Forum > Odds and Ends
FOR HISTORY BUFFS
SANDRO43:
For those interested in history: I just uploaded to my website a new page on The Royal Navy of Sailing Ships (http://www.floriani.it/RoyalNavy-eng.htm).
Comments are welcome ;).
msmob:
How interesting ! I was on a narrow boat at the weekend and my host found out I had been interested in WWII naval battles and NEARLY joined the RN ....
He told me that Italian Warships were much under-rated ..
Re The St Paddy's Cross ... That forms the thin red diagonals in the Union Flag ( Union Jack ) ..
As an Ulster, Protestant we are taught the 'origins' of the flag from a sl.different perspective that my friends who would have attended a RC school :)
This Wki article is quite good :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick's_Saltire
SANDRO43:
--- Quote from: msmob on March 08, 2017, 03:26:02 PM ---He told me that Italian Warships were much under-rated ..
--- End quote ---
Italy had a very nice fleet in WWII, one of the problems was that most Navy officers were more devout to the King than to Mussolini - since they mostly came from noble, affluent families (I remember my father telling me he had considered joining the Navy at first, but the family was put off by the cost of kitting up for it, so he went to the Air Force instead) - and were reluctant to engage our fleet in important operations.
When they did on 27-29 March 1941 off Cape Matapan, after the disastrous raid on Taranto on 11-12 November 1940, they were trounced by the British fleet from Alexandria, mostly thanks to 2 facts:
- Lack of radar.
- Wireless intercepts.
The latter fact came out only in 1973, when the Official Secrets Act on Ultra had expired. While preparing the mission to pounce on British ships off Crete, the Navy had asked for Luftwaffe coverage giving details of the plan.
The back-and-forth of these messages had been intercepted and decoded, so Admiral Cunningham could organise his own pouncing ;D, and did.
The result was: 1 battleship damaged, 3 cruisers and 2 destroyers sunk. British losses were the crew of 3 on a torpedo bomber, against 2,331 Italian dead and 1,163 rescued and made prisoners :(.
Laudable feats of arms were performed by much smaller Navy units like submarines and 'human torpedoes'.
The SLA (slow-running torpedo), a.k.a. Maiale (Pig)
tfcrew:
SANDRO43:
For those interested in the subject: I have added information on the RN Naval Command and Civil Administration Organisations, and other details and images (http://www.floriani.it/RoyalNavy-eng.htm).
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