The force at Massawa combined eight submarines, nine destroyers, motor torpedo boats, and auxiliary vessels in numbers that could have supported coordinated attacks on shipping. A massed destroyer and torpedo-boat strike could have posed a serious problem for a convoy in the confined Red Sea. The Royal Navy took the potential threat seriously enough to station Tribal-class destroyers in the wider Red Sea and Indian Ocean area before Italy entered the war. Their later recall for the Home Fleet and Norway shows how the timing of Italian belligerence altered the local balance.
Chapter · 9:55-13:25
The Red Sea Flotilla looked formidable on paper
Eight submarines, nine destroyers, motor torpedo boats, and auxiliaries appeared capable of making the Red Sea a major operational problem.