The Whale Has Wings Vol 2 - Taranto to Singapore (4 page)

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 nowhere 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.