Chapter 179
6th November 1941
British Occupied Lybia
The guard duty down here was outright boring. Ever since the Army had moved to Italy where at this time British and Allied units were entering the outskirts of Taranto, all that happened at this supply depot was the occasional lorry convoy taking on some crates and moving out again, and therefore he was bored to tears. The only thing that happened regularly was the lorry that brought them supplies and the change of watch, and come to think of it, the lorry was a few minutes late. This was nothing new though, as the roads were always in heavy use and the lorries that remained for such rear area units as this one weren't the best of the lot, those had gone with the Army to Italy. The guard shrugged and turned around on his heels to begin the next leg of his route around the fenced in area. Each tour took him about a quarter hour, so large was this supply dump, but when he heard a faint rumble in the distance he paused. It was already dark, and with luck this was the lorry that brought the by-daily change of the watch. During peacetime he would have been able to see the headlights of the lorry for miles and miles, but with the blackout in place this was not to be. He decided not to walk around the camp and instead waited for the lorry. When it came closer he could see that it was not only the Lorry, but also a brand new Landy that drove ahead of the lorry. The two vehicles came closer and closer and in the end stopped in front of the small hut where the other two guards were sitting. They emerged too as the occupants of the vehicles dismounted, and the guards snapped to attention when they saw that one of the men was wearing the rank insignia of a full Colonel. The guards snapped to attention, and the Colonel had them stand at attention. They had no way to wonder about that, because before they could act, the other men from the lorry raised their Stens and moved them down where they were, for they were not British soldiers but rather German Paratroopers. Oberst Steiner was still annoyed that his mission had been changed at the last moment, but that was not so much the fault of the planners in Berlin and more that of the British attacking before Steiner's mission to find out when and where they would could start. So instead it was one of sabotage. The group of twenty-three men was to move across Northen Africa for as long as possible, destroy whatever critical infrastructure they encountered before they would go to a pre-arranged contact with a U-Boat. Steiner was less than optimistic about his chances to get out of Africa again, but then again if his friend at Rommel's Staff in Italy was correct, the troops there needed all the help they could get since Berlin and Moscow were still reluctant to send more forces.
For example this particular supply dump was one of the many that dispersed the supplies before they were shipped to Italy in separate convoys for fear of the Italians managing to slip their fleet past the blockade and intercepting the one large convoy. Destroying even one of them would surely disrupt the British planes even a bit, and to that effect Steiner and his men entered the enclosure and began to place charges within and between the crates of .303 ammunition, petrol and diesel drums and the almost empty rows of earth and sand bunkers in which Artillery munitions were stored. The Germans were inside the fence for no more than thirty minutes, and as a last act Steiner opened several petrol drums and poured them onto the ground. The Germans then boarded the stolen vehicles again and drove off to put as much ground between them and the supply dump before everything exploded. Twenty minutes after leaving a thundering explosion lit the night, followed by many secondary explosions and a massive conflagration that engulfed everything. The fire threw the British forces and installations into total chaos, as the fire had eaten a considerable amount of fuel and munitions, even though in the beginning no one suspected sabotage. The initial idea was that one of the third-line troops had simply managed to set the whole thing in the way of a cigarette by accident. No one noticed the Landy and the Lorry that didn't belong and that didn't drive anywhere for the entire day. Steiner and his group hid in the desert in a ditch about a mile or two from the road, and Steiner was amused to watch the British racing by like hens that had their eggs stolen. One of his men lay beside him on the dune and asked: “So, Herr Oberst, what next?” “Next, my dear Otto, is that we drive towards the meeting with the U-Boat, and on the way we blow up what we can.” “Are you sure that's wise, Oberst?” Steiner paused. Normally German NCOs were not so frank with their Officers, but Steiner and his men were with the Brandenburger Division since it's inception, and they had gone through Poland, Belgium France and Yugoslavia together and that had formed them into a tight group. “Wise it isn't but it is what is ordered, and we are both soldiers Otto, and that is what we shall do.” Steiner looked up and down the road again as they waited for the day to end. Once it was dark again, they set off.
Early 2nd November 1941
The Mediterranean Sea was unusually stormy for this time of the year despite the wind. When the British Carriers turned into the wind, Admiral Somerville had a battleplan in mind that he had been perfecting for months. The Carrier aircraft would strike at the Italian fleet, decimate it, tire out the gunners and use up their Ammunition and sink as many ships as possible, leaving the rest for the Battelships to mop up. The fifty-six Swordfishes that had been in airworthy condition on that day were out to hunt using standard tactics and formation of three or four plane groups. RDF sets aboard several ships had made sure that the fleet knew where the enemy was, but having the attack force actually find them in this weather would be difficult for at that time Britain had not yet perfected an Airborne RDF set. As a result of this a Sunderland flying from Malta had been ordered to shadow the Italian Fleet if possible, but so far had only found the tail end of the fleet, several cruisers that were known to be among the last to flee the harbour before the squaddies arrived. Somerville was less than pleased, because this meant that the fleet was farther out than expected, and that in turn meant that the Carrier aircraft would probably not the first to find the scouting Squadrons of the enemy fleet as he had hoped.
