22nd October, Force H
Force H had already started to retire back to Gibraltar; in order to make even a long-range strike on Naples they had had to position themselves between Sardinia and Sicily, uncomfortably close to the airfields on the two islands. They had started to steam Southwest at 0200, and as soon as the returned strike planes had been tucked back into the hangers, the first CAP and A/S patrol aircraft were spotted on deck ready to be launched at first light.
The first of the British fleets to be spotted was Force H. That had been expected; their escape route was far closer to the Italian airfields, and it was far easier to predict where they would be. At 0800 the CAP intercepted a reconnaissance plane out of Cagliari, and although it was shot down there was enough cloud to allow it to dodge the interceptors for long enough to make a sighting report. With the covering heavy ships being two battlecruisers, the force was making 28 knots and it was hoped that they would be out of the range of the Italian planes by the next day.
The first air attack on Force H came from the Italian airfields in Tunisia; this was a mixed force of twelve SM.79 torpedo bombers and fifteen BA.88 level bombers. They were escorted by eight MC.200 fighters. The two carriers carried 54 fighters between them, and had a CAP of twelve Goshawks in the air with another twelve warmed up on deck. The raid was detected on radar at 1200, distance 65 miles, and the ready fighters started to launch. As planned, half the CAP headed for the high level formation (the ready fighters would not have time to get to altitude, but would easily be able to intercept the lower group (the torpedo planes), and half for what where supposed (correctly) to be torpedo planes. The Italian commander had allocated his fighters to guard the torpedo bombers - they were the most dangerous to the ships, and also the most vulnerable to attack.
The first group to be intercepted was the BA.88 formation. With no fighter escort they were terribly vulnerable to the cannon-armed Goshawks, who intercepted them some 25 miles from the fleet, giving them ample time to make multiple attacks on the lumbering bomber formation. After the first two coordinated attacks, 5 of the 15 bombers had been shot down, and two more had been seen to turn away trailing smoke. Still well over 10 miles from the fleet, at this point the bombers all turned and dived for home, although one more was lost to the Goshawks before their controller pulled them back to engage the much more dangerous torpedo planes.
The fighters closing on the torpedo planes had realised that they were escorted when one of their number was shot down by the diving Italian fighters (at this stage in the war, it was often difficult to determine by radar if the planes in the formation were at different altitudes). They turned to engage the fighters, leaving the torpedo planes to be intercepted by the second wave of defenders. As a result of the following dogfight, four Italian fighters were shot down for the loss of two Goshawks (while diving unexpectedly on the Goshawks had been a good start, the poor armament of the Italian planes had only shot down one defender, and the others could easily out-dive and catch the remainder.
Meanwhile the twelve torpedo planes had been boring in towards Force H, diving slowly to reach their delivery height (and also closing faster as a result, leaving the defenders less time to intercept them). The attackers split into two groups of six as they dived, and this split the Goshawks - nine went for one formation while only three headed for the second. The first group, attacked by nine fighters, fared very badly. They were still some ten miles away when first intercepted, and although they continued on to the fleet with great bravery, all six were shot down, the last some two miles from the closest ship.
The second group fared better, as there was insufficient time for the three Goshawks to deal with them. Although two of the torpedo planes were shot down and one was forced to drop its torpedoes early to escape, three managed attacking runs on the fleet, each plane dropping two torpedoes. One pair was aimed at the cruiser HMS Sheffield, but she dodged both of them. The other two planes had aimed for the battlecruiser HMS Renown (the carriers, while the primary target, were hidden behind the protection of their escorting ships). Dodging with a grace that belied her 35,000tons, the old battlecruiser dodged three of the torpedoes, but was hit slightly forward of amidships by the last one. Fortunately the hit was taken on her Torpedo Defence System, and although Renown was forced to slow, the damage was not critical and after 15 minutes she signalled Admiral Somerville that she was still able to make 24 knots.
