{"id":3215159,"date":"2026-06-30T16:56:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/battle-of-taranto-1940-swordfish-raid\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T09:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T07:48:09","slug":"battle-of-taranto-1940-swordfish-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/it\/battle-of-taranto-1940-swordfish-raid\/","title":{"rendered":"The Night 21 Biplanes Rewrote Naval Warfare"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style><p>It is approaching eleven o&rsquo;clock on the night of 11 November 1940, and Lieutenant Commander Kenneth &ldquo;Hooch&rdquo; Williamson is pushing his Fairey Swordfish down through the flak over Taranto harbour. Magnesium flares hang in the sky, throwing the anchored Italian battle fleet into silhouette. His biplane &mdash; fabric, wire and an open cockpit &mdash; clatters in low over the water, and he releases his torpedo at the great hull of the battleship Conte di Cavour.<\/p><p>Moments later his own aircraft is hit and goes into the harbour; Williamson and his observer survive, to be taken prisoner. But the torpedo runs true. Behind and around him, twenty other antique biplanes are doing the same thing to the most powerful fleet in the Mediterranean.<\/p><p>By dawn, three Italian battleships are sitting on the bottom of their own harbour. The age of the battleship has just ended &mdash; and almost nobody has realised it yet.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border:1px solid #d6e0ff;border-radius:8px;padding:16px 20px;margin:22px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:700;color:#1a1a1a\">Quick Facts<\/p><table style=\"border-collapse:collapse;font-size:15px\"><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 14px 6px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Date<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#222\">Night of 11&ndash;12 November 1940<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 14px 6px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Attacker<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#222\">21 Fairey Swordfish biplanes from HMS Illustrious<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 14px 6px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Target<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#222\">The Italian battle fleet at anchor in Taranto harbour<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 14px 6px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Result<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#222\">Three battleships put out of action (Littorio, Caio Duilio, Conte di Cavour); cruisers and shore facilities damaged<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 14px 6px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>British losses<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#222\">Two Swordfish<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 14px 6px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Legacy<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#222\">The first all-aircraft carrier strike on a fleet &mdash; and a template for Pearl Harbor<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/div>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">An impossible target<\/h2><p>Taranto was the Regia Marina&rsquo;s great naval base, and its battle fleet lay at anchor behind barrage balloons, torpedo nets, and a wall of anti-aircraft guns. Worse, the harbour was shallow &mdash; a conventional air-dropped torpedo would simply dive into the mud. The British answer was to modify their torpedoes with trim wires and breakaway fins so they would run shallow, and to attack at night, when the defences were hardest to coordinate.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px\"><img data-opt-id=2047993758  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/06\/hms-illustrious-carrier.jpg\" alt=\"The aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious\" style=\"display:block;width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">HMS Illustrious, the carrier that launched the Taranto strike. Photo: Australian War Memorial \/ Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Two waves, one antique biplane<\/h2><p>The aircraft that did it looked like a relic even in 1940. The Fairey Swordfish &mdash; affectionately the &ldquo;Stringbag&rdquo; &mdash; was a fabric-skinned biplane with a top speed of barely 140 mph and crew sitting in the open air. Twenty-one launched in two waves, the first of twelve led by Williamson just before 21:00, the second of nine about ninety minutes later.<\/p><p>Coming in under their own flares, the Swordfish put torpedoes into the new battleship Littorio and the older Caio Duilio and Conte di Cavour. The Littorio was crippled for months; the Cavour was so badly damaged it never returned to service. For all of it, the Royal Navy lost just two aircraft.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px\"><img data-opt-id=2065517199  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/06\/swordfish-air-gunner.jpg\" alt=\"A Swordfish air gunner at his position\" style=\"display:block;width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The open rear cockpit of a Fairey Swordfish &mdash; the kind of position from which Taranto&rsquo;s crews flew through the harbour&rsquo;s flak. Photo: Imperial War Museums \/ Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The shot heard in Tokyo<\/h2><p>In a single night, a handful of canvas biplanes had knocked out half of Italy&rsquo;s battle fleet and tilted the balance of the Mediterranean. But the most consequential audience was not in Rome or London. In Japan, naval planners studied Taranto closely: here was proof that carrier aircraft could cripple a battle fleet at anchor, in shallow water, by surprise. A little over a year later, that lesson arrived over Pearl Harbor.