The Pittsburgh Press (November 13, 1940)
ITALIAN FLEET WRECKED BY R.A.F.
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Six, Maybe Seven, of Rome’s Great Warships Smashed; Furious Air War Rages
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BULLETIN
London, Nov. 13 –
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Undersecretary of Air Capt. H. H. Balfour told the House of Commons today that he could not disclose the government’s strategy, when an explanation was demanded of him as to why Rome had not been bombed. Members demanding the aerial bombardment of Rome said that the government should not be “squeamish.“
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By Joe Alex Morris, United Press Foreign News Editor
Great Britain today had scored a smashing aerial victory over Italy’s navy, and claimed that it released British warships for operations to offset any new German deal with Soviet Russia or a Japanese thrust into the South Pacific.
One-third of the Italian fleet – six warships and possibly a seventh, including three great battleships – were smashed into uselessness by British bombs in a furious R.A.F. attack on Taranto, Italy’s great southern naval; base, Monday night, according to the Admiralty in London.
Italy said only that the raid on Taranto did “little damage,” but the details of the Admiralty’s report, plus the fact that Winston Churchill, Britain’s Prime Minister, made a formal announcement of the sensational success in the House of Commons today, confirmed the British claim.
Two of the warships that the British said they wrecked by striking at the heel of the Italian boot were battleships, two were cruisers and two were auxiliary warships. A third battleship was believed badly damaged, knocking out almost half of the Italian fleet above the destroyer class, according to the British claims.
The British reported that their airplanes dived through tremendous anti-aircraft fire in making the attack after the British Navy had vainly scoured the Mediterranean in an effort to engage the Fascist ships in open battle.
But the damage to the Italian naval units was by no means all that the British claimed. The Royal Air Force, operating from England, from Greece and from North Africa, struck again and again at Italian and German bases in the last 24 hours, pounding the German-held French port of Lorient – an important Atlantic Coast submarine base – with such huge bombs that London believed it had been made useless.
Prime Minister Churchill described the British raid as changing “decisively” the balance of naval power in the Mediterranean, freeing British warships from that war zone for operations elsewhere.
At Rome, Virginio Gayda, Fascist editor, wrote that Italy must bear the brunt of naval; warfare against England. He said that the war will be long and hard because Britain has positions throughout the world.
British planes also attacked three main Italian bases – Durazzo, Valona and Porto Edda (Santa Quaranta) – which are being used in the attack on Greece and reported that they had inflicted great damage. The biggest port, Darazzo, was reported set afire and battered so powerfully that it might not be usable.
At Cairo, the British announced their planes also bombed the Italian base of Tobruk in Libya, setting part of it on fire, and had unloaded more high explosives on Brindisi and Bari in long-range bombing attacks.
The Rome High Command reported that Italian planes had raided Suez, the Cairo airfield, Aboukir and Malta, and the Fascist spokesman, Virginio Gayda, reported that German and Italian fleets were being combined for Atlantic Ocean operations against the British.