Despite the damage to Renown, the fleet was still heading for Gibraltar during the afternoon. As a result of the initial attack, it had been decided to keep a heavier CAP on patrol - the carriers had the planes available, and it was thought that the maximum danger was this afternoon - unless they had to slow drastically, they would be out of range of the Italian fighters by tomorrow, and unescorted raids were far less of a threat. As a result a CAP of sixteen planes was kept airborne, and this drove off a series of small raids between 1330 and 1500, which were thought to have come from the airfields in Sicily. In each case, the Italian planes (all small formations), had turned for home as soon as they realised they were being intercepted by fighters. One reconnaissance plane had been shot down, but it was obvious that the Regia Aeronautica still knew where they were.
The largest attack registered on the radar screens at 1600. Obviously someone in the Regia Aeronautica in Tunisia had realised that only large attacks had much hope of causing damage to a fleet operating under heavy air cover. The formation was again in two parts - some 20 high level bombers, escorted by eight fighters, and 18 torpedo planes escorted by ten fighters. This time the CAP was sent straight at the torpedo strike; it was accepted that this meant the high level attack would probably get through the fighters screen, but it was considered far less dangerous. Sixteen fighters were directed at the torpedo planes, while the planes on deck were launched off as fast as possible.
The escorting fighters tried to intercept the Goshawks, but the superior speed of the defenders allowed them to split their attack; eight of them mixed it up with the MC.200's, while the other eight went for the torpedo planes. The dogfight with the fighters moved away from the torpedo planes boring in for the attack, the end result of which was three Goshawks lost for four MC.200's. Meanwhile the 18 torpedo planes had split into three groups of six. Two of these received the loving attention of the eight remaining CAP patrol, as a result of which five of them were shot down, and two more forced to drop their weapons to try and escape. The third flight of six, and the remaining five from the other two groups, were engaged by sixteen more defenders. The third flight never stood a chance; all six planes were shot down, although they did shoot down one defending fighter.
The other five planes had by now scattered all over, and as a result only one fell to a fighter. However this meant that they were attacking individually into the massed AA fire of the fleet. Two of them attacked the carrier Ark Royal, and found out to their cost just how heavy the close in AA defences of a fleet carrier and its escorting destroyer was. Over 40 40mm and a considerable number of 20mm cannon, plus the 4.5" guns of the carrier shot down both planes. Although one of them did launch its torpedo, this came no-where near the carrier.
The remaining two planes came off a little better. One managed an attack on HMS Renown, but even with her reduced speed the old ship proved again how gracefully she could dodge. The final attack hit one of the escorting destroyers - possibly by accident, or possibly because it was the only available target. One of the two torpedoes hit HMS Velox aft. The old destroyer immediately slowed to a halt, her propellers and engine room wrecked. It was obviously impossible to get her under way again, and as soon as the air attack had finished, Admiral Somerville ordered the crew taken off and the ship sunk by torpedo.
Meanwhile the high level bombers had been making an attack undisturbed by anything other than the fleets HA guns (which was, it must be admitted, quite an impressive amount of gunfire). Indeed three of the planes were shot down by the massed guns, while the ships waited and watched for the bombs to start falling before attempting to manoeuvre clear of them. While the attack was pressed home gallantly in the face of heavy AA fire, it was no more successful that high altitude bombing usually was. While bombs falling close added a few white hairs to a number of ships Captains, no hits were obtained, although at one point Victorious almost vanished behind two sticks of bombs that fell to either side of her (leading to an Italian claim to have sunk her).
Fortunately for Force H that was the last attack of the day. By nightfall, they were clear of the Italian fighters, and in fact no further air attacks were made on them before they made it back to Gibraltar. While it had cost a destroyer and damage to the Renown that would take two months to repair, the raid as a whole was considered very successful as part of the whole Judgement operation.
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22nd October, the Mediterranean fleet
After recovering the strike, it was time for the carrier group to count up the cost of the raid and also to withdraw southeast. The intention was to get out of range of the Italian fighters; they were confident they had enough fighters of their own to break up any unescorted raids. Unless these proved unexpectedly successful, they wanted to be in a position to launch a second strike that evening. They began to move Southeast at 0330. Since they had conducted their strike from some 175m from Taranto, it was expected that some three hours steaming at 25kt would put them out of range of the Italian fighters. Once they had done that, they would waste time in order to be able to get back into position for the final strike on the port that evening. It was also hoped that their evasive course would confuse the Italian reconnaissance planes that would undoubtedly be sent after them.
