Strait of Otranto, 1940: Ambush and Destruction of an Italian Convoy

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  • Опубликовано: 3 май 2024
  • In 1940, in the Mediterranean theater of World War II-the Battle of the Strait of Otranto took place. As a diversionary action during the Battle of Taranto, the Royal Navy ambushed the Italian Royal Navy, impacting Italian convoys crucial for operations in Albania and Greece...
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Комментарии • 94

  • @HoH
    @HoH  29 дней назад +14

    🌟This video is not sponsored. If you want to help me make more videos and gain early access, consider supporting House of History at www.patreon.com/HouseofHistory!

    • @_the_wolff_2652
      @_the_wolff_2652 29 дней назад

      I really love your content. Finally someone, who do content about Italian navy. Thank you very much! :)

  • @Boatswain_Tam
    @Boatswain_Tam 29 дней назад +79

    When ppl talk about naval battles in WW2, its always the famous carrier battles & U boat actions that get all the attention. Thank you for brining these lesser known battles to a wider audience! Another excellent vid!

    • @HoH
      @HoH  29 дней назад +11

      Thank you, Boatswain! 😉

    • @danielsantiagourtado3430
      @danielsantiagourtado3430 29 дней назад +5

      ​@@HoHlove your work

    • @Subpac_ww2
      @Subpac_ww2 29 дней назад

      They didn't call our subs the silent service for nothing. Sank 57% of all lost Japanese tonnage in the Pacific while only comprising 2.2% of all registered USN personnel. Project 3 was a late-war attempt to bring some glory to the boats and that is why we have colored footage available of USS Cods 7th and last war patrol. RUclips it, it's pretty cool.

  • @Kevin-mx1vi
    @Kevin-mx1vi 29 дней назад +24

    I believe that my wife's father took part in this battle as a member of HMS Mohawk's crew. I know he was aboard Mohawk when it was later sunk by an Italian torpedo off the coast of Africa.
    He was later commissioned as a Sub-Lieutenant (later full Lieutenant) and served aboard a number of Destroyers & Corvettes throughout the war, taking part in the sinking of 3 (possibly 4) german U-Boats.

  • @TallDude73
    @TallDude73 28 дней назад +8

    Your videos are always so well done. I love that it's not just random footage from the war, but actual details and maps with ship movements.

  • @SennaAugustus
    @SennaAugustus 28 дней назад +4

    There are many similar stories to be had with these small Italian torpedo boat convoys, for example the Tarigo convoy, the Battle of Crete with the Sagittario convoy, the Lupo convoy, the Veloce convoy, Battle of Skerki Bank...

  • @traviscaudle3205
    @traviscaudle3205 29 дней назад +9

    How are these so high quality

  • @andrewstackpool4911
    @andrewstackpool4911 28 дней назад +8

    Like Hitler, Mussolini was the thorn in the Italian Navy's side. He gave the high command the directive that the battleships were never to be placed in a position of danger. The fleet was also hindered by lack of air support and radar, as well as night fighting and actual combat experience; and while the navy did produce good commanders, never of the go hard likes of Cunningham and Collins in HMAS SYDNEY. The Italians have invariably been cast as cowards, but the actions of many of its ships and submarines as well as the force that flew against the UK in the Battle of Britain shows that by and large they were no different than other countries. Also, there was discomfit that they were fighting former allies. And the Hugh Command, very much pawns of Mussolini, were overall very poor compared to their enemies.

  • @georgealearnedjr855
    @georgealearnedjr855 29 дней назад +7

    The navy may have been solid but it's leadership left a lot on the table

  • @simonpotter7534
    @simonpotter7534 28 дней назад +2

    Not a battle that gets mentioned, excellent presentation.

  • @danielsantiagourtado3430
    @danielsantiagourtado3430 29 дней назад +6

    Love your content! Thanks For this❤❤❤❤

  • @geoffburrill9850
    @geoffburrill9850 29 дней назад +60

    The Italian Navy never lacked the guts to engage the enemy, it was the high command that let the navy down. The Italian Navy had the ships to dominate the Med but failed miserably.