Less than an hour later he found his fears to be true, as the 1st Battlegroup consisting of HMS Queen Elizabeth, HMS Warspite, HMS Valiant and their escorting Destroyers and cruisers sighted a small Italian Scouting Squadron. When he heard the position report he knew how the Italians could be farther out already than he had expected, and he had to give it to the Italian Fleet Commander. He was not stupid, because he had his Battleships hug the coast, even though he would probably be within range of land-based British Artillery. At the same time the British were forced to keep their distance in order to cover all the possible routes the Italian Fleet could take, and that had probably been the whole point, hoping to slip away before the British realized where he was going. It would have worked had Somerville not split up his fleet to allow the Battleships to operate independently, for the Italians had no idea about modern-ish Carrier tactics as exercised by the Royal Navy at that time. The main airstrike adjusted course accordingly, giving the 1st time to do their work and get out of the area. However their course change took them directly at the main Battleline since the Italian Fleet was not as strung out as Somerville had expected. The cruisers sighted by the Sunderland were not part of the last squadron, they were the last squadron. They were simply lagging behind since they also were the oldest and slowest Italian Cruisers in the Regia Marina. Meanwhile up front HMS Queen Elizabeth and her sisters opened fire on targets that turned out to be a host of Destroyers, supported by a singular light Cruiser. The British Battleships handily outranged the Italians that had to endure plunging gunfire for the better part of half an hour before they could get into range themselves, and by the time they did, five Destroyers had already been sunk by accurate long-range gunnery and the Light Cruiser, later identified as the Muzzio Attendolo, was damaged, having lost a forward turret.
For this type of situation Italian tactics called for a massed torpedo strike to break up the enemy formation, and the Italians still had more than a dozen Destroyers, and they all launched at medium distance. Thanks to a eagle eyed observer aboard Valiant the tracks of the fish were spotted early, giving the British Battleforce time to evade. However HMS Valiant was the closest to the Italian formation and could not evade them all. One hit her square amidships. The British had increased torpedo protection for their Battleships in the inter-war period, and that was what saved Valiant. The ship shuddered as if it were a human being suddenly entering a cold room, but she continued on her course. The other British ships had managed to comb the wave and continued to fire, even though all gunnery solutions had been thrown to hell. Valiant too joined the bombardment of the Italian ships that were resuming their old course. Coincidentally her shells were the first to hit again, as her shells broke the Italian Light Cruiser neatly in half.
Meanwhile Further down the line between them and Taranto a second, smaller hunting group centred around Barham, Malaya and the heavy Cruiser Frobisher fought a similar action. Here too the Italian Destroyers let themselves be massacred to disrupt the British line and to open a way for the Capital ships to slip through, and here too a Light Cruiser, the Luigi Cadorna was lost along side the Destroyers, becoming a victim to a lucky shot from Frobisher that ripped open her Engineering spaces and caused her to turn turtle and sink within less than ten minutes. Here too the formation was disrupted, and here three all three Capital ships took a hit, with four British Destroyers being sunk. This forced Somerville to shred his own plan and reorganize his force, but just as he did so, the Carrier Strike hit the tail end of the Italian Fleet that had managed to break through the British Battleline. He had contemplated to send Valiant back towards Alexandria for repairs, but he needed every ship he could get for the inevitable chase around Sicily and towards the Naval Base at Naples or wherever they were going. It amazed Somerville that the Italians had not headed east instead, but this was none of his concern. His concern was to follow them, to hound them, to destroy as much of their strength as he could.
While all that had been going on, just after Queen Elizabeth and her group had opened fire, a part of the airstrike stumbled over the tail end of the Italian main body. The Swordfishes were near the end of their range and therefore the attack had to be pressed home fast, and in one single pass or else the Strinbags would not make it back to their motherships. The sailors aboard the Italian ships had no idea what was coming, the Swordfishes had already dropped to their attack altitude and due to the lack of RDF systems aboard the Italian ships no early warning had been possible. When they did see the British warplanes, it was too late. Italian Anti-aircraft fire began to fill the sky with lead as the Battleships tried to evade the incoming torpedoes. They were less than successful. Out of the thirteen fish, all dropped by planes from HMS Furious, nine ran straight and true. Four hit the Battleship Gulio Cesare, one it the Conte di Cavour, and one the Heavy Cruiser Bolzano. The rest missed. The British disappeared again, running low on fuel after the long chase they had given the Italians, but they had done well. For only three planes lost, they had damaged three ships, leaving one of them, the Gulio Cesare in sinking condition. The stricken Battleship was heavily listing as her crew scrambled over the side, and before she could be scuttled by torpedoes, she went under the waves, never to return.
[Notes: Normally I don't like writing narrative chapters with more than one location, but here it had to be done since the thing with Steiner is too short to warrant it's own chapter but will be important later on. Never mind that this is a test run for this new format for Naval Battles, since there are maybe one or two battles in the future that require the detailed style. Resultion of this sometime next week.]