Taranto was a set-piece operation grounded in two decades of work. The Royal Navy had studied harbour attacks since the First World War, developed night-strike doctrine, gathered the necessary intelligence, and built aircraft suited to the task. Italian resistance was serious, but the British controlled the timing and form of an operation that matched their preparation. The result depended on doctrine, procurement, intelligence, and training developed long before the aircraft reached Taranto.
Notable Point · 1:17:26-1:18:25
Taranto as a twenty-year set-piece operation
Taranto succeeded because the Royal Navy finally executed a harbor strike it had studied, rehearsed, and equipped for across two decades.