The Whale Has Wings Vol 2 - Taranto to Singapore (5 page)

The losses on the second raid had been lighter than anticipated - no-one had considered that the AA fire would be so light this time. The carriers had lost two SeaLance shot down over Taranto, and two more failed to return (one crashed in Italy). Four Cormorants had been shot down, and one more never made it home. Added to the losses from the first night, they had lost 15 SeaLance and 14 Cormorants. Given what they had done to the Italian fleet, it was considered an acceptable loss. In addition some 20 planes were unserviceable; most of these would be written off for parts once they got back to Alexandria.

Morning found the fleet steaming fast on what was looking to be unseasonably good weather (despite the travel brochures, the Mediterranean in October is often quite unpleasant). This was both good and bad news - the good news that it meant interception of Italian planes would be easier, the bad that it would also be easier for the Italians to find them. The first Italian reconnaissance plane was detected on radar at 1000, and although chased off by a pair of Goshawks it was clear from the radio monitoring that the fleet had been detected and reported.

It was not until three hours later that the main attack appeared. The air defence officers had been wondering why it was taking so long for the Italians to respond, and when they saw the size of the blip on their radar sets they realised why. 'It looked like every Italian plane in southern Italy was heading for us' was the comment of the air defence officer on HMS Implacable. The carriers already had 18 fighters on CAP, and as soon as the huge contact was seen they started getting the ready planes airborne. There was then the agonising decision of should they try and get more planes in the air and risk fuelled and armed planes being hit by enemy attack, or hold them back for later use. In the event the Implacable was the only carrier to get another flight of fighters (six planes in this case) airborne; she had been preparing to replace her CAP and the planes were already being prepared. They would not be able to gain any useful height before the attackers arrived. The first of the Goshawks were closing on the raid at about 40 miles from the fleet when they made the first estimate of the size. Judging by the fact it was in two parts, the estimate was 30 torpedo planes and around 60 high level bombers.

The initial CAP of eighteen aircraft was vectored onto the torpedo planes. The Italians had obviously been learning from the previous results of unescorted raids, and they split up into flights of three aircraft, making it much more difficult for the Goshawks to engage them all. As it was, the defending fighters managed to intercept some six of the ten groups before they closed the fleet, and succeeded in shooting down twelve of the torpedo planes. The other four flights were too close in to the ships close range AA defences to engage. The carriers were obviously the priority target, and six planes headed for the Implacable while another six went straight for the Courageous. One fighter was lost during the interceptions, flying into the sea as it tried too radical a manoeuvre to get on the tail of one of the torpedo planes.

The planes attacking the Implacable were met with the same heavy close in AA defence that had deterred the planes attacking the Ark Royal the previous day. Three of them were shot down on their way in, and one more was damaged severely enough that she dropped her torpedo well out of range and limped away. However four torpedoes were dropped at the carrier. Fortunately for her, the attack was not terribly well coordinated, and her Captain threaded through the torpedo tracks expertly.

The Courageous was not so fortunate. While she had a guard destroyer like the other carriers, her own AA defence was far weaker than the modern fleet carriers - the Implacable and her escort could bring 42 40mm guns to bear, she and her escort could only manage 26. The difference was enough to make the incoming planes task much less dangerous. One plane was still shot down, and another was actually on fire when it launched its torpedoes (which as a result went nowhere near anyone). But eight torpedoes were on their way towards the old carrier. Despite the best efforts of her Captain to doge them all, three plumes of water towered over her flight deck , the ship slewing (and nearly running down her escorting destroyer) before slowing to a halt, already listing.

Meanwhile the huge high level attack had been boring in. Twenty Goshawks from the ready flights had been pushing their engines at full power to get up to intercept them, and the six planes launched late from Implacable were also heading for them. Only the ready flights managed to get among the bombers before they reached the fleets HA air defence zone. The bombers showed great discipline, staying close for mutual supporting fire. As a result the fighters only managed to shoot down twelve of them, and the bombers shot down three of the Goshawks in reply (two more were heavily damaged and had to break off attacks). The remaining 48 bombers kept on going, right into the massive black shellbursts of the ships HA fire.

