Rear Admiral A. Lumley St. G. Lyster came up with the idea for an attack on the Italian Fleet at Taranto. Taranto is located inside the heel of the Italian boot. Lyster commanded two aircraft carriers Eagle and Illustrious under Admiral Cunningham. His idea was to launch air strikes from these aircraft carriers on the Italian fleet at Taranto. This would be the first-ever strike in history by carrier-based aircraft on a fleet within a naval base. Illustrious was launched in 1939, had a heavily armoured deck and could carry thirty-six aircraft. Both Illustrious and Eagle carried Swordfish aircraft of which ultimately 2,391 were built. Eagle also had a squadron of twelve new two-seat Fairey Fulmar eight-gun fighters which were adequate for the Italian aircraft it would encounter in this battle. The British had been using the American-built Martin Maryland aircraft for reconnaissance missions. These were operating from Malta and had provided intelligence to the British Admirals. These confirmed that the Italian fleet was at anchor in Taranto with six battleships, five cruisers and many smaller ships. The naval base was defended by extensive barrage balloon network and antiaircraft guns. Illustrious set sail from Alexandria on November 6th. Due to mechanical problems the Eagle could not participate in the attack. At 2040 hours on November 11th, the first twelve Swordfish lifted off from Illustrious. These were commanded by Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Williamson, of Squadron Number 815 and twenty minutes later another nine Swordfish under Lieutenant Commander J.W. Hale of Squadron Number 819 lifted off. These aircraft took off 170 miles from Taranto. Approach As British aircraft approached Taranto, they sent a single Stringbag to drop a line of twelve flares behind the Italian ships at anchor to signal the torpedo planes to attack. Then the flare ship went on to bomb oil tanks and other targets. Williamson and his group came from the west, levelled just above the water to send their Mark XII torpedoes into the lined Italian battleships. Williamson was shot down and taken prisoner right after he had released his torpedo. Twenty minutes later, Hale's group attacked. By 0250 on November 12th, all but two Swordfish made it back to Illustrious. The attack had sunk the Italian battleship Conte di Cavour and badly damaged the Littorio and Caio Duilio. Because of the heavy damage, the Littorio and Caio Duilio would be out of the war for several months. After the attack the Italian Navy immediately removed rest of its fleet to its well and better defended harbor at Naples. Moving its fleet from Taranto, greatly reduced the danger of Italian attacks on Allied convoys. The attack on Taranto was a bold operation by the British Royal Navy, and served as a model for the Japanese Navy in their attack on Pearl Harbor. Bibliography Boyne, Walter: CLASH OF TITANS: WORLD WAR 2 AT SEA: Touchstone Rockefeller Center, New York, 1995. Keegan, John: THE SECOND WORLD WAR: Penguin Books, New York, 1989. Back to Table of Contents -- World War Two Newsletter September 2002 Back to World War Two Newsletter List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Shahram Khan. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com