Chapter 1 - Operation Judgement (21st Oct 1940, Trafalgar day)

The possibility of a carrier strike to immobilize or destroy the Italian fleet had been considered for some years. Indeed, the initial idea preceded that of the Wilhelmshaven raid, and it was only the fact that Italy had not declared war until the summer that led to a raid on Germany being the first such carrier strike.

There were a number of differences with Operation Judgement. First, the location of the Italian fleet had to be known, and ideally this would be Taranto. Taranto was probably Italy's most forward large, well-protected anchorage; as a result it was also the most reachable. After what had happened at Wilhelmshaven, it was considered obvious by the British that Italy would have increased its defensive preparations at all its fleet bases.

The Royal Navy had also learned from their experience in Germany. In general, Taranto was a similar harbour to Wilhelmshaven - it was shallow, so the torpedoes would again need modification. Since the AA defences and the passive protection was considerably heavier, it would be more difficult to hit the capital ships by torpedo - not impossible, but more difficult. So with the exception of the modern capital ships, the attack would be by dive bombers, using 1,000lb bombs and the new 1,600AP bomb - this should penetrate anything but the new battleships decks. The attack would again be at night, and the maximum number of aircraft would be used. The attack would be supported by RAF bombers flying out of Malta, and it was planned that if conditions and Italian actions allowed, a follow-up strike would be made on the following night before the carrier force finally withdrew.

Unlike the North Sea, any attacking force would be in the range of the Regia Aeronautica for some time, especially if the follow-up strike on the second day went ahead. So the strike would go in around 2300 to maximise the effect of the rising moon outlining the targets, to allow the planes to return and land at night. The primary targets would be the Italian capital ships, as many as were in port, followed by the heavy cruisers. These were the two classes of ships most dangerous to the Mediterranean Fleets surface units. Part of the attack would also target the oil tanks, as it was thought that Italy was short on fuel supplies for the fleet, and so destroying the oil stored there would also limit the use of the Italian navy in the period after the raid. After that, targets of opportunity were the destroyers and submarines based there, and the port infrastructure itself. The launch point for the attack was established just west of the Greek island of Cephalonia, about 200 miles southeast of Taranto

In order to do the maximum damage, the Type XIVA torpedo would be used, with the duplex exploder. As it was expected that with all the torpedo protections not many hits would be obtained, it was necessary that the hits be as damaging as possible. It had been hoped to use the new Mk XV, but this had only just finished testing, and production would not be available for a few months. This use of the duplex fuse would prove later to be a very useful decision indeed.

The core of the strike force would be three aircraft carriers, HMS Implacable, HMS Indefatigable, and HMS Courageous. They would be escorted by a force of cruisers and destroyers, and a heavy covering force including the battleships Valiant and Warspite would wait to eastward to join up with them after the raid. While it was hoped that the raid itself would severely damage the Italian fleet, there was always the possibility that some of the modern fast battleships or heavy cruisers would pursue the retiring carrier force, and the capital ships in the covering force were to make sure that they would not be caught. Indeed, Admiral Cunningham was perfectly happy with the idea of Italian heavy ships 'catching' his battleships; he considered it so much easier than having to chase after them.

In order to maximize the strike, a partial deck park would be used on all three carriers; this also would allow additional fighters to be carried, as it was expected that retaliatory strikes would be heavy. While there was always a possibility that the carrier force would escape without interception, after the loss of HMS Venerable off Norway the Royal Navy was going to assume that the Regia Aeronautica would indeed find them and probably manage to make a number of attacks before they got out of range.

HMS Implacable and HMS Indefatigable would carry 30 TBR (strike), 24 Divebombers and 30 Fighters.

HMS Courageous would carry 18TBR (A/S , recon), 24 Divebombers and 24 Fighters

This would give the force a total air capability of 60 TBR (for strike use), 18 TBR (A/S, recon), 72 Divebombers and 84 Fighters. In order to fill out this aircraft complement, the reserve units at Alexandria would be stripped of naval aircraft, leaving the forces there in the protection of the RAF for the duration of the raid. It was not possible to launch this number of aircraft as a single strike (the deck space on the fleet carriers limited the number that could be flown off in one strike to about 30 planes), so the strike would go as two groups, first 42 torpedo-armed SeaLance, 36 Cormorant dive bombers and four Cormorants carrying flares and markers. The second wave would be another four flare carrying SeaLance, 12 SeaLance carrying torpedoes, and 30 Cormorants. In addition some of the strike TBR aircraft would carry additional flares.

