The Attack on Taranto

This WWII military history sheds light on a significant yet overlooked battle that changed the war in the Mediterranean—and set the stage for Pearl Harbor.

On November 11, 1940, British naval forces executed a surprise attack on the port city of Taranto, Italy, that neutralized most of the Italian navy. The operation, undertaken by twenty-one humble torpedo bombers, is largely forgotten. Yet, in the words of Winston Churchill, “by this single stroke the balance of naval power in the Mediterranean was decisively altered.” 

In this fascinating historical study of the Battle of Taranto, the authors argue that this overlooked episode also deserves historical recognition as an inspirational precedent for the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor thirteen months later. It demonstrated that battleships in a shallow, heavily defended harbor could be sunk by a handful of slow, canvas-covered biplanes. That lesson Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Japanese fleet, learned well-while the American military virtually ignored it.