    • @Zajuts149
      @Zajuts149 28 дней назад +17

      Not to mention the Italian naval special forces. Alongside the German Brandenburgers and the British SAS, the Italians were definitely one of the pioneers of special operations.

    • @nobbytang
      @nobbytang 28 дней назад +11

      I’d also say the Italians lacked Radar and its admirals lacked a fighting spirit that Cunningham didn’t …..

    • @towgod7985
      @towgod7985 28 дней назад +3

      A video on Cmdr John Walker, the U boat slayer's tactics might be a good choice. Cheers.

    • @hajime2k
      @hajime2k 28 дней назад +11

      The Italian Navy had very little fuel, no radar, and no aircraft carriers. I don't fault the sailors, but rather incompetence from Il Duce and his flunkies.

    • @tonyantonio8956
      @tonyantonio8956 25 дней назад

      ​@@Zajuts149 your mom😂 Italians were cowards.

  • @gerhardris
    @gerhardris 29 дней назад

    Again an excellent, best I've ever come accross depiction of any naval battle!
    Well told as well apart from clear form of animation. 2:01

  • @robertm4919
    @robertm4919 27 дней назад +2

    Thanks!

    • @HoH
      @HoH  27 дней назад +2

      Thank you!

    • @robertm4919
      @robertm4919 25 дней назад

      @@HoH Very welcome!

  • @mohammedsaysrashid3587
    @mohammedsaysrashid3587 29 дней назад +1

    It was an informative and amazing introduction work about that naval strike between Italian naval task force and British naval attacking force on Mediterranean sea in 1940 during WW2...thank you an excellent ( house of history) channel .

  • @brokenbridge6316
    @brokenbridge6316 26 дней назад

    Nice video. No wonder I had never heard of this before since the raid on Taranto was just around this time.

  • @danielsantiagourtado3430
    @danielsantiagourtado3430 29 дней назад +5

    Please consider the battle of Actium one day please

  • @estonadamson7868
    @estonadamson7868 26 дней назад

    You should do some videos on the Italian front of the Austro-Prussian War. Especially the Naval Battles would be very interesting and basically never covered similar themed channels.

  • @oberstgraf9677
    @oberstgraf9677 28 дней назад +2

    Deadly for some of the Brits had the torps from Fabrizi were launched.

  • @Narrowsplice
    @Narrowsplice 28 дней назад

    Can you do the battle of cape matapan next?

  • @thomasmayer1579
    @thomasmayer1579 27 дней назад

    I’d love to see you cover some naval battles in the American revolution

  • @PaulNurse1
    @PaulNurse1 24 дня назад

    Well narrated. I'm enjoying the videos. Some voices on here I find hard to listen to.

  • @IkeVMAX4
    @IkeVMAX4 28 дней назад

    I would like to see the battle of Raate road during the Winter war.

  • @gctzx
    @gctzx 27 дней назад +1

    Does anyone know what happened to the Captain of the Ramb III at the court martial?

    • @OhioDan
      @OhioDan 27 дней назад +2

      No, a good question though. I tried doing a little research but didn't find anything.

  • @asdffsasdffaa
    @asdffsasdffaa 28 дней назад

    The audio mixing on this one sounds weird as well, almost like it was degraded then upgraded by interpolation after. It's crunchy, the audio spectrum is narrow, it just sounds like I'm listening on cheap headphones. I love your vids, but you gotta look at the audio settings / algo / whatever

  • @minhthunguyendang9900
    @minhthunguyendang9900 16 дней назад

    Almost simultaneous with the Pearl-Harbour-like British raid on Taranto.

  • @Ewen6177
    @Ewen6177 28 дней назад

    Have you ever considered doing a vid about, James Graham, the 1st Marquis of Montrose. And the Kings Capt General of Scotland, during the War of the 3 kingdoms.

  • @giovannidepetris6335
    @giovannidepetris6335 28 дней назад +2

    Easy when you have radar and the enemy doesn t

    • @sjonnieplayfull5859
      @sjonnieplayfull5859 27 дней назад +2

      This was 1940. Land based radar was working well, but how was the ship based radar, and how many had them?
      Radar was not mentioned in this vid, it's specifically said that the lookouts spotted the convoy

  • @prhfuturetech3399
    @prhfuturetech3399 25 дней назад +1

    Wow. 4 advertisements to start the video and then only sound with no video. I restarted the video only to get 2 more advertisements. I hope RUclips pays you for it.