Ironically, after all the excitement of the night strike, and the preparation for heavy air attacks the next day, the fleet wasn't even sighted by the Italians! Granted, there was a lot of broken cloud about, and radar did detect a number of contacts, but nothing came very close, and it was almost with a sense of anticlimax that the fleet reversed course at sunset and headed back to its launch point. They would attack Taranto again at midnight.
While the losses in the first two strikes had been less than anticipated, there were also quite a few aircraft that couldn't be repaired in time to be used again that night (in addition to AA damage a number had been further damaged on landing), although the crews had been busy making sure that the planes that had been unserviceable last night were ready now. As a result the striking force of the fleet was now down to 39 SeaLance and 54 Cormorants. These could (just) be accommodated as a single strike. The final disposition was 39 SeaLance armed with torpedoes, 46 Cormorants with 1,000lb bombs and 8 Cormorants carrying flares.
While a Whirlwind had flown over the port that afternoon, and got some excellent pictures of the devastation, the actual photos were not available to the fleet. Instead, as arranged, a long message giving the details was passed from Malta to the Admiralty, and of course copied by the fleet (who were, deliberately, not classed as a recipient). The final strike plans were made accordingly.
There had in fact been some action already that day at Taranto, although the pilots wouldn't know about it until they returned to Alexandria. At noon, the Italians had decided that in view of the destruction, and the damage to the oil tanks, it would be best to send some of the undamaged ships north. However as the cruiser Trento cleared the harbour, there was a shattering explosion under her bows. One of the mines laid by the RAF Wellingtons had found a customer. The additional confusion this caused didn't help the attempts to handle the situation at Taranto at all. The cruiser returned to the harbour (the damage, while severe, didn't threaten to sink her, especially so close to port), but any further sailings were postponed until the handful of minesweepers available had cleared the channels. This would be done by tomorrow, and the ships were then to sail to a safer location. This was an added bonus for the new attack, although it had been hoped that something like this would happen - the more ships in port, the more targets were available. It was somewhat ironic that it was the Trento that had been the victim - she had only just had the bulk of the damage she had sustained at Calabria repaired, and was in fact due to sail next week to have new turrets fitted (her A and B turrets were inoperable).
The Wellingtons would also visit the port again that night, in fact before the FAA arrived. They had been waiting for the photographs, which showed the damaged oil tanks still burning. The previous attack had damaged or set on fire about half the tanks, and the Italians seemed to be letting them burn out. At 2200, the sirens went off all over Taranto again. This time it was fifteen Wellingtons, and the first thing they went for was the rest of the oil tanks - the already burning ones had proved to be a splendid navigation aid for the RAF pilots. The first ten aircraft scattered 160 250lb bombs over the remaining tanks. By the time they headed for Malta, all that remained of the Taranto oil tanks was twisted metal and burning petroleum. Seeing that the target no longer existed, the other five planes went for their secondary target, the Seaplane base. While the damage done was not tremendous, a couple of planes were destroyed and the facilities damaged. It would also distract the Italians while the real second attack was coming in.
The emergency crews were still trying to deal with the results of the RAF raid when the FAA arrived at 2345. This time the first torpedo strike went in to make sure that the 'lucky' Cesare wasn't so lucky any more. Fifteen torpedo bombers had been assigned to the first attack on the old battleship (they still didn't know that in fact she was damaged and immobile). One of the results of the first raid was that tugs had moved her, which was in fact unfortunate as it meant she was hardly protected by nets - although the ineffectiveness of the nets wasn't known for certain, not having to try and avoid them made the torpedo planes job a lot easier. The other fact noted immediately by the pilots (it was rather important to them!) was the far lower level of AA fire from the previous night. Part of this was because the battleships that had been throwing a lot of it were either sunk or damaged, and partly because the ports guns were now nearly out of ammunition - they had fired off so much they needed resupply, and in all the confusion of the last 24 hours this had not been arranged. As a result the planes executed a textbook attack. Of the fifteen torpedoes dropped, five hit the old battleship. Her earlier damage had not been fixed (her hull had just been temporarily patched, she was waiting her turn in the dry dock for proper repairs), and five torpedoes hitting her on the same side was simply far too much damage for her. In minutes, she was heeling over hard, and ten minutes later was lying on her side on the harbour bottom.
