The Longest Battleship-on-Battleship Hit | July 1940

um on the 7th of july 1940 the british mediterranean fleet of the royal navy set south the egyptian port of alexandria bound for malta the task assigned to the fleet was to escort two convoys sailing from malta to alexandria with the official british history stay tuned it was expected that the italian navy would dispute the passage of these ships so it was decided that the movement should take place under the cover of a fleet operation to carry out this task the mediterranean fleet was split into three groups known as force a force b and force c totaling three battleships one aircraft carrier 16 destroyers and five light cruisers simultaneously another group designated force hage was to deploy into the western mediterranean from gibraltar and carry out diversionary attacks to draw the italian navy away from the main escort operation starting out from alexandria in the evening of the 7th of july the mediterranean fleet almost immediately began to be harassed by the italians when a submarine made an unsuccessful attack on one of the british destroyers this submarine would later inform the headquarters of the italian navy of the presence approximate size and movement of the british force which led to a series of high-level air attacks which persisted throughout the next four or five days during the course of one morning the battleship hms war spite counted no less than 300 bombs dropped around her in 22 attacks despite the intensity of these aerial attacks the mediterranean fleet would continue on virtually unscathed with the only damage being to hms gloucester a light cruiser assigned to force a which at 1600 on the 8th of july received a direct hit on her bridge with the attack sadly claiming the lives of 18 men it was also on the 8th of july that hms phoenix a royal navy submarine observed an italian fleet of two battleships 16 cruisers and 32 destroyers heading south towards libya under the command of admiral inigo campioni this italian fleet was likewise tasked with escorting a supply convoy that was sailing from italy to the libyan port of benghazi following phoenix's sighting a short sunderland flying boat of the royal air force's 228 squadron was sent out from malta to shadow the italian fleet and in the evening of the 8th of july the sunderland reported that the fleet had changed course and was heading back to italy on receiving this latest report admiral andrew cunningham commander-in-chief of the mediterranean fleet instructed for the to be delayed whilst he turned his force northwards in an attempt to get between the italian fleet and its home port of toronto by midday on the night for july admiral cunningham had close to them 145 kilometers off the enemy at which point he decided to push on at full speed with his flagship hms war spite four of his cruisers and the supporting destroyers to intercept the enemy fleet in the meantime the rest of his force comprising the slower vessels including the battleships hms malaya and royal sovereign and the aircraft carrier hms eagle will follow up a short distance behind sailing through the ionian sea the admiral's detachment was on lookout for any enemy ships when at 1448 on the 9th of july hms orion one of the cruisers started the italian fleet in the distance approximately 30 minutes later at 15 15 a handful of italian cruisers began engaging their british counterparts the official british history knows the horizon came alive with a large number of italian ships which immediately concentrated on the four british cruisers heavily outnumbered outgunned outranged and unable to control the area ahead of the battle fleet they were safe from a precarious position by hms sportsbite coming into action at 1526 warspite opened up with their eight 381 millimeter main guns forcing the italian cruisers to withdraw from the engagement under the cover of a smoke screen they then followed a short low in the contact until 1550 when the two italian battleships the giulio cesar and the conte dia cavor appeared on the horizon by this time the british battleship hms malaya had closed the distance between it and the war spite although the italian warships were still beyond her effective firing range then at 1552 the cesar and the kevor opened fire against hms warspite and malaya respectively a minute later at 1553 war spikes began returning fire with an italian navy report documenting that war spike began firing without realizing that only the cesar was engaged in her war spike's fire was split in what is commonly known as volley firing with the aft turrets trained at the cesar and the stern ones at the cavor for the next seven minutes the cesar and the war spite exchanged near misses with one another with the former land in a shot just 300 meters beyond the british battleship which had the result of causing slight damage to the nearby destroyers hms decoy and hms hair ward this was followed at 1600 on the 9th of july 1940 but one of the war spies 381 millimeter rounds directly hit in the upper deck of the italian battleship causing 115 casualties knocking out four of the eight boilers and reducing the seesaw's speed from 25 knots to 18. in addition the distance between the two warships at the time calculated at approximately 24 kilometers or 14 miles meaning hms war spite has scored the longest battleship on battleship hit in military history the service history of hms warspite records that the tactical result of this hit was immediate the italian fleet turning away and the smoke covered by their destroyers as the italians commenced disengaging so too did the war spite who made a sharp port side turn before firing a final shot at 1604 for the next hour skirmishes unfolded between the british and italian destroyers and cruisers until all fire and ceased at 1650 and the italian fleet disappeared in the direction of sicily by now the british mediterranean fleet was just 40 kilometers off the southern coast of italy the official british history concludes with following the end of the naval battle more high-level bombing attacks now developed on the british fleet and lasted for four hours during which the italian air crews distributed the large number of bombs on their own fleet even after the italian ships had begun to enter the straits of messina between sicily and mainland italy an italian navy report also commented that the real issue in the area of naval engagement is not between the british and us but between the air force and the navy the italian minister of foreign affairs was skeptical about the many successes claimed by the air force but mussolini was not he truly believed that he had already destroyed half of the british naval power in the mediterranean you

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Keywords: British, Military, History, Education, Army, Air Force, Navy, Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, Liveth For Evermore, LFE, Special Forces, Royal Navy, Italian Navy, HMS Warspite, Battleships, Giulio Cesare, Conte di Cavour, Longest Battleship-on-Battleship Hit | July 1940, Longest Battleship, Longest Battleship Shot, 9 July 1940, Mediterranean Fleet, Malta, Egypt, Italy, Gibraltar, U.K., British Navy, HMS Queen Elizabeth, Aircraft Carrier, Scharnhorst, Longest tank hit, Longest sniper shot, Naval

Id: dYIDvpIhDP8

Length: 9min 18sec (558 seconds)

Published: Thu May 06 2021