Warinfo
The 2nd World War, in all its briefness.
The Mediterranean Theatre
The Mediterranean Theatre of WW2, though not very major played a very pivotal area in the future of the war. In the background of this text is Italian Battleship Roma, which was subject to air raids during the raid on Taranto Harbour, in Italy. Read on to find out more about the battles fought in this theatre, brave naval actions and the pivotal decisions made by both Axis and Allied forces.
Background
Benito Mussolini was the youngest Prime Minister in Italian history and like all other Axis forces had wanted more land and had a vengeance on the Allies after the First World War as Italy had not received as much as what was expected of the reward. Put aside, Mussolini wanted something more particular, he wanted the resurrection of the Roman Empire, Italy's greatness. In order to do this, Mussolini joined the Axis forces, who were promising greatness to his country.
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In 1911 Italy invaded Libya and later on in 1935 invaded Abyssinia, modern day Ethiopia. Mussolini's dream was way out of this range as he wanted way more land. Italy played a part in the North Africa Campaign as well as the European Theatre, where they gained part of Southern France as well as parts of the Balkan states such as Albania and so on.
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Mussolini wanted to keep going but after Allied intervention was hindered to continue. The Mediterranean Theatre saw mainly the combatants of Italy, Great Britain and Vichy France.
To find out more about the war cast about the waves of the Mediterranean, read on and enjoy.
The Attack of Taranto: Bi-planes that crippled a fleet
On the 11th of November 1940, torpedo bombers from carrier Illustrious of the Royal Navy were launched to launch a raid on the Regia Marina base at Taranto, on the South of the Italian mainland. It was here that Italy was using her Mediterranean fleet to secure territories in North Africa, also to ship cargo to Italian occupied Libya. As well as this, the fleet stationed at Taranto would pose a large threat to the Royal Navy as The Royal Navy would need to escort merchant convoys to other parts of the Mediterranean coast.
On the night of the 10th, HMS Illustrious and her task force detached from a larger convoy escort on the way to Malta, though aircraft carrier HMS Eagle was to also play a part in the raid but could not due to a complete fuel system breakdown.
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The aircraft to be used for the raid on Taranto would be a Fairey Swordfish torpedo/dive bomber. Swordfishes were easily fixable, had decent speed and stall limit and were compact in the hangar of an aircraft carrier which made it absolutely perfect for the raid on Taranto.
The attack was meant to be played out on the 21st of November, in coordination of anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, but due to a lethal fire in Illustrious' hangar and Eagle's fuel system breakdown, the attack had to be preponed to the 11th.
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On the 11th of November 1940, 12 and 9 torpedo bombers took of froom HMS Illustrious and headed for Taranto. After an arduous day of fighting, Illustrious' aircraft had managed to cripple the Regia Marina's Mediterranean fleet. The losses of the battle of Taranto were, Italian:
59 Marines
2 aircraft
1 battleship -Conte di Cavor
2 battleships critically damaged
1 cruiser slightly damaged
2 destroyers slightly damaged​
In terms of English losses there were:
2 airmen
2 captured
2 fairey swordfish torpedo bombers shot down
Battle of Cape Matapan
The Battle of Cape Matapan occurred between the 27th of March and the 29th of March 1941, south of the island of Crete between the Italian Regia Marina and the British Royal Navy and Australian Navy.
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Its Spring 1941 and with pressure from their other ally Germany, Italy decides its time to harass allied convoys transporting troops to Greece, who the United Kingdom choose to help resist Axis forces. Bletchley park codebreaker Mavis Batey had deciphered the first Italian Naval code that had read "Todays day minus 3". This was enough to understand that the Italians were planning something big and in 3 days, Battleships, cruisers and destroyers were spotted,on the way to harass Allied convoys.
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Admiral Cunningham, the Admiral of the Fleet for the Royal Navy had received the intel upon this and boarded his flagship, the HMS Warspite in Alexandria, Egypt, with the rest of the Task force that would sail out to meet the Italian Navy. The Royal Navy's strength was 1 aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious, 3 battleships, HMS Warspite (flagship), HMS Barham and HMS Valiant 7 light cruisers, HMS Ajax, HMS Gloucester, Australian cruiser HMAS Perth, HMS Orion, HMS Ilex, HMS Hasty and HMS Hereward and 17 destroyers.
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The Regia Marina, on the other hand under the command of Admiral Angelo Iachino left and headed towards the Allied merchant convoys with battleship RN Vittorio Veneto, 17 destroyers, 6 heavy cruisers - RN Zara, RN Pola, RN Fiume, RN Trieste, RN Trente and the RN Bolzano, and 2 light cruisers RN Duca degli Abruzzi and RN Giuseppe Garibaldi.
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After a series of brief scouting missions, the exact position of both the fleets was confirmed on the 27th of March 1941 and the battle played out.
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The Battle was played out from both the air and the sea, with air raids from Illustrious as well as a Naval battle from the surface warships of both sides. By the end of the battle, the Royal navy had come out victorious and the Italian navy had been defeated.
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The losses of the Battle of Cape Matapan were, Italian:
Battleship RN Vittorio Veneto damaged
3 heavy cruisers sunk
2 destroyers sunk
1 destroyer heavily damaged
2300+ killed
1015 taken as prisoners of war
British losses were:​
4 light cruisers partially damaged
1 torpedo bomber shot down
3 killed
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The battle was a decisive victory for the British as well as the Regia Marina's first defeat.This battle would also mark no more expansion into the Eastern Mediterranean.
Operation Pedestal
The fight to secure Malta
Operation Pedestal was the largest Allied merchant convoy escort in history and also nicknamed, the convoy that saved Malta.
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It is the summer of 1942 and Britain's position in North Africa is in no position to be called safe. After a loss The Battle of Gazala and the fall of Tobruk, the British and other allied forces are pushed back into Egypt as far as the El-Alamein lines. In all, Allied positions in North Africa are very very precarious. However, the very annoying aspect of all this was the uninterrupted flow of Axis merchant convoys coming through into Italian Libya, from mainland Italy even though the island of Malta, in firm British hands, which could be used for launching bombers and fighters, as well as warships at these convoys, was not as useful as it seemed as it was subject to air raids very often. Malta was in other words Britain's golden light which could help save the North African Campaign by reducing Italian and German shipping into the continent.
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Due to Malta's position, as said before, it was very vulnerable as well as convenient so Winston Churchill's war cabinet was strongly in favour of sending any convoy, of any degree of arming to go to Malta and re-suplly the civilians and military forces on the island to gain a more convenient hand in fighting Axis forces in North Africa.
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On the 3rd of August 1942, the convoy, consisting of 4 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 7 light cruisers, 32 destroyers, 4 corvettes, 4 minesweepers, 11 submarines, 14 merchant ships and 2 oilers left port in Gibraltar and headed towards Malta.
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