The next target for the torpedo bombers were the cruisers Gorizia and Zara. As the AA fire was proving limited (none of the torpedo planes attacking Cesare had been shot down), the raid leader decided to take the risk of attacking the cruisers one at a time to see how effective each strike would be. Gorizia had in fact been hit by two bombs the previous night, but she was, after all, still above water.
The first attack went in on the Zara - twelve torpedo planes. The heavy cruisers AA did shoot down one plane, but the other eleven launched their torpedoes - three hitting her. Water started to pour into the cruisers port side, although she did not in fact sink. Her captain grounded her in the harbour to prevent this, but she would be out of action for a considerable time. The final group of twelve torpedo bombers went in against the Gorizia. She had in fact had her crew evacuated after the fires from her two bomb hits had been put out, and in any case her only power was from an emergency generator, her main units having been put out of action (although only temporarily) by the bombs. Again, she was a sitting target, and although three of the planes were damaged, all twelve dropped their fish on her. Four hits later, and with no power for her pumps (and only a skeleton crew, unable to control that damage, on board), she was sinking wreck. Sadly one of the damaged planes, unable to properly control its flight, hit a balloon cable and crashed on its way clear of the harbour.
Now it was the turn of the dive bombers. These had split into two groups, nine in the outer harbour, the rest heading for the ships still afloat in the inner harbour. The planes in the outer harbour swooped on the cruiser Fiume, already hit by two torpedoes last night. The ship was a helpless target, and with a surgeons precision the planes hit her with three 1,000lb bombs. These caused terrible damage; worse, they knocked out all her power and one bomb reopened much of the torpedo damage on one side. The ship was left listing and in flames, and she finally sank onto the bottom, her superstructure still above the shallow water. The cost was one of the dive bombers; although no-one saw her hit, she crashed into the water, not pulling out of her dive
The inner harbour was the target of the remaining 37 dive bombers. Eighteen of these were targeting the heavy cruisers Trieste and Pola. This time the AA fire was rather heavier - the ships in the inner harbour had used far less of their AA ammunition last night - and two divebombers were lost to the Trieste. Despite this, she was hit with two 1,000lb bombs. One of these hit her bridge, killing her command crew and also destroying most of her forward superstructure. The second hit her well aft, almost blowing off her stern and wrecking her shafts. Luckily for her an alert officer flooded her after magazines, or it would have been likely that they would have exploded as well. The Pola was less fortunate. For some reason he fire was ineffective - it was thought later than the flares being used to illuminate the ships was confusing and blinding the gunners against the dive bombing attacks - and she was hit by no less than three bombs. Her engine rooms, X turret and much of her superstructure in ruins, and water pouring in, as well as serious fires, she would be later abandoned by her crew - with no power for pumps or firefighting, her fires would burn her to a hulk.
The remaining nineteen planes were attacking the line of destroyers and submarines moored in an appealingly even line across the harbour. No-one was quite sure why the Italian navy had lined them up in such a neat, tidy, and inviting manner, but none of the pilots were complaining. For the loss of one dive bomber, the remainder dropped their explosive presents along the line. A 1,000lb bomb doesn't leave much of a destroyer or a submarine when it hits. As they left, five destroyers and four submarines were sinking rapidly.
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23rd October, the Mediterranean fleet.
The last of the planes from Taranto were struck below at 0400, and the fleet had already turned southwest at 25 knots, heading for a rendezvous with the covering force. CAP fighters had already been spotted on deck - they and the A/S flight would be flown off at first light.
