Taranto: The Pearl Harbor before Pearl Harbor

When people think of a sneak attack in the context of World War II, many people would think of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which caught the US Pacific fleet unawares and almost put the entire fleet out of action. Many people believe that Pearl Harbor marks the death knell for the battleship era and the beginning of the aga of naval air supremacy. However, there were other moments prior to Pearl Harbor that demonstrate the same change in eras. There was the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck, the most powerful battleship of its time sunk by antiquated biplanes. These antiques also participated in their own Pearl Harbor raid: the British naval air attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto. The name of the game: Operation Judgement.

In the latter half of 1940, the war was going in Hitler's favor. Poland had fallen, France and the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands) had been conquered, Germany and the Soviet Union were at peace for the time being, and Hitler's next target was Britain. Amidst all this, Germany's ally in the Meditteranean had been expanding its fleet and was in a position to claim naval superiority. This was a nightmare waiting to happen for Britain because if the Italians gained control of the Meditteranean, Britain would essentilly be cut off from its holdings east of the Suez Canal such as India, which were providing supplies and troops to Britain.

The decision was made to coax the Italian fleet into battle with British warships based out of Malta. The date was set for October 21, the anniversary of the British victory over Napoleon's invasion fleet in 1805. However, the Italian fleet did not want to risk their capital ships in a single engagement, and seemed content to stay in their home port of Taranto. This gave British officials the idea that if the Italians wouldn't come to the British, the British would have to go to the Italians.

A harrowing and dangerous reconnaissance flight through Taranto (not over, through the harbor at low altitude against heavy anti-aircraft fire) the day before the raid showed that the Italians had six battleships and five heavy cruisers moored in the harbor.  The plan was to send two waves of Fairey Swordfish biplanes, the same type that sank Bismarck in 1941, off the British aircraft carrier Illustrious. The first wave was to be personally commanded by Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Williamson, and consisted of 12 planes mainly armed with a single torpedo each, but two of the planes had bombs and two had bombs and flares meant to mark the positions of targets for the second wave.

The attack happened on the night of November 11/12 1940. The Italians had laid out a ballon barrage, a series of nonrigid blimps on strings used as obstacles for enemy pilots to avoid and place in the fire of anti-aircraft batteries, to protect the harbor earlier. However, these balloons had all been destroyed by a storm earlier in the night, so the British had a free run at the Italians. While a few of the Swordfish were shot down, including Lt. Cmdr Williamson's, the raid was a complete success. At least two of the battleships moored at the harbor never sailed again. Those that were damaged had to be beached to prevent sinking, or floated by salvage teams and repaired later.

Most of the other ships damaged were repaired in a span of about six months, but the psychological impact on the Italian navy never fully healed. Like the Germans after the sinking of the Bismarck, the Italians would never again commit any of their capital ships to an engagement with the British. This is significant because the Italian battleships were just as good if not better than the British, and the few times after the raid that the British and Italian navies met, had the Italian battleships engaged the British instead of running away, British casualties would have definitely been higher, and victory may not have been assured. Until next time, take care, and thank you for reading.