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

Fifteen torpedo bombers had been assigned to the first attack on the old battleship (they still didn't know that in fact she was damaged and immobile). One of the results of the first raid was that tugs had moved her, which was in fact unfortunate as it meant she was hardly protected by nets - although the ineffectiveness of the nets wasn't known for certain, not having to try and avoid them made the torpedo planes job a lot easier. The other fact noted immediately by the pilots (it was rather important to them!) was the far lower level of AA fire from the previous night. Part of this was because the battleships that had been throwing a lot of it were either sunk or damaged, and partly because the ports guns were now nearly out of ammunition - they had fired off so much they needed resupply, and in all the confusion of the last 24 hours this had not been arranged. As a result the planes executed a textbook attack. Of the fifteen torpedoes dropped, five hit the old battleship. Her earlier damage had not been fixed (her hull had just been temporarily patched, she was waiting her turn in the dry dock for proper repairs), and five torpedoes hitting her on the same side was simply far too much damage for her. In minutes, she was heeling over hard, and ten minutes later was lying on her side on the harbour bottom.
    The next target for the torpedo bombers were the cruisers Gorizia and Zara. As the AA fire was proving limited (none of the torpedo planes attacking Cesare had been shot down), the raid leader decided to take the risk of attacking the cruisers one at a time to see how effective each strike would be. Gorizia had in fact been hit by two bombs the previous night, but she was, after all, still above water.
    The first attack went in on the Zara - twelve torpedo planes. The heavy cruisers AA did shoot down one plane, but the other eleven launched their torpedoes - three hitting her. Water started to pour into the cruisers port side, although she did not in fact sink. Her captain grounded her in the harbour to prevent this, but she would be out of action for a considerable time. The final group of twelve torpedo bombers went in against the Gorizia. She had in fact had her crew evacuated after the fires from her two bomb hits had been put out, and in any case her only power was from an emergency generator, her main units having been put out of action (although only temporarily) by the bombs. Again, she was a sitting target, and although three of the planes were damaged, all twelve dropped their fish on her. Four hits later, and with no power for her pumps (and only a skeleton crew, unable to control that damage, on board), she was sinking wreck. Sadly one of the damaged planes, unable to properly control its flight, hit a balloon cable and crashed on its way clear of the harbour.
    Now it was the turn of the dive bombers. These had split into two groups, nine in the outer harbour, the rest heading for the ships still afloat in the inner harbour. The planes in the outer harbour swooped on the cruiser Fiume, already hit by two torpedoes last night. The ship was a helpless target, and with a surgeons precision the planes hit her with three 1,000lb bombs. These caused terrible damage; worse, they knocked out all her power and one bomb reopened much of the torpedo damage on one side. The ship was left listing and in flames, and she finally sank onto the bottom, her superstructure still above the shallow water. The cost was one of the dive bombers; although no-one saw her hit, she crashed into the water, not pulling out of her dive
    The inner harbour was the target of the remaining 37 dive bombers. Eighteen of these were targeting the heavy cruisers Trieste and Pola. This time the AA fire was rather heavier - the ships in the inner harbour had used far less of their AA ammunition last night - and two divebombers were lost to the Trieste. Despite this, she was hit with two 1,000lb bombs. One of these hit her bridge, killing her command