The losses on the second raid had been lighter than anticipated - no-one had considered that the AA fire would be so light this time. The carriers had lost two SeaLance shot down over Taranto, and two more failed to return (one crashed in Italy). Four Cormorants had been shot down, and one more never made it home. Added to the losses from the first night, they had lost 15 SeaLance and 14 Cormorants. Given what they had done to the Italian fleet, it was considered an acceptable loss. In addition some 20 planes were unserviceable; most of these would be written off for parts once they got back to Alexandria.
Morning found the fleet steaming fast on what was looking to be unseasonably good weather (despite the travel brochures, the Mediterranean in October is often quite unpleasant). This was both good and bad news - the good news that it meant interception of Italian planes would be easier, the bad that it would also be easier for the Italians to find them. The first Italian reconnaissance plane was detected on radar at 1000, and although chased off by a pair of Goshawks it was clear from the radio monitoring that the fleet had been detected and reported.
It was not until three hours later that the main attack appeared. The air defence officers had been wondering why it was taking so long for the Italians to respond, and when they saw the size of the blip on their radar sets they realised why. 'It looked like every Italian plane in southern Italy was heading for us' was the comment of the air defence officer on HMS Implacable. The carriers already had 18 fighters on CAP, and as soon as the huge contact was seen they started getting the ready planes airborne. There was then the agonising decision of should they try and get more planes in the air and risk fuelled and armed planes being hit by enemy attack, or hold them back for later use. In the event the Implacable was the only carrier to get another flight of fighters (six planes in this case) airborne; she had been preparing to replace her CAP and the planes were already being prepared. They would not be able to gain any useful height before the attackers arrived. The first of the Goshawks were closing on the raid at about 40 miles from the fleet when they made the first estimate of the size. Judging by the fact it was in two parts, the estimate was 30 torpedo planes and around 60 high level bombers.
The initial CAP of eighteen aircraft was vectored onto the torpedo planes. The Italians had obviously been learning from the previous results of unescorted raids, and they split up into flights of three aircraft, making it much more difficult for the Goshawks to engage them all. As it was, the defending fighters managed to intercept some six of the ten groups before they closed the fleet, and succeeded in shooting down twelve of the torpedo planes. The other four flights were too close in to the ships close range AA defences to engage. The carriers were obviously the priority target, and six planes headed for the Implacable while another six went straight for the Courageous. One fighter was lost during the interceptions, flying into the sea as it tried too radical a manoeuvre to get on the tail of one of the torpedo planes.
The planes attacking the Implacable were met with the same heavy close in AA defence that had deterred the planes attacking the Ark Royal the previous day. Three of them were shot down on their way in, and one more was damaged severely enough that she dropped her torpedo well out of range and limped away. However four torpedoes were dropped at the carrier. Fortunately for her, the attack was not terribly well coordinated, and her Captain threaded through the torpedo tracks expertly.
The Courageous was not so fortunate. While she had a guard destroyer like the other carriers, her own AA defence was far weaker than the modern fleet carriers - the Implacable and her escort could bring 42 40mm guns to bear, she and her escort could only manage 26. The difference was enough to make the incoming planes task much less dangerous. One plane was still shot down, and another was actually on fire when it launched its torpedoes (which as a result went nowhere near anyone). But eight torpedoes were on their way towards the old carrier. Despite the best efforts of her Captain to doge them all, three plumes of water towered over her flight deck , the ship slewing (and nearly running down her escorting destroyer) before slowing to a halt, already listing.
Meanwhile the huge high level attack had been boring in. Twenty Goshawks from the ready flights had been pushing their engines at full power to get up to intercept them, and the six planes launched late from Implacable were also heading for them. Only the ready flights managed to get among the bombers before they reached the fleets HA air defence zone. The bombers showed great discipline, staying close for mutual supporting fire. As a result the fighters only managed to shoot down twelve of them, and the bombers shot down three of the Goshawks in reply (two more were heavily damaged and had to break off attacks). The remaining 48 bombers kept on going, right into the massive black shellbursts of the ships HA fire.