As Courageous could not launch a fully loaded SeaLance, (her catapult had still not been upgraded, as she had been kept too busy to return to the UK for a planned refit), she would use her Swordfish for A/S and patrol work, allowing the other carriers to provide a heavier strike.

It was hoped to have all the planes landed by 0300, at which point the force would retire to the east to be out of range of the Italian fighters as early as possible. It would also allow them a better chance to evade detection if the direction of their returning planes had been observed. If a second strike was considered unnecessary, then the force would retire on the covering force as soon as the aircraft had been recovered. At dawn they would keep a CAP of 18 Goshawks in the air with another 18 warmed up on deck. It was expected that the air attacks would be heavy.

This force was to be assisted by a strike on Naples by Force H, using the carriers Ark Royal and Victorious, escorted by the battlecruisers Repulse and Renown and an escort of cruisers and destroyers. It had been considered making this force also the cover for a resupply of Malta, but this was discarded as it might have been an attractive enough target for the Italian battleships. For once Cunningham wanted them in port, not at sea. The carriers would launch their attack from southeast of Sicily at long range - approaching 300 miles. This would require the planes to carry a reduced bomb load, but the aim was to distract, not damage, and moving in closer would have led the carriers into the dangerous Sicilian Narrows. The carriers would be taking 30TBR, 18 Divebombers and 27 Fighters each. Their targets would be any destroyers and submarines using the port, and the oil tanks and any other facilities.

The plan was for Force H to strike about an hour before the Taranto attack, to distract the Italians and take their attention away from Taranto. The carrier force would retire on Gibraltar immediately the strike had been recovered; again it was expected that Italian retaliatory air strikes would be soon and heavy. The carriers were also carrying a deck park of fighters (Victorious had carried in extra planes from the UK, and a squadron would be left at Gibraltar as a defence force for the base after the operation was completed. Before the attack Force H would try and imitate a raiding force on the Sicilian airfields (something which had done before).

Finally, a number of submarines had been stationed in the straights of Messina. This was to try and cover possible routes that any damaged ships leaving Taranto would follow. It was expected that due to the rather random nature of an attack, some ships would be damaged rather than sunk. These might try to leave the next day, but in any case it was considered certain they would leave after the second nights attack.

On the 20th, air reconnaissance was carried out from Malta. The island now had six reconnaissance Whirlwinds available, and would conduct missions over Taranto, Naples, and the Sicilian airfields as well as possible targets in close proximity of these in order to try and conceal the actual target. The plane covering Taranto revealed a heavy concentration of ships, including all six of the Italians modern battleships. The photographs were flown out to Cunningham's fleet on a SeaLance which had been sent on to Malta earlier for just this task. As soon as they were looked at, the mission was approved - this was an even better set of targets than had been hoped for.

The photographic analysis showed that Taranto harbour was currently hosting six battleships (the Littorio, Andrea Doria, Vittorio Veneto, Cavour, Duilio and Cesare) and three heavy cruisers in the outer harbour. In addition there were two heavy cruisers, 21 destroyers and 16 submarines and 9 tankers in the inner harbour. There were considerable torpedo net and barrage balloon defences, but the analysis showed that although the coverage of the netting was extensive, it did not completely protect the battleships. It was not in fact realised by the British, but the torpedo netting was in fact far less effective than was thought. Taranto required some 12,800m of netting to properly protect the battleships anchored there, and there was only some 9,000m in place. However the netting was designed to protect against contact fuses - the duplex torpedoes the FAA would launch could slip right under the nets. As a result the torpedo attack would prove to be considerably more effective than anticipated (it should be noted though that not all the torpedoes used the duplex fuse).

