A second hit might have transformed Matapan and the Albacore's reputation

The Matapan account ends with a focused counterfactual: what if the Albacores had secured a second hit on Vittorio Veneto? A more seriously damaged battleship might have replaced Pola as the crippled ship surrounded by Italian cruisers and destroyers while the British battle fleet closed at night. That could have changed both the tactical scale of the battle and its wider effect on the Mediterranean war. It might also have supplied the Albacore with the unmistakable signature victory that later popular memory associated with the Swordfish at Taranto and against Bismarck.