30. An Unheeded Lesson
Upon reaching Taranto, the leading Swordfish dropped illumination flares, then bombed the port’s oil storage facilities. In the meantime, other Swordfish launched torpedoes at anchored battleships. The second wave arrived shortly before midnight, dropped flares, and launched more torpedoes. In less than two hours, the biplanes struck three battleships and several cruisers, and severely damaged the port’s installations, for the loss of two planes and four crewmen.
It was one of the most successful raids of WWII. The Italians lost half their capital ships that night, and the following day, transferred their surviving ships to the greater safety of Naples. The raid revolutionized warfare, and changed the course of history by ushering in the ascendancy of naval aviation and the aircraft carrier over battleships. Other navies took a keen interest in what the British had done at Taranto, and Japanese observers of the Imperial fleet, in particular, paid close attention. US Navy observers did not, to America’s detriment a year later at Pearl Harbor.
