The Results: Taranto Long Patrol

Taranto's anti-aircraft defence expended huge quantities of ammunition against a twenty-aircraft strike, yet only two attackers were lost.

The raid's damage was serious but finite, and accounts of Italian ammunition exhaustion have to be read against readiness, resupply, and land-based fire.

John Wellham's landmarks and exit route support a tentative reconstruction in which his Swordfish attacked Littorio and scored a hit.

A reconstruction of the attack route and anchorage layout shows why several Italian capital ships were vulnerable at their principal eastern Mediterranean base.

Taranto was Italy's principal eastern Mediterranean fleet base, so even a limited carrier success inside the anchorage demanded an operational response.

Taranto demonstrated that carrier aircraft had moved beyond trying to provoke a fleet into action and could now damage that fleet inside its own base.

After Taranto ceased to be a sanctuary, the Regia Marina moved to Naples behind geographic screens but farther from the eastern Mediterranean.

One torpedo permanently removed Conte di Cavour, while rapid damage control kept Littorio from becoming a total loss after three hits.

The comparison with Pearl Harbor turns on force availability: Taranto was a wartime operation mounted without the Royal Navy's full carrier strength.

Twenty aircraft could not remove the Italian fleet, but the raid made the Regia Marina confront a Royal Navy able to strike its home anchorage.