Because of concerns that searchlight aimed at the low-flying torpedo planes would dazzle the pilots and cause them problems, the dive bombers would go in at the same time, to confuse and split the numerous searchlight positions defending the port. There was also a supporting attack planned using RAF Wellingtons flying from Malta - the RAF commander there had been busy begging, borrowing and sometimes being suspected of stealing every Wellington he could find in theatre. These planes would not be bombing the ships; they had a different target.

At 1900 the carriers in Force H started to launch their strike. A total of 24 TBR (six of them carrying flares, the rest bombs) and 32 divebombers (carrying 500lb bombs) took off for Naples. A number of planes were non-operational, but there were sufficient spare SeaLance to replace them; all serviceable Cormorants were flown. At the moment, Force H believed themselves not to be under observation; they had been detected the day before by a couple of planes, one of which had been shot down. However for some reason no attack had developed.

At 2230 the main carrier force started to launch. They had also moved into position without detection. Again, a number of planes were unserviceable, but the maximum strike possible was arranged on deck for the first launch - these planes would have the greatest surprise on their side. A total of 42 SeaLance carrying torpedoes, plus 39 Cormorants, six with flares the rest with 1,000lb bombs would soon be heading for Taranto harbour. The carriers had the second wave already armed and fuelled in the hangers ready to be spotted on deck once the first waves had taken off - a dangerous risk, but one which was considered worth taking for a surprise night attack. They would be on their way less than an hour after the first wave and would arrive some 30 minutes after them. This consisted of twelve torpedo armed SeaLance, four Cormorants with flares and another eighteen with 1,000lb bombs. The luxury of an undetected approach to the night attack had allowed a higher than normal number of serviceable aircraft. A number of Cormorants had had to be left behind due to a problem with fuel contamination; although it was possible to fuel on deck using a portable system (this had been instituted after the issue of keeping aircraft ready on deck while attack was imminent was seen to be important), the tight timescale meant four Cormorants had to be left behind.

At about the same time, a force of 16 Wellington bombers lifted off from Malta bound for Taranto. Operation Judgement was on its way.

* * *

The aircraft from Force H neared Naples at about 2200 that night. They only had approximate details of what ships were at Naples (only two destroyers and three submarines, plus some merchant ships), and so the dive bombers had been told to target the oil tanks first, the second group being given the ships in harbour as targets of opportunity. The SeaLance's were tasked with first completing the destruction of the oil tanks, then to bomb as much of the port facilities as they could.

The attack seemed to take Naples by surprise, even though it had been visited by a reconnaissance plane earlier (the RAF had been running reconnaissance flights over various targets for the last week in order to mask the real target areas), and as a result the first half of the dive bombers weren't even fired on before they started they dives onto the oil installations. Even a 500lb bomb starts an impressive fire when it hits an oil tank, and 10 minutes after the start of the attack the oil tanks were burning merrily. The results were so good that the raid commander ordered the bombers to target the ships in the harbour instead of the now-blazing oil installations.

While the first group of dive bombers retired from the oil storage facility, the eighteen bomb-carrying SeaLance engaged the ships in the harbour. By now the defences had been alerted, but seemed rather uncoordinated (the defences had previously only encountered high level raids from the RAF), and only one SeaLance was shot down. In return, two submarines and two merchant ships were left sunk or sinking.

It had only required 20 of the dive bombers to reduce the oil tanks to an inferno, and so the remaining twelve planes were ordered to target the destroyers lying in the harbour. At anchor, a destroyer is a much easier target than when it is manoeuvring at full speed. One destroyer was hit by two 500lb bombs, and was left sinking; a second was hit by one bomb, and although badly damaged was saved by the prompt actions of its crew. One dive bomber was lost in this attack to the destroyers AA fire.

The job finished, the strike headed back to the Force H carriers; as soon as they had been struck below deck, the force turned south to head back to Gibraltar, and readied the fighters on deck ready for the morning. Total losses would be two Cormorants and one SeaLance (which failed to return, probably due to fuel loss), although a further five planes were written off due to combat damage.

