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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 obsolete Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier 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 shallow depth 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."〔Simpson, Michael (2004). ''A life of Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Cunningham. A Twentieth-century Naval Leader''. Routledge Ed., p. 74. ISBN 978-0-7146-5197-2〕 ==Origins== 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. Following the concept of a fleet in being, the Italians usually kept their warships in harbour and were unwilling to seek battle with the Royal Navy on their own, also because any ship lost bigger than a destroyer could not be replaced. The Italian fleet at Taranto was powerful: six battleships (of which five were battleworthy, the ''Andrea Doria'' having her crew still in training after her reconstruction), seven heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and eight destroyers, making the threat of a sortie against British shipping a serious problem. During the Munich Crisis of 1938, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, was concerned about the survival of the aircraft carrier in the face of Italian opposition in the Mediterranean. Pound ordered his staff to re-examine all plans for attacking Taranto.〔 He was advised by Arthur LStG Lyster, the captain of ''Glorious'', that her Fairey TSR Swordfish were capable of a night attack, using aerial torpedoes. Indeed, the Fleet Air Arm was then the only naval aviation arm capable of it.〔 Pound took Lyster's advice and ordered training to begin. Security was kept so tight there were no written records.〔 Just a month before the war began, Pound advised his replacement, Admiral Andrew Cunningham, to consider the possibility. This came to be known as Operation ''Judgment''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher =Royal Navy )〕 The fall of France and the consequent loss of the French fleet in the Mediterranean (even before Operation ''Catapult'') made redress essential. The older carrier, , on Cunningham's strength, was ideal, possessing a very experienced air group composed entirely of obsolescent Swordfish aircraft. Three Sea Gladiators were added for the operation.〔 Firm plans were drawn up after the Italian Army halted at Sidi Barrani, which freed up the British Mediterranean Fleet.〔 Operation ''Judgment'' was just a small part of the overarching Operation ''MB8''.〔 It was originally scheduled to take place on 21 October 1940, Trafalgar Day, but a fire in an auxiliary fuel tank of one Swordfish led to a delay. (The auxiliary tanks replaced the usual third crewman to extend the operating range of the aircraft enough to reach Taranto.) This minor fire spread into something more serious that destroyed two Swordfish.〔 ''Eagle'' then suffered a breakdown in her fuel system,〔 so she was eliminated. When the brand-new carrier , based at Alexandria, became available in the Mediterranean, she took on board five Swordfish from ''Eagle'', and launched the strike alone. The complete naval task force—commanded by Rear Admiral Lyster,〔 who had authored the plan of attack on Taranto—consisted of ''Illustrious'', the heavy cruisers and , the light cruisers and , and the destroyers , , and .〔'The Aeroplane, Vol. LXXIII No. 1887, August 8, 1947, p. 154〕 The 24〔 attack Swordfish came from 813, 815, 819, and 824 Naval Air Squadrons. The small number of attacking warplanes raised concern that ''Judgment'' would only alert and enrage the Italian Navy without achieving any significant results.〔 ''Illustrious'' also had Fairey Fulmar fighters of 806 Naval Air Squadron aboard to provide air cover for the task force, with radar and fighter control systems.〔Wragg, David, ''Swordfish'', Weidenfiled & Nicholson, 2003, pp 78–79〕 Half of the Swordfish were armed with torpedoes as the primary strike aircraft, with the other half carrying aerial bombs and flares to carry out diversions.〔 These torpedoes were fitted with Duplex magnetic/contact exploders, which were extremely sensitive to rough seas,〔 as the attacks on the German battleship later showed. There were also worries the torpedoes would bottom out in the harbour after being dropped.〔 The loss rate for the bombers was expected to be fifty percent.〔 Several reconnaissance flights by Martin Maryland bombers (of the RAF's No. 431 General Reconnaissance Flight)〔 flying from Malta confirmed the location of the Italian fleet. These flights produced photos on which the intelligence officer of ''Illustrious'' spotted previously unexpected barrage balloons; the attack plan was changed accordingly.〔 To make sure the Italian warships had not sortied, the British also sent over a Short Sunderland flying boat on the night of 11 November, just as the carrier task force was forming up off the Greek island of Cephalonia, about from Taranto harbour. This reconnaissance flight alerted the Italian forces in southern Italy, but since they were without any radars, they could do little but wait for whatever came along. The ''Regia Marina'' could conceivably have gone to sea in search of any British naval force, but this was distinctly against the naval philosophy of the Italians between January 1940 and September 1943. The complexity of Operation ''MB8'', with its various forces and convoys, succeeded in deceiving the Italians into thinking only normal convoying was under way. This contributed to the success of ''Judgment''.〔 The base of Taranto was defended by 101 anti-aircraft guns and 193 machine-guns, and was usually protected against low-flying aircraft by barrage balloons, of which only 27 were in place on November 11, as strong winds during preceding days had blown away the others. Capital ships were also supposed to be protected by anti-torpedo nets, but of netting was required for full protection, and only one-third of that was rigged before the attack. Moreover, these nets did not reach the bottom of the harbour, allowing the British torpedoes to clear them by about . 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Taranto」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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