The Italian ships' scattered positions exposed them to each other's anti-aircraft fire, but also gave missed torpedoes more empty water to run through. A closely aligned group, illustrated by the comparison with Pearl Harbor, offered another hull when a torpedo strayed to either side of its intended target. At Taranto, a miss was less likely to find a neighbouring ship. Each attacker had to line up on one target with much less opportunity to divert slightly toward another if the original run became impractical. The mooring arrangement traded a difficult defensive firing geometry for some protection against torpedo errors.
Notable Point · 52:14-53:59
Dispersed moorings made each torpedo attack an individual shot
Taranto's scattered ship positions created defensive crossfire risks but reduced the chance that a torpedo missing one battleship would hit another.