The British Knock Out the Italian Fleet with Biplanes

The Fairey Swordfish as marked/painted for the Taranto attack

The planning for the attack on the Italian fleet at the harbor of Taranto began in earnest in 1938 during the Munich Crisis when it seemed that Europe was headed for war. Though boasting a force of six battleships, five cruisers and twenty destroyers at the start of the conflict that could have caused significant headaches for the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, Mussolini rarely ordered the fleet to sail far from the home port of Taranto and they would return at the earliest opportunity, failing to engage the British Mediterranean fleet. With the threat of war looming, captain of the HMS Glorious, Capt. Lumley Lyster, was asked to draw up an attack plan to knock out the Italian fleet while it sat in harbor. Essential to any attack given the strength of the defenses of the harbor would be surprise, necessitating a night attack. By the time 1940 had come around and maintaining the sea links with the British forces in North Africa took added importance, the need to proceed with the attack, codenamed "Operation Judgement", the trained Fairey Swordfish aircrews that trained aboard the HMS Glorious were now serving aboard the HMS Illustrious and under strict secrecy, the attack was planned for 12 October 1940 on Trafalgar Day. Unfortunately, a fire in the hangar deck of the Illustrious resulted in the Swordfish aircraft being drenched in saltwater, necessitating their clean up and repair. Also, the original attack plan called for the HMS Eagle to accompany the Illustrious on the attack, but Eagle had suffered damage from an accidental bomb explosion earlier in the year. As a result, some of Eagle's Swordfish and aircrew were transferred to the Illustrious. The attack was rescheduled for the night of 11/12 November 1940. 

Given the nature of the defenses based on the latest British reconnaissance, the first wave to attack Taranto would consist of twelve Swordfish, only six of which would carry torpedoes while the balance of aircraft carried bombs and flares. At the time, the conventional naval wisdom was that torpedoes were only usable in deep water, but the Royal Navy had modified their torpedoes to run in the shallow water of Taranto Harbor. The photos showed that the battleships were protected by torpedo nets, but they were standard keel-depth nets. The torpedoes used were configured to magnetically detonate below the ships' keels. 

Diagram of the attack on the Italian fleet

At 8:30pm the first wave took off from the HMS Illustrious. The gunners weren't carried, their place being taken by a supplemental fuel tank to allow a two-man crew to fly the 340-mile roundtrip mission. By 9:00pm the twelve aircraft were all airborne and they set off for Taranto. Several of the Swordfish became separated from the main formation and had to make their own way to the target- one pilot arrived at Taranto ahead of the main force and had to await the rest of the aircraft- some references indicate that this may have alerted the Italians. Arriving over the harbor at 11:00pm, the strike force immediately came under fire. One of the Swordfish peeled off from the group and dropped a series of flares at 7,500 feet along the eastern perimeter of Mar Grande, the outer harbor. A second Swordfish followed suit, illuminating the area for the rest of the strike force. Lt. Commander K. Williamson, the CO of No. 815 Squadron, made the first torpedo run against the battleship Conte di Cavour, blowing a hole in the side of the ship but getting shot down in the process. Two more Swordfish that accompanied Williamson then pressed their attack against the battleship Andrea Doria, which was unsuccessful. The last group of the first wave attacked two cruisers and four destroyers as well in Mar Piccolo, the inner harbor. The Swordfish's agility paid dividends as the seemingly archaic aircraft managed to weave around the barrage balloons and jink hard to throw off the anti-aircraft fire. 

HMS Illustrious with a Swordfish on the deck

With the first wave turning back for the Illustrious, the only aircraft shot down was that of their CO, Lt. Commander Williamson, who was taken prisoner along with his crewman. The second wave, under the lead of Lt. Commander J.W. Hale, the CO of No. 819 Squadron, had left the Illustrious thirty minutes after the first wave took off. Of the twelve Swordfish in the second wave, only eleven arrived at Taranto due to technical problem with the twelfth aircraft that forced it to return to the carrier. Arriving over the harbor at midnight, again the flare-dropping Swordfish lit up the area while the bomb and torpedo-armed aircraft set to work on the rest of the Italian battle fleet. Two aircraft attacked the battleship Littorio, but only one scored a hit. Another aircraft despite taking damage pressed an unsuccessful attack against the battleship Vittorio Veneto. The battleship Caio Duilio was also hit, and only one aircraft from the second wave was shot down, the two aircrew being killed. By 240am, the last of the Swordfish landed on the Illustrious. A third wave was planned the following night, but bad weather prevented a final blow to the Italian fleet. 

