Few people have heard about the Battle of Taranto which took place on November 11th and 12th, 1940, even though it has forever changed the way military leaders think about combat at sea. The battle showed that battleships were vulnerable to airplanes launched from aircraft carriers. The battle took place at the beginning of World War II before the United States entered into the conflict. France had surrendered June 25th, 1940 leaving the British Empire alone to combat Germany, Italy and Japan. In the Mediterranean Sea, the Italian fleet restricted British efforts to resupply British forces in Egypt. The British devised Operation ‘Judgement’ to attack the First Squadron of the Italian Navy, which was comfortably sheltered in the Bay of Taranto on the inside of the heel in the southeast of Italy. To maintain secrecy, no written records were made of the planning that went into the mission, which explains why it received so little attention. The British used a single, brand new aircraft carrier, the HMS Illustrious, to mount the first all-carrier air attack in history. The first airplanes took off at 9.00PM in the evening on November 11th and reached their target at 10:58PM. In less than an hour the British airplanes launched torpedoes and put half the Italian fleet out of commission for more than a year. The British carried out the attack with vintage biplanes, 24 British Swordfish bombers. Up to that time, experts believed that torpedo attacks could only be made when water depth was at least 98 feet, the depth to which torpedoes sank after being dropped from an airplane, and Taranto Bay was only 38 feet deep. The Italians believed their fleet was safe from airborne torpedoes. The British, however, had devised a way to use a wire to pull up the nose of the torpedo so that it did a belly hop rather than a nose dive. They also added wooden fins to the torpedoes so that they wouldn’t dive so deeply. When the news of the British success at Taranto got out, a Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto saw the attack’s implication. He had the insight that the American naval fleet anchored supposedly very safely at Pearl harbour in Hawaii might be a sitting duck, vulnerable to an unexpected air attack. Yamamoto first wrote down his idea in January 1941 and continued refining them until they became the blueprint for the Japanese attack on Pearl harbour on December 7th, 1941. Yamamoto delivered that blow at Pearl Harbour with his surprise attack, using 353 airplanes from 6 aircraft carriers. The Japanese forces hit all 8 battleships at Pearl Harbour, sinking 4 of them and badly damaging the others. The Japanese also sank or damaged many other ships, including three cruisers and three destroyers; wrecking 188 U.S. airplanes and killing 2402 Americans. This story could be used to apply how information from one incident can be used to apply to your situation for the overcoming of a challenge that you might be facing. Admiral Harold Stark, the Chief of Naval Operation for the United States, also saw the implications of Taranto. In fact, even more quickly than Yamamoto. Less than two weeks after the Battle of Taranto, Stark signed a memo dated November 22nd, 1940 stating, “By far the most profitable object of a sudden attack in Hawaiian waters would be the fleet units based in that area.” The memo observed that it might be desirable “to place torpedo nets within the harbour itself.” Later, on January 24, 1941, Stark sent a letter to his boss, Frank Knox, US secretary of the Navy, stating, “If war finally happens with Japan, it is believed easily possible that hostilities would be initiated by a surprise attack upon the Fleet of the Naval base at Pearl Harbour.” Two admirals in two opposing navies on two sides of the Pacific Ocean quickly grasped the significance of the British attack. They both had the same insight. The Japanese turned the insight into a battle plan for a surprise attack. The Americans lost track of the warning issued by Admiral Stark, the head of the entire U.S. Navy. Why didn’t Stark follow up on the threat against the Amercian Fleet? He tried to. He issued the warning. He suggested torpedo nets. But it is hard to maintain vigilance for a long period of time. Daily emergencies create constant distractions. Plus, the energy put into self-defence gets in the way of training. Besides, torpedo nets interfere with ships moving in and out of the harbour. And how plausible was the threat that Stark warned about? The Admiral in charge at Pearl Harbour didn’t believe that the Japanese could use torpedoes as they would get stuck in the mud in the low depth of Pearl Harbour Business Points ( Tags ) #storytelling #business #bestseller #stories #Importanceofprotection #torpedoes #pearlharbour #italy