  • @LewisPulsipher
    @LewisPulsipher 28 дней назад +2

    Hmmm . . . nothing "arguable" about the relative importance of Taranto and this convoy destruction. Taranto was huge.

    • @sjonnieplayfull5859
      @sjonnieplayfull5859 27 дней назад +1

      In the end the Africa Corps rotted away due to lack of supplies, not due to lack of battleship support.
      The Italian fleet was short on fuel anyway so they were unable to use all those battleships to their full potential anyway

  • @LewisPulsipher
    @LewisPulsipher 28 дней назад

    Minor quibble: if Force X was commanded by a vice admiral, how could overall commander Cunningham have been a rear admiral (lower rank)? But that's how you list them.

    • @andrewstackpool4911
      @andrewstackpool4911 28 дней назад +3

      Cunningham was a four-star Admiral, as C-in-C Mediterranean Fleet.

  • @davidpreece1188
    @davidpreece1188 3 дня назад

    Cunningham was a full Admiral not Rear Admiral

  • @Einwetok
    @Einwetok 28 дней назад

    I bet Fabrizzi's crew settled up with Ramb's crew after they got back

  • @geordiedog1749
    @geordiedog1749 28 дней назад +2

    The Italian war effort is so nuanced. This convoy seems to convey that whole thing. The brave, professional captain and the complete opposite. So much of post war history has been distorted by Anglo-Saxon bias and also by Italian apologists (yes we were on the wrong side but hey! We didn’t do much, ok!) So much is misinterpreted. For example, the RA over claimed kills sometimes to the point of ridicule. Yet much of this was due to Italian pilots being totally unmotivated by the war for good reason and made claims so it looked like they were trying when they weren’t in reality. It’s so interesting in many ways.

  • @flyingsword135
    @flyingsword135 28 дней назад

    See the Italian Naval Museum at the bottom of the Adriatic.

  • @josephwurzer4366
    @josephwurzer4366 29 дней назад +13

    Italy had a solid Navy.

    • @grossadmiral1
      @grossadmiral1 29 дней назад +6

      Außer wertvollen Treibstoff zu verbrennen, haben die großen Einheiten nichts geleistet!

    • @thecommentaryking
      @thecommentaryking 28 дней назад +2

      ​@@grossadmiral1That still did more than the German ones

    • @flyingsword135
      @flyingsword135 28 дней назад

      Except for the large holes in the ships.

    • @hsmedsvik
      @hsmedsvik 28 дней назад +1

      ⁠@@thecommentaryking??? German Navy sunk HMS Glorious, HMS Ark Royal, HMS Courageus, HMS Hood, HMS Eagle to name a few

    • @thecommentaryking
      @thecommentaryking 28 дней назад +3

      @@flyingsword135 Littorio didn't sink despite heavier damage than the "unsinkable" Bismark

  • @Einwetok
    @Einwetok 28 дней назад

    Thanks for condensing down the strategic tempo. Typical history sources usually chop everything up into bite size actions. Great for writers getting paid by the word, but it costs readers.

  • @Cbcw76
    @Cbcw76 29 дней назад

    With no reading of the Med naval campaigns, I am left rummage thru Pacific campaign notes. I understand the British and US navies used torpedoes for WWI-German design, basically. By mid-1942, the Americans were suffering from a terrible bureaucraZy that refused to investigate bad warhead issues. At this 1940 point in the British Navy, I don't know any substantial complaints about their torpedoes' refusal to explode. Swordfish attacks seemed poignantly successful although skill levels were undergoing many pilots' first-ever enemy action. Were there British torpedo issues? Did the British employ torpedo-boat equivalents out of Alexandria?

    • @PalleRasmussen
      @PalleRasmussen 29 дней назад +4

      Drachinifel has quite a lot of content on the Mediterranean. Have a gander at his videos.

