Ferdinand had not dragged the Italians into the mess on a whim. Before the war broke out, the Entente had already considered the threat posed by the Italian Navy, and Bulgaria and France had even drawn up a plan of action specifically targeting it.
The Italian Navy was stationed across ports such as Taranto, Tripoli, and Naples, with Taranto as its main base.
According to the plan, the moment war broke out, the French Navy would cut off the Italian naval forces in Tripoli from their homeland, while the Bulgarian Army would sweep across Libya and force the Italians to surrender!
Well, that was all idealism. The Mediterranean Sea was vast; unless the French Navy did nothing else but stare at the Italian fleet in Tripoli all day, the Italians could still escape if they wanted to!
Clearly, Ferdinand had deliberately leaked these rumors to pressure the Italians into sending their fleet at Tripoli to the Port of Taranto to join up with the main force.
To destroy the Italian Navy, Ferdinand had never expected the French Navy alone to get the job done. After all, the French had a heavy task on their shoulders—they were responsible for the defense of the entire Mediterranean Sea.
Ferdinand thought of the famous Battle of Taranto during the Second World War. On the night of November 11, 1940, British aircraft launched a ferocious attack on the Italian Navy at Taranto.
Under cover of darkness, at 8:35 p.m., the first attack wave—twelve Swordfish attack aircraft—took off from the aircraft carrier Illustrious under the command of Lieutenant Commander Williamson.
Six of them each carried one 545-kilogram aerial torpedo, while the other six each carried four to six 112-kilogram aerial bombs.
At 11:02 p.m., the aircraft reached the harbor, and the air assault began. The six