Taranto was the product of long development, familiar to thoughtful admirals and naval officers. Plans to attack a fleet in harbour appeared when balloons and early powered aircraft offered a way past coastal defences. The First World War added experimental carriers, aerial torpedoes, repeated-raiding concepts, and multi-carrier planning. Interwar advances improved the aircraft, weapons, and carrier organisations needed to make those ideas practical. The raid of 1940 was a mature application of a problem navies had debated for more than thirty years.
Notable Point · 25:17-25:54
Why Taranto did not come out of nowhere
The raid of 1940 culminated more than three decades of professional discussion, technical development, and operational experimentation in naval air strike.