    • @Cbcw76
      @Cbcw76 29 дней назад

      @@PalleRasmussen I meant I haven't read a lot. I don't put much value into videos... I am a 30-year student East Asian-Pacific wars and I find those videos about 10-20% useful. That's a shame but it makes reading almost action-packed to discover so much more, page after page.

    • @PalleRasmussen
      @PalleRasmussen 29 дней назад

      @@Cbcw76 reading is good, but content creators like Drach are good as well. And if the Asia-Pacific is your main interest, it is worth popping by Unauthorized History of The Pacific, where Jon Marshall is on more often than not, and where they often pull in similar specialists.

    • @HoH
      @HoH  29 дней назад +2

      I am trying to cover every significant engagement of the Mediterranean. You can go on my channel and have a look, the major battles of 1940 are on there (Spada, Passerp, Taranto)

    • @superted6960
      @superted6960 29 дней назад

      The Royal Navy developed their own torpedoes over the years. The most widely used in WW2 was the Mark VIII, and it generally operated reliably. I think HMS Conqueror used Mark VIIIs to sink the Belgrano in 1982.
      The Royal Navy operated torpedo boats (MTBs or Motor Torpedo Boats). Mostly they were used in home waters, the English Channel primarily and some in Malta. None in Alexandria that I'm aware.

  • @copferthat
    @copferthat 28 дней назад

    Pridham Whippel? Don't you get the slight feeling he's British?

  • @yannistsili6585
    @yannistsili6585 28 дней назад +1

    The Italian Navy commited a despicable and cowardly crime when the submarine Delfino torpidoed and sunk the Royal Hellenic Navy cruiser Elli, the 15 August 1940, in time of peace! Elli was in the island of Tinos participating in the celebrations of the Feast of Mother of God. Nine petty officers and sailors were killed and 24 were wounded. The same submarine attempted to torpedo the passenger ships MV Elsi and MV Esperos anchored in the port! You don't get more coward and ridiculous than that. Payday came the 28 October 1940 with the declaration of the greco-italian war.

  • @natheriver8910
    @natheriver8910 13 дней назад

    👏👏👏👏⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️

  • @ruthlesslyefficient4294
    @ruthlesslyefficient4294 28 дней назад

    could you do a video on operation vigorous ww2?

  • @maxzombie0986
    @maxzombie0986 27 дней назад

    Isnt that the modern italian navy flag? 2:22

  • @MrDaiseymay
    @MrDaiseymay 29 дней назад +2

    iT'S TARANTO , NOT TORONTO

  • @lolxdani9996
    @lolxdani9996 29 дней назад +1

    Day 4 asking for a video about the Battle of Cárdenas during the Spanish-American War

    • @HoH
      @HoH  29 дней назад

      Wouldn't the Battle of Santiago de Cuba be more interesting?

    • @lolxdani9996
      @lolxdani9996 29 дней назад +2

      @@HoH yeah maeby, but this one was technically the first battle of the Hispano-American war, and you also have the thing about that the 3 little Spanish ships won beside being completely outgunned by much bigger American ships, "isn't much but its honest work" isn't it?

  • @cesaru3619
    @cesaru3619 26 дней назад

    UNSUBBED FOR DELETING COMMENTS

  • @darientertainment2615
    @darientertainment2615 28 дней назад +1

    It was only a Italian Convoy. Blaming Italians for beeing incompetent is the same Level to blame a Pinguin for not having the ability to fly.
    And now I am hiding myself because of .... reasons 🤣🤣🤣🤣

  • @davidpnewton
    @davidpnewton 28 дней назад +2

    Cunningham a REAR ADMIRAL!!!???
    What on earth are you doing getting that wrong? In reality Cunningham was a rear admiral from 1932 to 1936.
    If you can't get basic things like that right then you need to be a great deal more careful in your research.

    • @rikk319
      @rikk319 27 дней назад

      If that's the only mistake you found, then it was a pretty good video, with the historical facts otherwise correct. I doubt you're perfect yourself.

    • @SennaAugustus
      @SennaAugustus 18 дней назад

      @@rikk319 The target audience of videos like this are people with substantial amounts of historical knowledge.