AHTL: British Carrier Strike

[HMS Audacious]

21st October 1940 Trafalgar Day.

The biggest carrier battle group the Royal Navy put to sea at that point in the war manges to get within 120 miles of the Regia Marina naval base of Taranto. There targets are five of the six Italian battleships and the nine heavy cruisers along with the six light cruisers moored in the mar grande.

Onboard HMS Illustrious Rear Admiral Lumley St George lyster stands on the flag bridge watching as twenty one swordfish from his flagship are joined by another twenty one swordfish from the carriers Formidable and twelve from the elderly carrier Eagle. Thirty two of the Swordfish are carrying torpedoes fitted with duplex exploders while the other twelve from Illustrious and Formidable carry six 250lb bombs each. The first wave consisting of twenty one swordfish from Illustrious with sixteen Swordfish carrying the mk xii torpedo and the remaining five carrying a mix of flares and four 250lb bombs.

With the three British carriers are four light cruisers consisting of the Town class light cruiser HMS Belfast, The light cruisers Dido , Minotaur and Hercules, The battlecruiser Repulse and eight destroyers consisting of two Tribal class and six I class destroyers.

 

[YYJ]

So HMS Formidable works up a few weeks early and Eagle does not suffer engine problems, and they add a Pearl Harbour Third Wave attack on the Taranto's tank farms. Nice.

 

[AlanJWhite]

Throw in some late-night Gardening by the RAF from Malta & the Mayhem may last a few hours longer

questions off the top of my head ... which I'm sure will be answered in later posts

... who is carrying flares ?

what exploders on the torps?

in addition to the BC close escort is the Med Fleet including BBs in a covering position to the east?

Similarly force H to the west?

 

[HMS Audacious]

23:00 21st October Trafalgar Day 1940

As the first flares are dropped by the six Swordfish over the five Italian battleships and the nine heavy cruisers along with the six light cruisers. All hell breaks loose as the Italian anti aircraft artillery open up on the FAA.

As the first three swordfish start there attack runs on the battleship Vittorio Venito releasing their torpedoes at the stationary battleship. Two torpedoes hit true punching two holes midships causing flooding of the engine room. Another three swordfish begin there attack runs on the Conte di cavour one swordfish is shot down before it can release it's torpedo as two torpedoes run true but one fails to detonate as the second detonates on the torpedo belt causing no damage. As the two Swordfish pull up from there attack runs on the Conte di cavour another three Swordfish begin there run on the battleship this time all three fish run true blowing holes in the side of the battleship causing the ship to slowly capsize on it's side in the shallow water.

 

[HMS Audacious]

Throw in some late-night Gardening by the RAF from Malta & the Mayhem may last a few hours longer

One question ... who is carrying flares iTTL ?

In OTL it was Swordfish in ITTL its the Skuas

 

[naraic]

Historically Taranto was the best plan possible with poor execution due to a lack of resources.

This will be different.

 

[AlanJWhite]

Historically Taranto was the best plan possible with poor execution due to a lack of resources.

...

take umbrage at that a bit ... iOTL more than adequate execution at all levels of the Med Fleet

less than the desired immediate results perhaps,
but actually much better than expected given the limited resources
and almost ASB levels of casualties. ( IIRC 40% was the prestrike estimate c.f. 10% actual)

 

[sonofpegasus]

Bombing the dockyards and the ships in the Mare Picolo could also pay dividends .

 

[Cryhavoc101]

take umbrage at that a bit ... iOTL more than adequate execution at all levels of the Med Fleet

less than the desired immediate results perhaps,
but actually much better than expected given the limited resources
and almost ASB levels of casualties. ( IIRC 40% was the prestrike estimate c.f. 10% actual)

It was a great victory. That is not in dispute. But it only used 11 torpedo carrying aircraft for 5 targets. Also the prize surely was the 2 modern BBs and the Heavy Cruisers. Only 1 of the 2 modern battleships was sunk and only light damage done to the heavy cruisers. These were the ships that the Med fleet would struggle against (the 8” Italian cruisers able to out range the older unmodernised British 15” armed BBs). This is why Matapan was such a great victory as it damaged the other modern BB and sunk 3 of the heavy Cruisers). So using far more aircraft and far more torpedo carrying aircraft, with perhaps a more focused list of targets, ie bomb the heavy cruisers and torpedo the 2 modern BBs. And then the proposed ‘hedgehog’ plan by ABC to massively reinforce Malta was not acted upon as it was deemed by their nibs in London to be to risky. The 13 odd ships that did reach Malta before April 41 did so without loss. So there is great room for improvement over the OTL mission. Operation MB2 MB8 of which Operation Judgement was only a part involved 3 carriers including Ark Royal. So the use of Ark Royal on the attack is not inconceivable and the follow up reinforcement of Malta could also have made things easier earlier.

