The Whale Has Wings Vol 2 - Taranto to Singapore Read Online Free PDF Page A

the torpedo planes. The dogfight with the fighters moved away from the torpedo planes boring in for the attack, the end result of which was three Goshawks lost for four MC.200's. Meanwhile the 18 torpedo planes had split into three groups of six. Two of these received the loving attention of the eight remaining CAP patrol, as a result of which five of them were shot down, and two more forced to drop their weapons to try and escape. The third flight of six, and the remaining five from the other two groups, were engaged by sixteen more defenders. The third flight never stood a chance; all six planes were shot down, although they did shoot down one defending fighter.
    The other five planes had by now scattered all over, and as a result only one fell to a fighter. However this meant that they were attacking individually into the massed AA fire of the fleet. Two of them attacked the carrier Ark Royal, and found out to their cost just how heavy the close in AA defences of a fleet carrier and its escorting destroyer was. Over 40 40mm and a considerable number of 20mm cannon, plus the 4.5" guns of the carrier shot down both planes. Although one of them did launch its torpedo, this came nowhere near the carrier.
    The remaining two planes came off a little better. One managed an attack on HMS Renown, but even with her reduced speed the old ship proved again how gracefully she could dodge. The final attack hit one of the escorting destroyers - possibly by accident, or possibly because it was the only available target. One of the two torpedoes hit HMS Velox aft. The old destroyer immediately slowed to a halt, her propellers and engine room wrecked. It was obviously impossible to get her under way again, and as soon as the air attack had finished, Admiral Somerville ordered the crew taken off and the ship sunk by torpedo.
    Meanwhile the high level bombers had been making an attack undisturbed by anything other than the fleets HA guns (which was, it must be admitted, quite an impressive amount of gunfire). Indeed three of the planes were shot down by the massed guns, while the ships waited and watched for the bombs to start falling before attempting to manoeuvre clear of them. While the attack was pressed home gallantly in the face of heavy AA fire, it was no more successful that high altitude bombing usually was. While bombs falling close added a few white hairs to a number of ships Captains, no hits were obtained, although at one point Victorious almost vanished behind two sticks of bombs that fell to either side of her (leading to an Italian claim to have sunk her).
    Fortunately for Force H that was the last attack of the day. By nightfall, they were clear of the Italian fighters, and in fact no further air attacks were made on them before they made it back to Gibraltar. While it had cost a destroyer and damage to the Renown that would take two months to repair, the raid as a whole was considered very successful as part of the whole Judgement operation.
    *
    22nd October, the Mediterranean fleet
    After recovering the strike, it was time for the carrier group to count up the cost of the raid and also to withdraw southeast. The intention was to get out of range of the Italian fighters; they were confident they had enough fighters of their own to break up any unescorted raids. Unless these proved unexpectedly successful, they wanted to be in a position to launch a second strike that evening. They began to move Southeast at 0330. Since they had conducted their strike from some 175m from Taranto, it was expected that some three hours steaming at 25kt would put them out of range of the Italian fighters. Once they had done that, they would waste time in order to be able to get back into position for the final strike on the port that evening. It was also hoped that their evasive course would confuse the Italian reconnaissance planes that would undoubtedly be sent after them.
    Ironically, after all the excitement of the night strike, and the