The Monster Warships of Vengeance The Allies Never Saw Coming



Less than a month after Italy threw her hat into the Axis ring, declaring war on Britain and France, the Italians faced the bitter taste of defeat. During the Battle of Taranto, the Regia Marina was eviscerated by an unprecedented aerial assault, leaving three battleships crippled and three other warships badly mauled.

Mussolini, seething and hungry for revenge, vowed to show the British who ruled the Mediterranean. He made a bold decision: deploy two of Italy’s most capable and modern battleships, Vittorio Veneto and Giulio Cesare, to hunt down the British aircraft carriers, HMS Ark Royal and Argus, along with their cruiser escorts.

However, British Intelligence had their finger on the pulse, detecting the Italian strike. The British carriers were ordered to retreat, and the Italian navy, buoyed by a newfound sense of pride, believed they were finally gaining ground in the Mediterranean. On November 27, another British convoy made a dash for Malta, and the Italian capital ships were dispatched again to intercept.

This time, though, the Royal Navy was ready. They knew exactly what was coming, and the Italians were steaming headlong into a carefully laid trap. The stage was set for the blistering Battle of Cape Spartivento.

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22 thoughts on “The Monster Warships of Vengeance The Allies Never Saw Coming”

  1. The Torento tactic by the Fleet Air Arm repeated by the Japanese some months later at Pearl Harbour in an attempt to cripple the American fleet, before the declaration of war, bringing America into the war.

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  2. As often as I've read or heard about the Swordfish, I continue to be amazed that such seemingly obsolete biplanes could be SO deadly! Apparently, though, they were ideal for their mission . . . which suggests that the US Navy might have benefited from the use of some of these quirky little planes until such time as the USN received really effective dive bombers and torpedo bombers.

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  3. Right off the bat at :17 you show the German pocket Battleship Graf Spee burning off Montevideo in December 1939. If you can't get it right don't turn out any more of these crappy 'histories."

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  4. Ya if the British Navy lost the Italian navy the Italian Navy would have to delt with the US navy instead over the island of Malta and mainland Italy and Africa
    Of course Germany would have sent more uboats to protect Italy as well
    Then ww2 would have lasted even longer then 5 years or so
    Love This censored history as well you won't find This on The history channel
    🕊️ Of ✌️

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  5. I like the content & the ideas behind these video's but i just hate ot & find it annoying when u show the wrong images or clips that dont match what your saying like as in the wrong ships especially etc!!! Ive said about it b4 in the comments so if u cud sort that it'd be great 👍

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  6. I've always had some issues with the content of this channel; often the titles are misleading and the information less than accurate.

    That said, it was the British air attack on the Italian navy in its home port at Taranto that was carefully studied and analysed by the Japanese when they were planning their attack on US warships at Pearl Harbor.

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  7. It has always astounded me that as WWII began, the most powerful and largest fleet in the world, the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy, was still using flimsy, slow, and outdated biplanes*——Fairey Swordfish and Albacores, with only the mediocre Fairey Fulmar as its lone all-metal monoplane fighter design—-on board their aircraft carriers, while the Imperial Japanese Navy’s kido butai used all-metal monoplane designs for its Mitsubishi A6M Zero Fighters, Aichi D3A Val Dive Bombers, and Nakajima B5N Kate torpedo bombers. This is why, when the kido butai led a foray into the Indian Ocean after Pearl Harbor, Admiral Somerville didn’t *dare engage them in direct combat, as his five battleships were too old and too slow; he had only two large carriers (HMS Indomitable and HMS Formidable) and the small, obsolete, and nearly useless carrier HMS Hermes; only two heavy and five light cruisers (one of them Dutch); sixteen destroyers and five submarines. The British were fortunate indeed to have narrowly missed the bombarding of their base at Trincomalee when the majority of their East Indies Fleet fled to Addu Atoll; and to have had only two cruisers (HMS Dorsetshire and HMS Corneall), one destroyer, and the HMS Hermes sunk before the kido butai left the Indian Ocean to return to the Pacific to defend the Japanese Empire’s many island holdings from a United States Navy eager for revenge.

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  8. grew up with friends and family who fought directly in this theator of the "SOFT?" Under Belly.
    from the RCAC, RAF, USAAC, and every Allie, and the french? some picked up via "under grounds", relayed to brit subs and recovered battle damage equipment more than twice, just this theator, or ETO?

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