It was obvious that the Italian bombers meant business this time; even though the heavy fire shot down four of them, the rest kept in formation as they swept over the fleet at around 10,000 feet. Even so, it was not easy to get hits at that altitude on radically manoeuvring ships, as the Captains threw cruisers and aircraft carriers around as if they were driving a speedboat, not 10,000 tons or more of warship. The destroyer HMS Jervis was the first to be hit. Two 500lb bombs turned the destroyer into a wreck almost immediately, one blowing off her bows while the other destroyed her engine room. Without power, and already sinking by the bow, her Captain had no alternative other than to order abandon ship.
Next to suffer was the cruiser HMS Liverpool. The first 500lb bomb hit her amidships, destroying her seaplane and hangar, and causing an aviation fuel fire. The second hit her aft, the explosion (and the splinters) knocking out her aft engine room and causing severe flooding. The final bomb to hit her landed on her B turret, destroying it and also knocking out A turret and killing many of the bridge crew. The ship, temporarily out of control, started to slow rapidly.
However the prime target from the bombers was the already-damaged HMS Courageous. Unable to evade, she was hit in rapid succession by four 500lb bombs. While these hits might have been shrugged off (or at least taken with no vital damage) by the fleet carriers, Courageous was a conversion of a WW1 ship, and had little armour protection against bombs. The first bomb hit her aft, directly on the elevator, blowing it right out of its well and onto the deck. The second and third punched through her thin deck; one exploding in the hangar, the second continuing on and exploding in her machinery spaces, the shock taking her generators offline. The final bomb hit on her catapult, wrecking it and sending splinters into the front of the hanger. A heavy plume of smoke rapidly covered the stricken carrier; although the RN was fanatical about fuel safely on the hangar deck, there was still enough combustible material to start quite a serious fire. The problem was that with no power (as well as the main generators being offline, the backup diesel had been wrecked by bomb splinters), it was impossible to deal with the fires and the flooding.
Meanwhile the bombers had been making their escape. The fleet had continued to pound them with AA fire even as the bombs were falling, and another two fell victim. As they headed back to Italy, some of the Goshawks managed a final interception (many of the fighters were out of ammunition after their earlier attacks), shooting down a further seven bombers for the loss of one fighter.
As the last of the bombers fled for safety over the horizon, the Courageous was obviously in a bad way, smoke covering her and her list steadily increasing. It was clear that the ship was finished, and Cunningham immediately ordered her to be abandoned to save as many of her crew as possible. Only 20 minutes after the bombing, the old ship finally turned over and sank. Fortunately the weather was calm, and the escorting destroyers managed to pick up most of the crew, but over 300 men had perished with their ship.
The situation of the Liverpool was more complex; although she had been heavily hit, the modern cruiser was not likely to sink immediately, but neither was she capable of steaming at more than a few knots. The fuel fire had been put out after half an hour, and her flooding at least temporarily brought under control. It was a dilemma for Cunningham; if he left her with an escort, another attack like the one they had just endured would sink her, and quite possibly some of her escort as well; on the other hand he could ill afford to lose a modern cruiser. In the end, it was decided to try to escort her back to Alexandria. Her engineer estimated that with some makeshift repairs, and bearing in mind her damage, she could make 10 knots by the night. The deciding factor was the estimate that in fact it was unlikely that the Italian air force could in fact repeat that intensity of raid immediately. According to their intelligence, that really had been every torpedo plane available, and many of the level bombers. It was also pointed out that she would be in range of escorting fighters until the night, and if things worsened she could be abandoned at daylight.
The fighters were flown onto the two fleet carriers; due to the earlier raid losses there was no problem accommodating Courageous's fighters as well, and the main body of the fleet headed on to the covering force, which it would reach the following morning. As it turned out, the Liverpool did make Alexandria safely - the sky was peacefully clear the following day, and her engineering crew eventually got her up to 13 knots. The main body had arrived back at Alexandria some time previously, whereupon Admiral Cunningham made the rare order to 'splice the mainbrace'.