Well done RNHF for posting this; it’s a well put together piece and perfect timing with Taranto Night about to be celebrated in many wardrooms and messes.
Churchill described the RN’s performance as a ‘glorious episode’; indeed it was.
Wensleydale also reminds us of the supporting role played by the ‘light blue’ in the days before and after Taranto. In Cunningham’s despatch on the operation, published in 1947, he said ‘the success of the Fleet Air Arm attack was due in no small part to the excellent reconnaissances carried out by the Royal Air Force Glenn Martin Flight (No 431) from Malta, under very difficult conditions and often in the face of fighter opposition.’ Unfortunately, many of the aircrew involved, in their varying shades of blue, did not live long enough to read Cunningham’s fine words concerning the battle.
This year has been very much one to mark some significant 75th anniversaries such as Taranto, Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain. Another that marks great heroism, both civilian and military, is the commencement of the Siege of Malta in June 1940. A new book about those times, Malta’s Greater Siege & Adrian Warburton DSO* DFC** DFC (USA), is due to be released within a few days.