Ahoy, Mateys! Stringbags on the telly
I hope that regulars here were not deterred from watching the "War at Sea" prog on BBC2 last Sunday, assuming that it would be all rum, sodomy and the lash. The series is mis-named: it isn't about sea warfare in general, but about particular aspects of RN history (episode 1: a bit of Trafalgar, then lots on the battlecruiser bit of Jutland, "bloody ships", Beatty a bonehead etc, then about 4.5 seconds on the rest of the battle).
Getting to the point: episode 2 took as its theme the influence of air power on the WW2 RN campaigns in the Med (with a brief diversion to chase the Bismarck). Cue lots of interesting stuff about Swordfish, interviews with Swordfish pilots, archive footage and some good shots of the RN Historic Flight's stringbag doing its stuff. I had not heard Taranto described as the turning point of WW2 before, but I can see what they were getting at (no Taranto, no control of Med, no supply for N Africa, no disruption of Rommel's supplies, no Alamein, no end of beginning etc etc). It seems that you can find hinges of fate all over the place if you look hard enough.
If you missed it, look out for it when it turns up on the History Channel etc. Episode 3 this Sunday: Falklands, so expect some more aeroplanes.