Taranto, 2300 (first strike)

Taranto, a major naval base, was rather more awake that Naples. At the first sound of the approaching aircraft, the searchlights lit up, searching the skies for them. It took a while, because they were looking in the wrong place - again, the Italians were expecting a high-altitude bombing attack by RAF planes. This allowed the first waves of attackers to get into position before an alert operator realised what was happening, and the defences started to illuminate the correct areas.

The first planes to attack was a group of twelve dive bombers carrying 1,000 lb bombs - targets the oil storage tanks overlooking the harbour. The tanks were illuminated by one of the flare aircraft, and the bombers turned into their dives as soon as they could see the target. Oil tanks are big, bulky, and don't manoeuvre out of the way of a bomb nearly as well as a ship. One aircraft was hit by AA fire (it ditched in the harbour), but as the other eleven pulled out of their dives the oil storage depot was rapidly becoming a mass of flames.

While the noise of exploding bombs (and a number of exploding oil tanks) was distracting the defenders, a torpedo strike was going in against the battleships. The time of the raid had been carefully planned so the rising moon, as well as the flares, helped to silhouette the targets. The netting surrounding the ships limited the angles of approach of the planes, and once they had been spotted it was clear that the Italian AA guns knew this also. Fortunately for the attackers, the chance of hitting a plane at night was still very low. The first attack by nine SeaLance targeted the modern battleship Littorio. While getting into a good attacking position through the barrage balloons ready to avoid the netting was difficult, the ship itself was a lovely big, stationary target. The torpedo bombers attacked straight into the battleships AA fire, which shot down one of the planes - although it dropped its torpedo when hit, no-one knew where it went. The other eight planes were far more successful - three torpedoes hit the battleship (it was not until much later in the war that the Royal Navy found out for certain that the nets were indeed useless against deep-running torpedoes), tearing large holes in her. The Pugliese Torpedo Defence System was probably the least effective of any in use in WW2, especially against the duplex fuse, and two of the holes were very large for aerial torpedoes.

At the same time, another group of nine planes were aiming their torpedoes at the Vittorio Venetto (the other modern battleship at anchor). Two of the planes were caught in searchlights, and although both escaped without being shot down (although not without damage), this caused them to miss badly with their torpedoes. The other seven planes had more luck. The huge plumes of water showed two torpedo hits, which again caused sizeable holes below the waterline. One plane was shot down by the shore-based AA as it made its escape.

Next to receive the friendly interest of the FAA was the modernised battleship Cavour. In order to work their way around the defences, and also to help reduce the chance of the torpedoes 'bottoming out' the planes were flying as slowly as practical. While the massed AA fire and the searchlights weren't doing a wonderful job of shooting down the attackers, they were causing some confusion and loss of night vision. One of the pilots, somewhat disorientated and concentrating on his target, asked his observer where the balloon barrage he was supposed to be avoiding was. He was told 'we've flown through the bloody thing once, and we're just about to do it again'.

Another strike of nine planes swept in at 50 feet towards the Cavour. The Cavour was an old battleship, which had been completely rebuilt before the war, but she was still small and relatively poorly protected compared to a modern design. Only seven of the planes managed to drop their torpedoes. Two were hit on the way in; one dropped into the harbour, the second managed to get away, damaged, by dropping its torpedo, which went somewhere. Nowhere near the ship, unfortunately. However the remaining planes registered two hits on the old ship. The terrible underwater damage caused to her old hull left her sinking into the mud of the harbour (although this was not immediately realised)

The last of the first four torpedo strikes was aimed at the Cesare, another modernised old ship. Or at least that had been the idea, but the lead crew had got rather confused by all the illumination and pyrotechnics flying about and instead were actually aiming at the Duilio. Again, this old ship had been heavily rebuilt, but was still well below modern standards. By now the defences were beginning to get an idea of what the planes were aiming at, and although the first flight of three planes got their attack off successfully, two of the next flight crashed into the water. The defences also shot down one of the final flight. Despite this, the six surviving planes managed two hits on the ship. Again, the old ship was damaged badly underwater by the hits, although the crew managed to hold the flooding at bay before it got out of control

While the torpedo attacks had been going in at low level, the dive bombers had been circling high above. This had attracted the attention of some of the AA fire, but hitting a small plane at night without radar was proving difficult - so difficult that so far none of them had been hit, and it helped to reduce the fire being aimed at the vulnerable torpedo planes.

