As the Axis and the British fought desperately across North Africa in 1940, the main British problem, aside from incompetent generals, was that of supply. There were two ways supplies could get to the British 8th army: all the way down around Africa and back up (relatively safe but long and very time-consuming) or through the Mediterranean Sea (a lot shorter, but a LOT more dangerous). One of the prime dangers to the British supply convoys was the Italian Regia Marina, their navy. Following the attack by the Royal Navy on the French Mediterranean fleet at Mers el Kebir in July of 1940, the Italian navy, based at Taranto on the instep of the Italian boot heel, stood as the RNs main surface opposition. The commander of the Royal Navys Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, had already wondered in 1938 how to successfully attack Taranto. Captain Sir Arthur Lyster of HMS Glorious suggested a way. By the fall of 1940, Pounds replacement, Admiral Lord Cunningham ordered by-then Rear Admiral Lyster to take his task force based around the HMS Illustrious to launch the attack he had developed for Admiral Pound. Using his Swordfish torpedo aircraft (the same that would attack the German battleship Bismarck some six months later) the British inflicted a stinging defeat on the Italians, destroying one battleship, damaging two, killing 59 Italian sailors and wounding 600 at a cost of 4 British killed, wounded or captured and two aircraft shot down. The attack on the shallow harbor of Taranto by torpedo planes was so successful that it not only knocked the Italian Navy out of the war, it also inspired the Imperial Japanese Navy to try the same sort of attack at a similar harbor with much more devastating effects some thirteen months after the attack on Taranto, which took place on November 11, 1940. Seventy-three years ago today.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 09:11:05 +0000