Grog
| Operation Grog | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean of the Second World War | |||||||
.jpg) Armour-piercing shell fired by HMS Malaya, in the nave of Genoa Cathedral | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United Kingdom |
 Italy | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| James Somerville | Ferdinando Casardi | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Anti-aircraft and coastal artillery | |||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1 Swordfish aircraft |
| ||||||
Operation Grog was the code name for a British sea and air bombardment of Genoa and La Spezia on 9 February 1941, by the Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm. Force H from Gibraltar, consisting of the battleship HMS Malaya, the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, the battlecruiser HMS Renown and the light cruiser HMS Sheffield with ten fleet destroyers.
Supermarina, the Italian naval headquarters, received information that Force H had sailed but mistakenly expected that the British were on a Club Run operation to reinforce Malta and were deceived by the British suddenly turning north-east instead of keeping on to the east.
Background
British plans
After the Battle of Taranto (11/12 November 1940) the commander of Force H, Admiral James Somerville, looked for opportunities to attack the Italian fleet in the west coast ports to which it has withdrawn. Intelligence in late 1940 implied that a Littorio-class battleship was at Genoa, being repaired and that the port had deep waters nearby that were impossible to mine and was almost undefended. An attack on Genoa had the danger of HMS Ark Royal or HMS Renown suffering damage 700 nmi (1,300 km; 810 mi) from their base and that the return of a damaged ship might be impossible. If such risks were accepted, there was no certainty of an Italian battleship being present to shoot at. If a venture like this did succeed it might be a big blow to Italian morale and might divert aircraft and ships from more important areas, damage the Italian war economy and add to Italian apprehensions.
Despite the arrival of the Luftwaffe, Admiral Andrew Cunningham the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet was favourable to an operation in the Gulf of Genoa and the Admiralty in London agreed to it once repairs to HMS Malaya were complete and suggested conducting a smaller operation against the Tirso Dam in Sardinia that produced a third of the electric power on the island and was vital for farm irrigation. Reconnaissance to discover what ships were at Genoa was important because any big ships at the port would need armour piercing ammunition and if land targets weer engaged, high explosive would be preferable and it would take Renown ten minutes to change from one nature to the other, a delay that would not be practical for a bombardment and notice of the targets to be expected was necessary. On 23 January the British thought that Littorio might be in the dry dock with Giulio Cesare moored alongside. By chance a photographic reconnaissance (PR) Spitfire was in Malta and flew a reconnaissance sortie but it was shot down.
First attack
On the evening of 31 January 1941, Force H, comprising Renown, Malaya, Ark Royal and Sheffield, with ten destroyers, sailed from Gibraltar to attack the Tirso Dam on 2 February and then to bombard Genoa on 3 February. The Mediterranean Fleet sortied westwards from Alexandria as a diversion. A reconnaissance aircraft of the Regia Aeronautica spotted the ships south of the Balearic Islands on 1 February and Supermarina alerted the battlefleet. At 6:00 a.m. on 2 February, west of Sardinia, eight Swordfish torpedo bombers of 810 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) took off into the night sky from Ark Royal. Having made landfall, the Swordfish flew into rain and severe icing at 5,000 ft (1,500 m), then as they flew up the valley to the dam, the were engaged by massed anti-aircraft fire that became intense over the reservoir. The Admiralty had expected only three feet of concrete on top of the dam and little in the way of defences. The crews saw no explosions and the dam appeared to remain intact, after being hit by three of the eight torpedoes, to their great disappointment. An Admiralty view that torpedoes were useless against dams was borne out. All but one Swordfish were back on Ark Royal by 8:45 a.m. one having been shot down and the crew captured. The weather continued to deteriorate with gale force winds from the north-east, to the extent that Ark Royal was dipping its flight deck into the water. Force H reduced speed to 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph), the maximum safe speed of the destroyers. The slow progress to the north and west delayed and the last stage of the voyage to Genoa would have been in daylight; Somerville judged this to be too risky and turned back for Gibraltar.
Revised plan
Because of the security scare after the first attempt, orders were issued for a mission against French warships in the western Mediterranean. HMS Resolution received instructions to organise boarding and steaming parties to join the destroyers in the operation. Real orders, with a new code word were issued to senior officers in sealed envelopes to be opened only once at sea. It was not possible to repeat the operation until 6 February when Force H was to be divided, part to sail eastwards and one westwards, to rendezvous on 8 February north of the Balearic Islands. If aircraft were detected by radar the force was to turn to the south-east, to look like a course towards Sardinia. The destroyers HMS Firedrake and Jupiter were to send misleading wireless signals off Menorca as Force H closed on Genoa, also intended to reinforce the impression that Sardinia was the target. Ark Royal with three destroyer escorts was to detach to bomb an oil refinery at Livorno and plant magnetic mines off La Spezia. To reinforce the ruse that Sardinia was the target, the Royal Air Force (RAF) on Malta were asked to attack Cagliari or Alghero but there were no aircraft for the raids.
