Attack on Taranto (Stackpole Classics)

Lowry, Thomas P.; Wellham, John

ISBN 10: 0811726614 / ISBN 13: 9780811726610

Published by Stackpole Books, 2017

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9780811726610

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Attack on Taranto (Stackpole Classics)
• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811726614
• ISBN 13: 9780811726610
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

On November 11, 1940, 21 slow, canvas-covered British warplanes, launched from the carrier Illustrious, attacked the harbor at the Italian port of Taranto and put most of the Italian navy out of commission. This all-but-forgotten operation, the authors argue, deserves historical recognition as an inspirational precedent for the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor 13 months later. Taranto demonstrated that battleships in a shallow, heavily defended harbor could be sunk by a handful of torpedo-bombers. That lesson Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Japanese fleet, learned well-while the American military virtually ignored it.

“By this single stroke the balance of naval power in the Mediterranean was decisively altered.” –Winston S. Churchill

About the Author

I was never a pilot (a few hours as a student glider pilot hardly count) but my fascination with military aircraft goes way back. At age 12, I teamed with my grandmother as a plane spotter. She was qualified to telephone in reports, but knew nothing or airplanes. I was an avid "spotter." She called in my reports. Worked perfectly. Years later, I was drafted into the US Air Force and sent to Lackland AFB, a base that had NO airplanes.