Being there . . . . to help command naval operations in the Mediterranean after the Italian declaration of war in June 1940, especially the maelstrom whirlwinds against Taranto, under and inside Italy’s heel, and Matapan, the southernmost point of mainland Greece . . . .
“HOPE YOUR BATTLERSHIPS KNOW HOW TO SWIM, BENITO MUSSOLINI!”By the time the big dictator brought Italy into the war on the Axis side on June 10, 1940, Mussolini, determined to rule a new Roman Empire by emulating the Caesars, repeatedly told the Italian people, “You are going to fight, like it or not!” Everyone, according to eye-witness Nikos Kazantzakis, was swept up in the spiral motions of the unpredictable man’s existence. For certain, by 1936 freedom did not exist in Fascisti Italy.
Part Three of A Naval Institute Press AppreciationRead, “TARANTO – – AND NAVAL AIR WARFARE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN, 1940-1945,” by David Hobbs. Seaforth Publishing, Pen & Sword Books, dist. by the Naval Instituter Press: 441 pages, hc, $57.95
“This book is dedicated to all the Fleet Air Arm personnel who fought in the Mediterranean and especially those who never came home. They all fought against considerable odds. These men of the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air fought and set standards that continue to define determination and capability of aviation in modern conflict.”
David Hobbs
Reviewed and Highly Recommended by Don DeNeviWith the conclusion of the Norwegian campaign in June 1940, the focus of British Naval warfare instantly pivoted to the Mediterranean. There, it faced a much larger, better-equipped Italian surface fleet, including advanced German and Italian submarines.
Churchill and Admiral Sir Andrew Browne Cunningham, commanding the British Mediterranean Fleet, decided to seek out and destroy these “bigger boats” of the enemy navies. To do so, competent, diligent, deadly air support was urgently needed. Many books have been written about the war in the Mediterranean, but David Hobbs’ book is the first to concentrate on the Royal Navy’s superb Fleet Air Arm in doing so. His remarkable effort is the result of many years of captivating research drawn in part from material that has never preciously been published. As enthralled readers, we, too, are privy to the planning details of the Air Arm’s crowning achievement, the night attack on the Italian battle fleet in its home base in Taranto Harbor on November 9 and 10, 1940. What a magnificent read from not only NIP, but also gifted military historian Hobbs who served in the Royal Navy for 30 years, flying both fixed and rotary wing aircraft. Later, he was honored by being named the Curator of the Fleet Air Arm Museum. He has authored more than 30 highly regarded books on aviation in World War II.
In “Taranto”, we are present when the pride of the Italian fleet, six battleships the supreme of which were the new 42,000 ton “Littorio” and “Vittorio Veneto”, were the critical targets thus far in the Mediterranean War. Mussolini had bragged in speech after speech that the Sea had always been an “Italian Lake”. But on that late night of November three Italian battleships were virtually sunk at Taranto by the Fleet Air Arm planes from carrier HMS Illustrious. To fly the 170 miles, 2 ½ hours were needed. Although under increasingly intense ack-ack fire, the second wave of attackers carried on undeterred. Although the harbor was bathed in light, and the British aircraft swerving wildly, the brave pilots sent their torpedoes splashing. Within minutes, it was over, the result pure devastation and chaos. Three Italian battleship were out of action, one permanently and two for months well into 1941. The surviving battleships waddled into Naples, highly embarrassed. The fight for “Mussolini’s Lake” was over, hardly to sail on it again.
“Taranto”, by David Hobbs, is unequivocally the best books about the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air arm yet researched and written.
“AIRCRAFT CARRIER INTREPID- – NAVAL HISTORY SPECIAL EDITION”, by Andrew Faltum. Naval Institute Press; 138 pages,sc, $19.95.
The Naval Institute Press, the popular book-publishing arm of the U.S. Naval Institute, is now publishing a marvelous new series, “Naval History Special Edition”, focusing upon carefully chosen topics and their photographs. In the same format as the popular Battleship Series, “Aircraft Carrier Intrepid”, 8”x11 ¾”, 138 pages, $29.75, offers a succinct and cogent biography of the aircraft carrier “Intrepid” from the moment she was christened in May of 1940 through to being refitted for the opening of a wonderful museum on Feb 26, 1983. With well over a hundred photos and numerous maps, we are present throughout her beginning, a detailed tour of her anatomy after launching, her first fighting encounters, being torpedoed off Truk, her 1944 strikes over the Philippines, the Battle for Leyte Gulf, enduring relentless kamikaze attack activities off Japan and Okinawa, war’s final end and soon thereafter rebirth, refitting, and reassignments off Korea and North Vietnam until, finally, placed in “in commission in research” on July 23, 1973.
Compact and often terse, the war and peace chronology spans 31 years at sea in less than 140 pages. Yet, the large, formatted softcover highlights via a smooth, well written narrative the work and battle actions of more than 3,000 aboard her, men, and women from across America servicing their country. Every devotee of the US Navy will want to own this volume, as well as other such titles from the