Attack
Genoa harbour was bombarded on 9 February 1941, with the force sinking four cargo ships and damaging 18 more,with 144 people killed. A majority of Italian sources only reported heavy damage to the merchant ships Salpi and Garibaldi and the sinking of the old civilian training ship Garaventa. The historian Ermingo Bagnasco also reports the loss of 14 lighters and the motorsailer Antonietta Madre.
A salvo from Malaya landed between 50 and 200 yd (46 and 183 m) short of the Italian battleship Duilio, undergoing repairs in dry dock north of Molo Giano (Giano Pier); no damage was reported on Duilio. A targeting error by a gunnery officer on board Malaya some 13 nmi (24 km; 15 mi) offshore caused an armour-piercing round to hit Genoa Cathedral; the shell failed to explode and remains on display there.
Ark Royal's aircraft attacked Livorno and mined La Spezia. An attempt by the Italian fleet to intercept the British force failed, and all ships returned to Gibraltar on 11 February 1941.
Casualties
There were 144 civilian dead and 272 wounded at Genoa as result of the shelling.
Orders of battle
Royal Navy
Regia Marina
| Ship | Flag | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Spezia | |||
| Andrea Doria | Kingdom of Italy |
Littorio-class battleship | |
| Giulio Cesare | Kingdom of Italy |
Conte di Cavour-class battleship | |
| Vittorio Veneto | Kingdom of Italy |
Littorio-class battleship | |
| Messina | |||
| Bolzano | Kingdom of Italy |
Trento-class cruiser | |
| Trento | Kingdom of Italy |
Trento-class cruiser | |
| Trieste | Kingdom of Italy |
Trento-class cruiser | |
Notes
- ↑ That the defenders were alert on a Sunday caused suspicion that there had been careless talk at Gibraltar.
Footnotes
- 1 2 Bagnasco 2011, p. 191.
- 1 2 3 Titterton 2011, pp. 52–53.
- ↑ Playfair 1957, p. 328.
- 1 2 3 Playfair 1957, p. 329.
- ↑ Giorgerini 2001, p. 253.
- 1 2 3 4 Dannreuther 2005, p. 73.
- ↑ Playfair 1957, p. 330.
- 1 2 Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, p. 58.
- ↑ "L'operazione "Grog"". www.scmncamogli.org (in Italian). Retrieved 5 July 2019.
- ↑ Artieri 1978, p. 646.
- ↑ "Obituary:Commander Henry Hatfield". Daily Telegraph. 4 July 2010. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
- ↑ "UK Battleship of WW1 and WW2:HMS Malaya (BB-6)". Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2010.
- ↑ Greene & Massignani 2002, p. 136.
Bibliography
- Artieri, Giovanni (1978). Cronaca del Regno d'Italia: Dalla Vittoria alla Repubblica [Chronicles of the Kingdom of Italy: From Victory to the Republic]. Le scie (in Italian). Vol. II. Milano: Mondadori. OCLC 848126253.
- Bagnasco, Ermingo (2011). The Littorio Class: Italy's Last and Largest Battleships. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-105-2.
- Dannreuther, Raymond (2005). Somerville's Force H: The Royal Navy's Gibraltar-based Fleet, June 1940 to March 1942. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 1-84513-020-0.
- Giorgerini, Giorgio (2001). La guerra italiana sul mare. La Marina tra vittoria e sconfitta 1940–1943 [The Italian War at Sea: The Navy between Victory and Defeat 1940–1943] (in Italian). Milano: Mondadori. ISBN 978-8-80-440581-8.
- Greene, Jack; Massignani, Alessandro (2002). The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1940–1943 (repr. pbk. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 1-86176-190-2.
- Playfair, I. S. O.; et al. (1957) [1954]. Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The Mediterranean and Middle East: The Early Successes Against Italy (to May 1941) (online scan). History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. Vol. I (4th ed.). HMSO. OCLC 494123451 – via Archive Foundation.
- Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (3rd rev. ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
- Roskill, S. W. (1957) [1954]. Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The War at Sea 1939–1945: The Defensive (online scan). History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. Vol. I (4th impr. ed.). London: HMSO. OCLC 881709135 – via Archive Foundation.
- Titterton, G. A. (2011) [2002]. The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean: September 1939 – October 1940. Naval Staff Histories. Vol. I. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7146-5179-8. BR 1736 (11). Published anonymously in 1952 as a restricted document "Selected Convoys (Mediterranean), 1941–1942 Battle Summaries Nos. 18 and 32" by the Admiralty Historical Section.
Further reading
- Marina Militare, Stato Maggiore (1952). La Marina italiana nella seconda guerra mondiale [The Italian Navy in the Second World War] (in Italian). Vol. III. Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare. OCLC 491141740.
- Schreiber, G.; et al. (2015) [1995]. Falla, P. S. (ed.). The Mediterranean, South-East Europe and North Africa, 1939–1941: From Italy's Declaration of non-Belligerence to the Entry of the United States into the War. Germany and the Second World War. Vol. III. Translated by McMurry, D. S.; Osers, E.; Willmot, L. (2nd pbk. trans. Oxford University Press, Oxford ed.). Freiburg im Breisgau: Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt. ISBN 978-0-19-873832-9.
- Woodman, Richard (2003). Malta Convoys 1940–1943. London: John Murray. ISBN 0-7195-6408-5.