 

[Riain]

Something I've noticed once or twice is that rapidly diminished forces with their backs to the wall come up with amazing results, and I doubt that such results are scale-able. Taranto is a case in point, with only 21 Swordfish they did great damage, but Wake Island is another; after 8 of 12 Wildcats were destroyed on the ground the remaining 4 Wildcats shot down a bunch of aircraft and sank a destroyer. You wouldn't think that if there were all 12 Wildcats they'd shoot down triple the number of planes and sink 3 destroyers.

I think you have to apply the law of diminishing returns to these things rather than simply add linear results.

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

I've read that the Italian's were nearly out of ammunition after the second wave and that a third wave would have met much less resistance.

 

[Spencersj345.346]

I've read that the Italian's were nearly out of ammunition after the second wave and that a third wave would have met much less resistance.

That does make a fair bit of sense warships only have so much AA ammo as was shown off Crete and on numerous other occasions and land based AA only has so much AA ammo readily on hand. Of course Taranto is a naval base so a fair bit of ammo would be available in the nearby ammo dumps but the question becomes one of whether or not they can transfer some in time and how much they can transport

 

[zert]

Enjoying the build up and looking forward to what happens next.

 

[naraic]

I think you have to apply the law of diminishing returns to these things rather than simply add linear results.

Agreed. 54 torpedo bombers (I think all swordfish here are all carrying torpedoes) compared to 11 torpedo carrying swordfish doesn't mean this raid can do 5 times as much damage.

I believe 11 torpedo planes got 5 hits historically.

If 54 torpedo planes get 10-15 hits its still a massive success.

 

[AlanJWhite]

Bombing the dockyards and the ships in the Mare Picolo could also pay dividends .

Hitting the array of DDs and SSs on the piers with bombs (as tried in OTL) might make some sense
but attacking fixed infrastructure needs more and bigger bombs than Swordfish can carry

That's really a job for the RAF ... and on a different night.
Mining the approaches is better on Judgement Day

Aside: not sure that even attacking the Tank Farm with Skuas is worthwhile iTTL
except for the chance that it may serve as a beacon for later waves

but that is a reasonable choice for @HMS Audacious

But it only used 11 torpedo carrying aircraft for 5 targets

True ... but being fair to the OTL planners they did not know that the torpedos would work
(adaptions for a shallow harbour, duplex exploders, nets ... )
I suspect the OTL large proportion of bombs was to ensure that even in the worst-case there would be some damage
and hence at least a psychological impact

I think you have to apply the law of diminishing returns to these things rather than simply add linear results.

True ... that's where the different composition of the attack force may be significant

iOTL the ratio of torpedo to bomb to flare was ~ 11 : 8:2
All Swordfish but estimating some loss in bomb capacity for markers

iTTL I estimate it is ~ 42 : 15: 3 (in the same absolute units)
In this case 54 String bags most with torps
but with 12 Skua some adding bombs, the rest taking on flares (each with half the carrying capacity of a Swordfish)

Since as @Cryhavoc101 has pointed out its the torps that did the real damage on the most important targets
the ratio is nearly 4:1 😈

iTTL 5 fish can be aimed at each BB with a couple on every CA
Though Ideally, a "master bomber" approach might redirect later waves as needed.

IMHO it is reasonable for the TTL planners to be happier to take a greater risk on the Torpedos because of the extra weight of bombs carried

Aside to @HMS Audacious :

the other twelve carry eight 100lb bombs each.

Wiki states that iOTL the dedicated Swordfish bombers carried 6 x 250lb bombs i.e twice this load.
(Flare carriers only 4 and ~ 500lb of flares )

Is there any reason you have given them a lighter load and smaller bombs?

 

[HMS Audacious]

Agreed. 54 torpedo bombers (I think all swordfish here are all carrying torpedoes) compared to 11 torpedo carrying swordfish doesn't mean this raid can do 5 times as much damage.

I believe 11 torpedo planes got 5 hits historically.

If 54 torpedo planes get 10-15 hits its still a massive success.

Only 2/3rds are carrying torpedoes while the other 1/3rd are carrying bombs

 

[HMS Audacious]

HMS Illustrious in the med

 

[GarethC]

Can Skuas dive bomb at night? Or will it be a level bombing attack like Fuchida's Kates at Pearl?

 

[HMS Audacious]

Can Skuas dive bomb at night? Or will it be a level bombing attack like Fuchida's Kates at Pearl?

Level bombing as the fuel tanks are not a smoldering wreck yet

 

[HMS Audacious]

Rear Admiral Lumley St George lyster C in C carriers Mediterranean and the Royal Navies premier carrier Commander.