Attack on Taranto

Battle of Taranto
Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean of the Second World War
Aerial view of the inner harbour showing damaged Trento-class cruisers surrounded by floating oil.
Date 11–12 November 1940 Location Taranto, Italy 40°27′4″N 17°12′27″E / 40.45111°N 17.20750°E / 40.45111; 17.20750Coordinates: 40°27′4″N 17°12′27″E / 40.45111°N 17.20750°E / 40.45111; 17.20750 Result Decisive British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Italy
Commanders and leaders
Andrew Cunningham Lumley Lyster	Inigo Campioni
Strength
21 biplane torpedo bombers 1 aircraft carrier 2 heavy cruisers 2 light cruisers 5 destroyers	6 battleships 9 heavy cruisers 7 light cruisers 13 destroyers
Casualties and losses
2 killed 2 captured 2 aircraft shot down	59 killed 600 wounded 1 battleship lost 2 battleships heavily damaged 1 heavy cruiser slightly damaged 2 destroyers slightly damaged 2 aircraft destroyed on the ground

The Battle of Taranto took place on the night of 11–12 November 1940 during the Second World War between British naval forces, under Admiral Andrew Cunningham, and Italian naval forces, under Admiral Inigo Campioni. The Royal Navy launched the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history, employing a small number of obsolescent Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (R87) in the Mediterranean Sea. The attack struck the battle fleet of the Regia Marina at anchor in the harbour of Taranto using aerial torpedoes despite the shallowness of the water. The devastation wrought by the British carrier-launched aircraft on the large Italian warships was the beginning of the ascendancy of naval aviation over the big guns of battleships. According to Admiral Cunningham, "Taranto, and the night of November 11–12, 1940, should be remembered for ever as having shown once and for all that in the Fleet Air Arm the Navy has its most devastating weapon."

Long before the First World War, the Italian Regia Marina's First Squadron was based at Taranto, a port-city on Italy's south-east coast. In that period, the British Royal Navy developed plans for countering the power of the Regia Marina. Blunting the power of any adversary in the Mediterranean Sea was an ongoing exercise. Plans for the capture of the port at Taranto were considered as early as the Italian invasion of Abyssinia in 1935.

In 1940–41, Italian Army operations in North Africa, based in Libya, required a supply line from Italy. The British Army's North African Campaign, based in Egypt, suffered from much greater supply difficulties. Supply convoys to Egypt had to either cross the Mediterranean via Gibraltar and Malta, and then approach the coast of Sicily, or steam all the way around the Cape of Good Hope, up the whole east coast of Africa, and then through the Suez Canal, to reach Alexandria. Since the latter was a very long and slow route, this put the Italian fleet in an excellent position to interdict British supplies and reinforcements.

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