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

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...
Consider supporting HoH:
►Patreon: / houseofhistory
►Become a channel member:
/ @hoh
►Leave a tip: www.paypal.me/HouseofHistory
Socials:
►Join our Discord: / discord
►My Twitter: / oscar_hoh
Like the charts in the background? Visit usefulcharts.com/?aff=22 and use the code "HOUSEOFHISTORY" for 10% off!
🧾 Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
📚 Sources:
Written by House of History
🎵 Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound
🎶 My referral link: share.epidemicsound.com/njr7j0
🖼 Photos, paintings and imagery: Public Domain, Wikicommons
🧾Machinima: Total War, Creative Assembly
#HouseofHistory #History

[@HoH]

🌟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]

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

[@Boatswain_Tam]

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]

Thank you, Boatswain! 😉

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

​@@HoHlove your work

[@Subpac_ww2]

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. KZbin it, it's pretty cool.

[@svenrio8521]

I agree, seems like there are a hundred videos about the Bismarck but only 2 for this battle.

[@Kevin-mx1vi]

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]

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]

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...

[@mchrome3366]

I agree the Italian military suffered terribly from Mussolini leadership and against the British rule of the seas never had a chance. Great video!

[@simonpotter7534]

Not a battle that gets mentioned, excellent presentation.

[@traviscaudle3205]

How are these so high quality

[@geoffburrill9850]

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]

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]

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

[@towgod7985]

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

[@hajime2k]

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.

[@Danyal_aka_Amagibestfox]

@@towgod7985I believe Drachinifel is currently making a series on him. 2 videos already out

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Love your content! Thanks For this❤❤❤❤

[@georgealearnedjr855]

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

[@gerhardris]

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

[@andrewstackpool4911]

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.

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

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]

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

[@robertm4919]

Thanks!

[@HoH]

Thank you!

[@robertm4919]

@@HoH Very welcome!

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Please consider the battle of Actium one day please

[@estonadamson7868]

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]

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

[@minhthunguyendang9900]

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

[@Narrowsplice]

Can you do the battle of cape matapan next?

[@thomasmayer1579]

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

[@IkeVMAX4]

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

[@giovannidepetris6335]

Can you present a report on the loss of British convoys in the south Mediterranean Sea and the sinking of British ships in Alexandria please? Can you present the newly revised findings of the battle of” capo teulada” off Calabria too please?

[@PaulNurse1]

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

[@preece1188]

Cunningham was a full Admiral not Rear Admiral

[@Ewen6177]

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.

[@ianlowery6014]

Ahem! The Taranto raid crippled 3 battleships, not 4

[@giovannidepetris6335]

Easy when you have radar and the enemy doesn t

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

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

[@asdffsasdffaa]

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

[@gctzx]

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

[@OhioDan]

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

[@LewisPulsipher]

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]

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

[@geordiedog1749]

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.

[@Einwetok]

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

[@LewisPulsipher]

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

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

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

[@copferthat]

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

[@prhfuturetech3399]

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 KZbin pays you for it.

[@flyingsword135]

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

[@Einwetok]

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.

[@ruthlesslyefficient4294]

could you do a video on operation vigorous ww2?

[@josephwurzer4366]

Italy had a solid Navy.

[@grossadmiral1]

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

[@thecommentaryking]

​@@grossadmiral1That still did more than the German ones

[@flyingsword135]

Except for the large holes in the ships.

[@hsmedsvik]

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

[@thecommentaryking]

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

[@garethmatthews7939]

the italian frogmen attack on gib

[@yannistsili6585]

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.

[@Cbcw76]

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]

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

[@Cbcw76]

@@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]

@@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]

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]

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.

[@natheriver8910]

👏👏👏👏⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️

[@lolxdani9996]

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

[@HoH]

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

[@lolxdani9996]

@@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?

[@MrDaiseymay]

iT'S TARANTO , NOT TORONTO

[@redclayscholar620]

Eh, tomato toronto. 😂

[@maxzombie0986]

Isnt that the modern italian navy flag? 2:22

[@cesaru3619]

UNSUBBED FOR DELETING COMMENTS

[@darientertainment2615]

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 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@tigerland4328]

Actually Most British service personnel respected the fighting ability of the Italian armed forces. I think I'm right in saying the British considered the Italian navy to be the best branch of their armed forces.

[@davidpnewton]

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]

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]

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