It was obvious that the Italian bombers meant business this time; even though the heavy fire shot down four of them, the rest kept in formation as they swept over the fleet at around 10,000 feet. Even so, it was not easy to get hits at that altitude on radically manoeuvring ships, as the Captains threw cruisers and aircraft carriers around as if they were driving a speedboat, not 10,000 tons or more of warship. The destroyer HMS Jervis was the first to be hit. Two 500lb bombs turned the destroyer into a wreck almost immediately, one blowing off her bows while the other destroyed her engine room. Without power, and already sinking by the bow, her Captain had no alternative other than to order abandon ship.

Next to suffer was the cruiser HMS Liverpool. The first 500lb bomb hit her amidships, destroying her seaplane and hangar, and causing an aviation fuel fire. The second hit her aft, the explosion (and the splinters) knocking out her aft engine room and causing severe flooding. The final bomb to hit her landed on her B turret, destroying it and also knocking out A turret and killing many of the bridge crew. The ship, temporarily out of control, started to slow rapidly.

However the prime target from the bombers was the already-damaged HMS Courageous. Unable to evade, she was hit in rapid succession by four 500lb bombs. While these hits might have been shrugged off (or at least taken with no vital damage) by the fleet carriers, Courageous was a conversion of a WW1 ship, and had little armour protection against bombs. The first bomb hit her aft, directly on the elevator, blowing it right out of its well and onto the deck. The second and third punched through her thin deck; one exploding in the hangar, the second continuing on and exploding in her machinery spaces, the shock taking her generators offline. The final bomb hit on her catapult, wrecking it and sending splinters into the front of the hanger. A heavy plume of smoke rapidly covered the stricken carrier; although the RN was fanatical about fuel safely on the hangar deck, there was still enough combustible material to start quite a serious fire. The problem was that with no power (as well as the main generators being offline, the backup diesel had been wrecked by bomb splinters), it was impossible to deal with the fires and the flooding.

Meanwhile the bombers had been making their escape. The fleet had continued to pound them with AA fire even as the bombs were falling, and another two fell victim. As they headed back to Italy, some of the Goshawks managed a final interception (many of the fighters were out of ammunition after their earlier attacks), shooting down a further seven bombers for the loss of one fighter.

As the last of the bombers fled for safety over the horizon, the Courageous was obviously in a bad way, smoke covering her and her list steadily increasing. It was clear that the ship was finished, and Cunningham immediately ordered her to be abandoned to save as many of her crew as possible. Only 20 minutes after the bombing, the old ship finally turned over and sank. Fortunately the weather was calm, and the escorting destroyers managed to pick up most of the crew, but over 300 men had perished with their ship.

The situation of the Liverpool was more complex; although she had been heavily hit, the modern cruiser was not likely to sink immediately, but neither was she capable of steaming at more than a few knots. The fuel fire had been put out after half an hour, and her flooding at least temporarily brought under control. It was a dilemma for Cunningham; if he left her with an escort, another attack like the one they had just endured would sink her, and quite possibly some of her escort as well; on the other hand he could ill afford to lose a modern cruiser. In the end, it was decided to try to escort her back to Alexandria. Her engineer estimated that with some makeshift repairs, and bearing in mind her damage, she could make 10 knots by the night. The deciding factor was the estimate that in fact it was unlikely that the Italian air force could in fact repeat that intensity of raid immediately. According to their intelligence, that really had been every torpedo plane available, and many of the level bombers. It was also pointed out that she would be in range of escorting fighters until the night, and if things worsened she could be abandoned at daylight.

The fighters were flown onto the two fleet carriers; due to the earlier raid losses there was no problem accommodating Courageous's fighters as well, and the main body of the fleet headed on to the covering force, which it would reach the following morning. As it turned out, the Liverpool did make Alexandria safely - the sky was peacefully clear the following day, and her engineering crew eventually got her up to 13 knots. The main body had arrived back at Alexandria some time previously, whereupon Admiral Cunningham made the rare order to 'splice the mainbrace'.

