Word: matapan
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Dates: during 1941-1941
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Since September 1940, tall, blond Larry Allen has reported firsthand almost every big British naval action in the,, Mediterranean. In March, when the British in one night in the Battle of Matapan knocked out an Italian battleship and sank a half-dozen cruisers and destroyers, Correspond ent Allen got a grandstand view from the bridge of Admiral Cunningham's flagship Warspite. He was with the British squad ron which blasted 5,000 Nazi troops at tempting a surprise landing at Crete...
...with bombarding the enemy wherever he dawdled within 30 miles of the Libyan coast, and with breaking his supply lines. Sir Alan's forces torpedoed a cruiser (the R.A.F. got another), a destroyer and two supply ships. Admiral Cunningham has on his escutcheon the fair marks of Taranto, Matapan and last year's Libyan show. He has kept Tobruk alive with a steady stream of supplies. His most famous signal at sea, which he flashed as he steamed toward Taranto: "I intend to behave offensively in the Ionian...
Although he spoke with characteristic flourish, the Prime Minister failed to quell a widespread uneasiness. He had not accounted for the fact that Britain's naval losses at Crete were greater than the Italian losses at Matapan (see p. 32). He had not satisfied many of his listeners that the British High Command was up-to-date as to military brains. And many hearers had found the Prime Minister's thrusts at his critics bitter beyond all reason...
...naval loss was staggering. The Admiralty admitted that altogether four cruisers and six destroyers had been sunk by enemy aviation. This was more than the Italians lost at the much-hailed Battle of Matapan (three cruisers, three destroyers). One of the lost cruisers was an anti-aircraft ship, one of the "bristling porcupines" which have so far treated hostile airplanes roughly and come off relatively well. Ironically 'this one was sunk not by bombs but by an infernal machine. The anti-aircraft cruiser and two of the other ships were sunk by steered torpedoes (TIME, Nov. 11, weird...
...rickety biplanes trussed up with as many outside stays as grandma's corset. (These "string bags" nicked the French battleship Strasbourg as she fled from the Battle of Oran, had crippled three heavy units of the Italian Fleet at Taranto, slowed the Vittorio Veneto in the Battle of Matapan, had crippled the Bismarck.) But this operation was being carried out by brand-new, twin-engined monoplane Bristol Beauforts, clean as whistles...