The
Battle of Taranto took place on the night of 11–12 November 1940 during the
Second World War between British naval forces, under Admiral
Andrew Cunningham, and Italian naval forces, under Admiral
Inigo Campioni. The
Royal Navy launched the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history, employing a small number of obsolete
Fairey Swordfish biplane
torpedo bombers from the
aircraft carrier in the
Mediterranean Sea. The attack struck the battle fleet of the
Regia Marina at anchor in the harbour of
Taranto using
aerial torpedoes despite the shallow depth of the water. The devastation wrought by the British carrier-launched aircraft on the large Italian warships was the beginning of the ascendancy of
naval aviation over the big guns of battleships. According to Admiral Cunningham, "Taranto, and the night of November 11–12, 1940, should be remembered for ever as having shown once and for all that in the Fleet Air Arm the Navy has its most devastating weapon."