The first group of twelve planes dove onto the Andrea Doria. She had been chosen because even though modernised, her deck armour was less than 4" thick. She would be the first ship to be attacked by the new 1,600lb AP bomb, as this should penetrate her deck easily (the newer battleships had much thicker deck armour, and it was not certain if even the AP bombs would penetrate). In fact, even some of the 1,000 bombs would penetrate the poor deck armour of the ship. The first six planes were carrying the AP bombs, and the attack caught the defences by surprise - they were still concentrating on the torpedo planes. As a result the first two flights made a textbook attack on the helpless ship, hitting her with three of their six bombs. One of the AP bombs didn't explode (it was later found it had speared straight through the armoured deck and actually made a hole as it exited the ship!). The other two worked as advertised; although they didn't carry the explosive content of the smaller GP bombs, they sent thick, heavy splinters of their casing in all directions, penetrating bulkheads, and managing to wreck the forward engine rooms. They also caused flooding as the splinters tore their way out through the side of the ship.

While the attack was satisfyingly successful, it did unfortunately alert the defences to what was going on. The next six planes met a hail of AA fire, one of them being hit and diving straight down into the harbour, where its bomb exploded in a huge plume of water. Of the remaining five planes, only one got a hit, the others being somewhat distracted by the AA fire (although two bombs fell close enough to cause underwater damage). The hit, although only by a 1,000lb bomb, actually penetrated the relatively thin armour deck before it exploded, causing severe damage and starting a large fire amidships. The ship was left burning as the planes made their escape at low level.

The final group of nine divebombers were targeting the Duilio. They had seen her hit by at least one torpedo, which was unexpected, but although the ship was listing, she was still above the water. The first flight was again carrying the 1,600AP bomb, and one of these hit - it was this hit that actually doomed the ship. The bomb exploded just as it entered the remaining operational boiler room, where it enthusiastically sprayed every piece of working machinery in range with jagged metal splinters - at which point the working machinery turned into non-working machinery. This caused a total loss of power as the electrical breakers opened automatically, which did nothing to help the crews trying to contain the torpedo damage. The final six planes managed two hits; one plane was lost as it never pulled out of its dive, the others managed two hits on the helpless battleship. One of these exploded above the armour (causing severe damage and fires in the superstructure), the second just under the armour, causing considerable damage, and also ruining the efforts of the crew to handle the increasing flooding. As a result, the list caused by the earlier torpedo damage kept increasing; the crew had no option but to abandon ship before she turned over into the mud of the harbour bottom.

Last to attack were the remaining group of six torpedo bombers. While all the attention was on the battleships, they had been sneaking around to make an attack on the heavy cruiser Fiume in the outer harbour. As the attention was all on the battleships, they managed to start their runs before they were detected. The ships AA was immediately directed against them and one of the planes did not survive to get into range. The other five managed good launches, although one torpedo was dropped poorly and hit the harbour bottom, two of the remaining four hit the ship - one near her B turret, the other near her stern, wrecking both her propeller shafts. The ship immediately started to take on water and list, but at that time was not in immediate danger of sinking.

Taranto, 2400 - second strike

While the first strike had been finishing its efforts in the outer harbour, the group of 16 Wellingtons from Malta had arrived. Finding Taranto had proved easy, the now splendidly-burning oil tanks made it visible from a long way off. As they closed, the sight of all the massed AA fire from the port and from the ships in harbour, as well as the blazing oil tanks, was quite impressive. 'Guy Fawkes night come two weeks early' as one of the crew put it. Their job was not to add to the chaos in the outer harbour. Instead, using the convenience of the searchlight positions to make sure they were on target, they dropped mines around the harbour entrances. Sixteen Wellingtons carry a considerable quantity of mines, and the task was made easier by them being completely ignored. While it had been realised that there was a small danger of them interfering with the raid aircraft (it would have been embarrassing to lose a carrier plane to having a naval mine dropped on it), the chance was small and it was a perfectly acceptable risk. As it turned out, none of the strike aircraft even noticed they were there. Admiral Cunningham was sure he would have to make a strike on the following night to do the damage he really wanted to do to the Italian fleet. Since it was expected that the Italians might consider this, and get as many ships away as possible during the day, the mines were to dissuade them, hopefully long enough for another strike to do yet more damage. Job done, the Wellingtons headed back to Malta for breakfast. They had more to do tomorrow night as well.