The attack was a stunning success by an aircraft that was older and slower than many of its contemporaries. Just 11 torpedoes and 48 bombs managed to knock out half of the Italian battle fleet at Taranto and while the defenders fired off over 22,000 rounds, only two aircraft were shot down, quite an impressive feat! The attack followed by the Battle of Cape Spartivento two weeks later and the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941 consolidated the Royal Navy's control of the Mediterranean, hastening the defeat of the Axis. The planning staff of the Imperial Japanese Navy, at the time putting together the plans for the attack on Pearl Harbor, studied the British attack at Taranto carefully and managed on 7 December 1941 to knock out more battleships in the process, but unlike the Mediterranean, the attack failed to shift the balance of power in the Pacific as the US Navy had shifted its fleet emphasis to the aircraft carrier as the new capital ship. 

Source: International Air Power Review, Volume 27, Winter 2010/11. "Warplane Classic- Fairey Swordfish- the Fleet Air Arm's enigmatic warrior" by Allan Laws, p125-129.

During times of war, operational necessities sometimes breed unusual solutions- in the Second World War the most famous of these was the Japanese kamikaze. Though no Allied airmen were ever committed to a formal suicide mission, the desperation of the in its first half did lead to one program that probably comes as close as can be to a suicide mission- the Catapult Armed Merchantmen (CAM ) ship program put in service by the British during the early days of the Battle of the Atlantic.

Being an island nation, Great Britain was dependent upon maritime trade and in particular, dependent upon the Atlantic convoys from the United States that delivered not just weapons and armaments, but also food staples and fuel. As the Battle of the Atlantic intensified in 1941, the German U-boat menace began taking its toll on merchant shipping that was Britain's wartime lifeline. However, the U-boats were only part of the problem as the Luftwaffe's long-range Focke Wulf Fw 200 Condor long range patrol bombers also preyed on the convoys and also provided eyes for the submerged U-boat wolfpacks.

The solution was the Catapult Armed Merchantmen and the Hawker Sea Hurricane. Approximately 36 cargo ships were fitted with a rocket-driven catapult mounted on the forecastle of the ships. The catapult was mounted in a fore-aft orientation and slightly offset to port to which the Sea Hurricane was mounted. The first Sea Hurricane variants only had local reinforcements and attachment points to the catapult trolley. Two pilots were assigned to each CAM ship and alternated 12 hour shifts. Once a Condor had been sighted, the alert pilot strapped into the Sea Hurricane and the rocket catapult fired, moving the Sea Hurricane and the expendable trolley at 3.5Gs while the pilot had the engine running at full power.

The CAM ship's forward structures were shielded to prevent damage caused by the rocket blast. Once committed to launch, the pilot had to use 1/3 starboard rudder to overcome the Hurricane's tendency to swing to port at full throttle. In addition, 1/3 flap was used to help get the Sea Hurricane airborne with the trim tabs set to neutral. If too much back pressure got applied during launch, the plane would stall and fall into the sea, so pilots would brace their right arm by shoving their right elbow against their hip to prevent inadvertent back pressure from the G-forces of the launch.

Launching the Sea Hurricane and engaging the Condor was the easy part of the mission. Since there was no way of returning to the ship, the pilot only had two choices- either ditch near the ship or hope there was enough fuel to head for land. Ditching a Sea Hurricane wasn't a great option- the bottom mounted radiator scoop easily flooded and the aircraft would sink quickly. If land was too far away to reach, the preferred option was to bail out rather than ditch the aircraft. Timing was of the essence, as exposure in the cold North Atlantic required an expeditious rescue out of the water. Later versions of the Sea Hurricane were fitted with two 44-gallon underwing tanks to extend the range and make reaching land more feasible.

As a result of the risks to the pilot in launching the Sea Hurricane, it was considered a last resort as most convoy captains didn't want the rocket flash to attract the attention of the Condors. By 1943, though, the CAM ships and their risky missions were superseded by the arrival of the first small escort carriers called MACs- Merchant Aircraft Carriers. The MACs were small escort carriers that lacked any hangar facilities and carried its Sea Hurricane complement (usually five) on the deck exposed to the elements. As a result, the Sea Hurricanes were only good for about 30 flying hours before saltwater corrosion took its toll. Although Sea Hurricanes were also deployed on the larger fleet carriers of the Royal Navy, handing idiosyncrasies on landing made them quickly superseded by purpose-built carrier fighters.

Source: Aeroplane Monthly, April 2010, Volume 38, No. 4. "Fierce Wind over the Deck" by Philip Jarrett, p36-40.