Drawing from British and Italian sources, David Wragg recounts the
story of the Second World War's first great carrier raid-before
Midway and Pearl Harbour, Facing Germany and Italy alone in 1940;
Britain's Royal Navy launched a bold and brilliant plan to retake
the initiative in the Mediterranean. On 11 November 1940 twenty-one
obsolete 'stringbag' Swordfish biplanes launched from the Royal
Navy carrier HMS illustrious. In just one night, one raid, they
sank three Italian battleships at their port in Taranto. Besides
expertly sketching the events of the raid that night (which
incredibly cost the Royal Navy just two of its planes in the face
of heavy anti-aircraft fire and searchlights), Wragg also fleshes
out the development of naval aviation technology and its role in
naval strategy before and during the war. He shows us how Taranto,
great victory though it was, was all the more surprising given the
Royal Navy's lack of advanced carrier aircraft and heavy carriers
in large numbers such as the Japanese possessed at Pearl Harbour,
had they done so victory could have been more complete. Later
tragic losses at Petsamo and Kirkenses were to remind the navy that
such victories require not just careful and bold planning and
trained crews- but aircraft more advanced than the old but trusty
Swordfish. He also debunks a few myths- it was not Taranto that
decisively moved the Japanese to plan their audacious raid on Pearl
Harbour the next year (that plan had already been war-gamed). The
plan was risky but succeeded due to the willingness of the crew to
press home their attacks, coupled with bold and brilliant planning
and a willingness to take risks in attacking a defended port close
to enemy home territory. The Italian failure to prevent the raid
showed graphically both the power of air forces in a surprise
attack and the dire need for effective fighter and radar defences
and navy-air cooperation to prevent them- both of which the
Italians lacked at the time. The raid drove the Italian fleet out
of Taranto and helped ease the balance of forces against Britain in
that theatre. From a wider perspective though the raid showed how
it was the Allies, and not the Axis, that were to be the side that
would more fully come to appreciate the power of the aircraft
carrier. This small but rich book is a timely reminder of the way
in which naval warfare was changed forever. The era of the great
showdowns between big-gun battleships was being replaced by wars of
air flotillas fighting each other and the enemy fleets over
hundreds of miles of ocean, with opposing ships often never
meeting. (Kirkus UK)
In November 1940 Britain was isolated in its stand against Nazi
Germany and its ally, Italy. The country could not afford to lose
control of the Mediterranean, but the Royal Navy was already
overstretched by the U-boat war and the threat of invasion. Italy's
fleet of modern battleships presented a grave threat to our
communications with Egypt and the Suez Canal. On the night of 11
November 1940, 42 members of the Fleet Air Arm took off in 21
obsolete 'Swordfish' biplanes, launched from HMS Illustrious. Their
target: the Italian fleet anchorage at Taranto. Pressing home their
attack in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire and searchlights,
they torpedoed and sank three battleships. Incredibly, all but two
of the biplanes survived. The Italian fleet was crippled and the
world took note that Britain was far from defeated. No-one was more
impressed than the Japanese, who noted how a fleet in harbour could
be demolished by air attack. In this new account of the Royal
Navy's most daring operation of the Second World War, David Wragg
draws on British and Italian records as well as interviews with the
aircrew, to tell the full story of a night that changed the course
of the war.
General
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