Chapter 23: Losing the Mediterranean - Act 1: Judgement (January 1941 - Mediterranean)
January 1941
Mediterranean Campaign
Mediterranean Campaign
With the effective neutralization of the Kriegsmarine, the transfer of Allied assets to the Mediterranean was in full swing for most of the end of 1940, in the preparation for the war against Italy. The defection of part of the French fleet to Gibraltar also allowed for the British government to ask to send the Verdun group to Alexandria, with the hope that it would soon be allowed to enter the port of Mers-el-Kébir by the end of March.
Alongside the carrier, the ship would find its usual escorts: the battleship Strasbourg, the light cruiser Montcalm, and the destroyers Le Fantasque, L’Audacieux and Tramontane. They would be reinforced by the light cruiser Jean de Vienne (replacing the La Galissonnière still in repairs) and the destroyer Volta (replacing the Mistral, lost in Norway) [1]. These ships rallied the Egyptian port on December 17th, 1940, joining Admiral Godfroy’s “Force du Levant” [2].
But the main goal of this transfer was not for the French to show the flag in simple convoy duty, oh no. Instead, the British had something much more ambitious planned. Ever since the beginning of the war, the British admiralty had pondered the capacity of the Royal Navy to strike Taranto, and deal a devastating blow to the Italian war machine.
However, with the French defection of multiple naval assets, the preparations for such an operation were delayed, as Churchill wished to strike not only a great blow, but one that would effectively knock out the Regia Marina out of the war. The British Prime Minister would have wished to use the Dixmude, but this one was already on its way to Singapore, and, as such, he laid his eyes on the Verdun.
Such a choice made sense. This would free up the new British carrier HMS Formidable, recently commissioned, for a trip to East Asia in order to beef up the Asiatic Fleet after the near-war with Japan.
However, while the French were enthusiastic to send the experienced Verdun into the fire, they had one issue. Although they were trained for night combat, with the pilots having learned on the Béarn, they had not completely reequipped their aircraft fleet with the SB2U Vindicators and Grumman F4F Wildcats (“Rochambeau” and “Lynx” in French denomination, respectively). Thus, Churchill would have to wait for the French to receive their aircraft from the other side of the Atlantic, and for them to be properly trained for night operations on these new aircraft, which constantly delayed the timetable for the strike on Taranto: Operation Judgement.
Finally, everything had been put in place by January of 1941. With the Italians being badly beaten in Albania, and Valona now potentially threatened, Taranto had become a complete mess, with fuel and supplies accumulating on the docks, alongside a mostly inactive Regia Marina, too concerned with the disaster in Libya to care about the sparse reconnaissance flights of the RAF.
On January 11th, 1941, three carriers, carrying over a hundred aircraft, set sail from Egypt under a strong escort, all under the command of Admiral Cunningham. On January 13th, these aircraft would reach the coast of Italy without being detected by the Regia Marina. At about half past two, fifty aircraft were in the air, aiming for Taranto.
Most of the British aircraft, unlike their French counterparts, were Fairey Swordfish, which were already starting to become obsolete. The British themselves had noted the good performance of the SBU Vindicator, a dive bomber, whom they originally underestimated [3]. These aircraft were armed with a host of weapons, whether torpedoes, bombs or flares, in order to illuminate the targets. The second wave, planned for dawn, would not need these flares, and instead would just work on the job that had been done by the first one.
The Italians, sitting at their posts, do not comprehend what is happening. Some hear engines, and look up, only to see a few biplanes coming at them. They shrug it off: Fiat aircraft are common around the town. It is only when they hear the sound of gunfire and the rocking of explosions when they finally understand: they are under attack!
For the Allies, the surprise was complete. There was not a single fighter in the air, and thanks to the flares laid down, the Franco-British strike group had a field day. The Littorio was hammered by bombs and torpedoes which severely damaged it, though it still retained some fighting capacity. However, its too neighbours did not fare too well. The Caio Duilio was struck by no less than five torpedoes, making it sink to the bottom of the Mare Grande, while the Conte di Cavour exploded, sending a giant spurt of flame and black smoke high into the sky, and shattering about every window in the city.
Not only that, but the Italian cruisers were also struck hard. The cruiser Fiume was sent to the bottom, alongside the brand new Duca degli Abruzzi, which received the particular attention of the Vindicators, which ravaged its superstructures and finally hit an ammo dump, blowing up half of the ship and sending the rest to the bottom of the Mare Piccolo.
The second wave was just as devastating as the first. Guided by the fires of the burning Italian warships, like moths to a flame, the Allied bombers continued to hammer the already stricken vessels, finishing off the already sinking Fiume, and destroying a further two destroyers. Added to that, the Allied planes also struck the Taranto fuel depots, adding another veil of black smoke over the already panicked city.
For the Regia Marina, it was an unmitigated disaster. Four battleships were hit, and two were completely lost. The Conte di Cavour was just a mess of twisted metal, while the Caio Duilio was deemed a total loss. Similarly, the Littorio would need extensive repairs, which would not even be completed before the fall of Rome! Only the battleship Andrea Doria, hit by two bombs, suffered minor damage and would live to see service against the Allies.
But the Regia Marina had also lost other units. The Fiume was done for, and so were two other destroyers. The Duca degli Abruzzi would need six months of repairs, at the least, and several other units, including the cruiser Gorizia, suffered minor damage, requiring repairs lasting from a few days to six months.
On the other side, the Allies won a total victory. For the price of only three aircraft shot down (two British, one French) and two British servicemen killed, they had effectively kneecapped the ability of the Regia Marina to conduct any sort of offensive operations.
The Allies had thus secured themselves total domination on the seas, or almost.
And the nightmare was not over for the Italians, as both on land and on sea, the situation would deteriorate extremely fast.
[1] This left some naval assets in British waters, notably the older battleships, the CL La Galissonnière, 9 destroyers, and 16 submarines (including several incomplete vessels).
[2] The “Force du Levant” amalgamates all naval assets that the French had in Alexandria and Syria-Lebanon at the time of the surrender. The “Force du Ponant”, in contrast, based in Dakar, amalgamates the naval assets that defected to Malta, Gibraltar, or were taken during the fall of Dakar.
[3] OTL the Fleet Air Arm was really dubious about the true capacities of a dive bomber like the Vindicator.
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