<\/p><p>The battleship admirals had spent decades insisting the big gun ruled the sea. On one November night, twenty-one biplanes wrote the first line of the carrier age &mdash; and the rest of the war would spell out the rest.<\/p><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:18px\">Sources: Imperial War Museums; The National WWII Museum; Royal Navy (Navy Wings).<\/p><!-- mf-faq -->\n\n<div class=\"mf-faq-block\"><style>.mf-faq-block{margin:34px 0}.mf-faq-item:not([open]) .mf-faq-answer{display:none !important}.mf-faq-block h2.mf-faq-h{padding-top:22px;margin-bottom:14px}.mf-faq-item{border:1px solid #e2e8f5;border-radius:8px;margin:0 0 10px;background:#fff}.mf-faq-item summary{list-style:none;cursor:pointer;padding:15px 50px 15px 18px;font-weight:600;color:#1a1a1a;position:relative;line-height:1.45}.mf-faq-item summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mf-faq-item summary::after{content:\"+\";position:absolute;right:18px;top:50%;transform:translateY(-50%);font-size:1.5em;color:#5C91FF}.mf-faq-item[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mf-faq-answer{padding:14px 18px;color:#333;line-height:1.6}.mf-faq-answer p{margin:0}<\/style><h2 class=\"mf-faq-h\">Related Questions<\/h2><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>What was the Battle of Taranto?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>The Battle of Taranto was a British air raid on the night of 11\\u201312 November 1940, in which 21 Fairey Swordfish biplanes from the carrier HMS Illustrious attacked the Italian battle fleet anchored at Taranto. It was the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>When did the Battle of Taranto happen?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>The attack took place on the night of 11 to 12 November 1940, during the Second World War, in the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>What aircraft attacked Taranto?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>The raid was carried out by Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo-bombers \\u2014 fabric-and-wire aircraft with open cockpits, nicknamed the \\u201cStringbag\\u201d \\u2014 flown from the Royal Navy carrier HMS Illustrious.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>How many ships were damaged at Taranto?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>Three Italian battleships were put out of action \\u2014 the Littorio, the Caio Duilio and the Conte di Cavour \\u2014 along with damage to cruisers and shore facilities. The Conte di Cavour never returned to active service.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>Did Taranto inspire the attack on Pearl Harbor?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>Yes. Japanese naval planners studied Taranto as proof that carrier aircraft could cripple a battle fleet at anchor in shallow water. The lessons informed the planning of the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>What is a Fairey Swordfish?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>The Fairey Swordfish was a British biplane torpedo-bomber of the Fleet Air Arm. Despite being obsolete-looking by 1940, it served throughout the war and is famous for the Taranto raid and for helping to sink the German battleship Bismarck.<\/p><\/div><\/details><\/div>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the Battle of Taranto?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The Battle of Taranto was a British air raid on the night of 11\\\\u201312 November 1940, in which 21 Fairey Swordfish biplanes from the carrier HMS Illustrious attacked the Italian battle fleet anchored at Taranto. 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Despite being obsolete-looking by 1940, it served throughout the war and is famous for the Taranto raid and for helping to sink the German battleship Bismarck.\"}}]}<\/script><!-- \/mf-faq -->\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/the-fairey-swordfish-the-wwi-era-biplane-that-sank-the-bismarck\/\">The Fairey Swordfish: The WWI-Era Biplane That Sank the Bismarck<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is approaching eleven o&rsquo;clock on the night of 11 November 1940, and Lieutenant Commander Kenneth &ldquo;Hooch&rdquo; Williamson is pushing his Fairey Swordfish down through the flak over Taranto harbour. Magnesium flares hang in the sky, throwing the anchored Italian battle fleet into silhouette. His biplane &mdash; fabric, wire and an open cockpit &mdash; clatters [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":3215034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3215159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Night 21 Biplanes Rewrote Naval Warfare | MiGFlug.com Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is approaching eleven o&#039;clock on the night of 11 November 1940, and Lieutenant Commander Kenneth &quot;Hooch&quot; Williamson is pushing his Fairey Swordfish\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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