The Whale Has Wings Vol 2 - Taranto to Singapore (3 page)

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.

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.