Shortly after the first strike had headed for home (less two planes carrying the raid leaders, who remained to evaluate the damage and suggest targets for the second wave), the rest of the carriers planes arrived. This consisted of twelve torpedo carrying SeaLance, 18 divebombers and four more divebombers armed with flares. The raid leaders had already decided on their targets.

The first target of the torpedo planes was the Littorio. Already hit badly by three torpedoes, she had just managed to get under way, although it wasn't apparent what a ship obviously damaged was going to do. It fact, the captain had already decided to find a good soft spot to run her ashore so that she was no longer in danger of sinking. Sadly for him he ran out of time. The first attack runs benefitted from surprise; the defences had obviously assumed the attack had finished, and the growl of more aero engines in the night seemed to completely confuse them for a few minutes. Enough time for all twelve planes to make their runs at the slowly-moving ship. Even the ships own AA seemed asleep for the first two flights, and even though they belatedly realised they were under attack, and managed to damage one of the third flight so badly it had to land in the harbour (fortunately the crew escaped), eleven torpedoes were swimming towards the already-damaged battleship. Although she was at least no longer at anchor, she was hardly racing along, and in quick succession three huge plumes of water hung in the night air for a moment. The two hits to the centre of the ship were damaging enough - again, the deep strike with the duplex head doing severe damage, but the final blow was the torpedo that hit her engine room, cutting off the power for some crucial minutes. Having been hit now by a total of six torpedoes, all on the same side, the battleship slowly leant over more and more onto her starboard beam. All the Captain was able to do was to order the crew to abandon ship as the Littorio tried her best to turn turtle. The shallow harbour actually prevented this, but she ended up almost underwater, on her side, and in fact later found to be unrecoverable despite the best efforts of the Italian engineers.

As the torpedo bombers streaked out of the outer harbour at full throttle and zero feet, the first six dive bombers commenced their dives at the Andrea Doria, already on fire from her earlier bomb hits. These planes were all carrying AP bombs. Although the ship was a stationary target, the first flight of three planes all missed. It was the second flight that managed one of the more spectacular hits of the war; two of the bombs hit - it was never certain if one of them exploded or not, as the second sliced easily through the deck armour and buried itself in the forward magazine before doing its patriotic duty. The resulting explosion seemed not only to light up the harbour but also to lift the whole front of the ship. As the aircrew regained their night vision, the ship was seen sinking forward. As one of the pilots later remarked, 'I'd have said she was sinking by the bow, except she didn't have a bow any more'.

The final group of twelve planes were rather put out by this - it hardly seemed fair to hog such a fat juicy target without giving them a crack at it. Instead, they were pointed to the heavy cruiser Gorizia (the Cesare, a higher priority target, had been missed in the natural confusion of the raid - ironically the smoke from one of the burning ships had been effectively concealing her). By now the defences were furious, and they turned into their dive amidst a hail of AA fire - even though it was poorly directed, the sheer volume was dangerous even to dive bombers, and three of the planes crashed into the water, not pulling out of their dives. The remaining nine managed to hit the cruiser with two 1,000lb bombs, which left her listing and on fire (she was to be towed to shallow water to avoid her sinking).

The final act of the raid was for the raid leaders to take photographs for later analysis, as the pilots headed back to the carriers. While the losses during the raid had been heavy, they were less than had been expected. Eight torpedo planes had been shot down during the attack, and three more failed to return (one crash-landed on the Italian coast, the crew being picked up by local fishermen). Only five of the divebombers had been lost during the raid, although four more failed to make it back to the carriers. Total losses were 20 planes out of 115 taking part - the original estimate had suggested up to 50 planes could have been lost.