Read Online At All Costs by Sam Moses - Free Book Online
Authors: Sam Moses
Tags: nonfiction
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killed. His final words before climbing into his plane were “I want to get one of those bastards today.”
Peter Keeble—handsome, fearless, and hotheaded—was the first RAF pilot to die over Malta. The pilot of the CR.42 that hit him followed him in, crashing within a hundred yards of the Hurricane. Keebler had gotten the “bastard” who had shot him down.
CHAPTER 8 •••
FROM NELSON TO CUNNINGHAM
T hirteen days after Italy attacked Malta, France capitulated to Germany, an act that turned over 1,300 miles of North African coastline, including Tunisia and Algeria, from the Allies to the Axis. Overnight, allies became enemies. One day the French and British sailors were drinking pals in Alexandria bars; the next day their commanders, Cunningham and Vice Admiral R. E. Godfroy, were facing a battle between the fleets at point-blank range in the harbor. Admiral Cunningham dramatically and creatively solved the standoff in the desperate eleventh hour, ignoring impatient and demanding cables from Churchill; much to the relief of both fleets, Godfroy finally agreed to disarm, discharge fuel, and disembark 70 percent of his men.
A Scot raised in Ireland, Admiral Andrew B. Cunningham was called “ABC” or “Cutts” by his men. He drove a car as if he thought he were Tazio Nuvolari, the Italian Ferrari driver who raced at the ragged edge; and he was known to occasionally flick a butter ball across the table with his spoon. He was generally irascible and sometimes short-tempered, and at age fourteen had been called “Meatface” for his “love of a scrap,” as he was reminded by a classmate in a congratulatory letter when he took command of the Mediterranean fleet, based in Alexandria.
Cunningham’s warships were outgunned and his submarines vastly outnumbered by those of the Italian Navy. But, he said, “We never gave a thought to the strength of the Italian fleet. We were perfectly confident that the fleet we had at Alexandria could deal with them if they chose to give battle.”
As Count Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini’s son-in-law and minister of foreign affairs, wrote in his diary on June 28, 1940, “The fighting spirit of His British Majesty’s fleet is quite alive, and still has the aggressive ruthlessness of the captains and pirates of the seventeenth century.”
Like Nelson looking all over the Mediterranean for Napoleon in the summer of 1798, “Meatface” was itching for a scrap with the Italians. On July 7 he sailed from Alexandria with three battleships, five cruisers, seventeen destroyers, and the venerable aircraft carrier
Eagle,
headed to Malta to escort four ships carrying noncombatants (including his wife and two nieces) back to Alexandria. But on the first morning at sea he received a report from the submarine
Phoenix,
which had spotted six Italian warships about two hundred miles east of Malta, so he went after them. By the time he found them the next afternoon, off the southern coast of the toe of Italy, the Italian fleet had grown to two battleships, twelve cruisers, and too many destroyers to count. But that didn’t stop Cunningham from attacking. The encounter at Calabria was the first sea battle between British and Italian fleets in history.
Cunningham commanded the convoy from his flagship, the battleship
Warspite,
whose fifteen-inch guns scored a heavy hit on the battleship
Giulio Cesare—
“at the prodigious range of 13 miles”—and the Italian fleet retreated. “I suppose it was too much to expect the Italians to stake everything on a stand-up fight,” he said, with a touch of disappointment.
Admiral Inigo Campioni, the Italian commander, had called for air support, but his bombers didn’t arrive until after he had retreated, and then they attacked the Italian ships.
Churchill wasted no time in using the Battle of Calabria to push for more arms for Malta.
“A plan should be prepared to reinforce the air defenses of Malta in the strongest manner with AA guns of various
Peter Keeble—handsome, fearless, and hotheaded—was the first RAF pilot to die over Malta. The pilot of the CR.42 that hit him followed him in, crashing within a hundred yards of the Hurricane. Keebler had gotten the “bastard” who had shot him down.
CHAPTER 8 •••
FROM NELSON TO CUNNINGHAM
T hirteen days after Italy attacked Malta, France capitulated to Germany, an act that turned over 1,300 miles of North African coastline, including Tunisia and Algeria, from the Allies to the Axis. Overnight, allies became enemies. One day the French and British sailors were drinking pals in Alexandria bars; the next day their commanders, Cunningham and Vice Admiral R. E. Godfroy, were facing a battle between the fleets at point-blank range in the harbor. Admiral Cunningham dramatically and creatively solved the standoff in the desperate eleventh hour, ignoring impatient and demanding cables from Churchill; much to the relief of both fleets, Godfroy finally agreed to disarm, discharge fuel, and disembark 70 percent of his men.
A Scot raised in Ireland, Admiral Andrew B. Cunningham was called “ABC” or “Cutts” by his men. He drove a car as if he thought he were Tazio Nuvolari, the Italian Ferrari driver who raced at the ragged edge; and he was known to occasionally flick a butter ball across the table with his spoon. He was generally irascible and sometimes short-tempered, and at age fourteen had been called “Meatface” for his “love of a scrap,” as he was reminded by a classmate in a congratulatory letter when he took command of the Mediterranean fleet, based in Alexandria.
Cunningham’s warships were outgunned and his submarines vastly outnumbered by those of the Italian Navy. But, he said, “We never gave a thought to the strength of the Italian fleet. We were perfectly confident that the fleet we had at Alexandria could deal with them if they chose to give battle.”
As Count Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini’s son-in-law and minister of foreign affairs, wrote in his diary on June 28, 1940, “The fighting spirit of His British Majesty’s fleet is quite alive, and still has the aggressive ruthlessness of the captains and pirates of the seventeenth century.”
Like Nelson looking all over the Mediterranean for Napoleon in the summer of 1798, “Meatface” was itching for a scrap with the Italians. On July 7 he sailed from Alexandria with three battleships, five cruisers, seventeen destroyers, and the venerable aircraft carrier
Eagle,
headed to Malta to escort four ships carrying noncombatants (including his wife and two nieces) back to Alexandria. But on the first morning at sea he received a report from the submarine
Phoenix,
which had spotted six Italian warships about two hundred miles east of Malta, so he went after them. By the time he found them the next afternoon, off the southern coast of the toe of Italy, the Italian fleet had grown to two battleships, twelve cruisers, and too many destroyers to count. But that didn’t stop Cunningham from attacking. The encounter at Calabria was the first sea battle between British and Italian fleets in history.
Cunningham commanded the convoy from his flagship, the battleship
Warspite,
whose fifteen-inch guns scored a heavy hit on the battleship
Giulio Cesare—
“at the prodigious range of 13 miles”—and the Italian fleet retreated. “I suppose it was too much to expect the Italians to stake everything on a stand-up fight,” he said, with a touch of disappointment.
Admiral Inigo Campioni, the Italian commander, had called for air support, but his bombers didn’t arrive until after he had retreated, and then they attacked the Italian ships.
Churchill wasted no time in using the Battle of Calabria to push for more arms for Malta.
“A plan should be prepared to reinforce the air defenses of Malta in the strongest manner with AA guns of various
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