21st October (Off the coast of East Africa)

The British Convoy BN7 was attacked by Italian destroyers from Massawa. The escorts, including the New Zealand cruiser HMNZS Leander and the destroyer HMS Kimberley, drive destroyer 'Francesco Nullo' ashore with their gunfire.

Shortly after dawn, the Nullo was overtaken by the Kimberly and two other vessels just outside Massawa. The Nullo and the Kimberly engaged in a one-hour gun battle in which the handicapped Italian destroyer came out much the worse. The Nullo was left dead in the water and sinking, but had meanwhile managed to work its way in under the protection of Harmil Island in the Massawa channel, where the Italians had established a naval 76-mm battery. As the Kimberly closed in to finish off its Italian adversary with a torpedo, the gunners on Harmil Island engaged it, scoring a hit which temporarily stopped the British destroyer (although it had to be towed back to Port Sudan by its companion vessels, the damage to the British ship proved to be minor). While the British departed, the Nullo finally sank .The already-wrecked destroyer was destroyed by RAF Blenheim bombers on the following day.

23rd October (Spain)

At a meeting with General Franco, Hitler fails to persuade him to join the Axis, or to allow him to attack Gibraltar through Spain. Franco's natural caution has been enhanced by the recent destruction of the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean, and he has no desire to see his ports visited by the FAA. Hitler is left un-amused by his 'allies' recaltriance.

24th October (UK)

The first war operation of the Corpo Aereo Italiano (the Italian formation assigned to help the Luftwaffe bomb England) is the bombardment of Harwich by sixteen Br.20s. One of the bombers is lost on takeoff and two more were lost upon return, being abandoned by their crews with no more fuel, after a long and unsuccessful night search of their bases. The RAF is underwhelmed by the Italian effort. This will in fact be the only aerial attack by this unit, as it has already been marked for return to Italy in view of the heavy aircraft losses to the FAA. The single operation has been a gesture by Mussolini to show his support.

Britain is still suffering from small daylight raids, but as the losses to the Luftwaffe mount steadily these are being replaced with mixed fighter/fighter-bomber sweeps. While annoying, these do not carry the weight of bombs to do serious damage to the UK infrastructure. Night attacks are still very heavy, and the Beaufighter night fighters are still getting to grips with the AI radar.

FAA Swordfish flying from bases in North Africa bomb the Italian-held port of Tobruk and lay mines in the harbour. The aircraft had originally been marked for use as replacements for those damaged in Operation Judgement, but the better than expected success (and the loss of the Courageous) meant they could continue to be used locally.

Mussolini temporarily postpones his planned invasion of Greece by two weeks, in order to allow the Italian navy and air force to recover from the damage and confusion caused by the British raid on Taranto. In particular he is worried that the Royal Navy might pay a visit to some of the Italian Adriatic ports, although there are in fact no plans for this - it would involve any ships used getting far too deep into the range of Italian air cover

The FAA arrange to replace the losses in their squadrons with the pilots rescued from Courageous; the remaining personnel in those squadrons will go back to the UK to act as a core for HMS Bulwark's completion next year. Since only Courageous was still using Swordfish in the eastern Mediterranean, those recovered to the other carriers will be allocated to coastal attacks in support of the Army, working out of North African bases. While no match for a modern fighter, the Swordfish (acting in its bomber role) is still thought to be able to play a useful role in Africa.

26th October (USA)

The North-American NA-73, the prototype P-51(Mustang), makes its maiden flight at Inglewood, California, USA. The Allison V-1710-39 engine had been received in October and after installation, the aircraft began taxi runs on 15 October and two brief flights were made today. It is hoped to have a second prototype flying soon with a UK-sourced Merlin engine; the RAF thinks the plane would make a better fighter/interceptor than close support aircraft (of which they feel they already have adequate designs), and the high altitude performance of the Allison engine is questionable.