Data sources: Wikipedia + Net inquiries.

"The naval Battle of Taranto took place on the night of 11–12 November 1940 during the Second World War. The Royal Navy launched the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history, flying a small number of obsolescent biplane torpedo bombers from an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea. The attack struck the battle fleet of the Regia Marina at anchor in the harbor of Taranto utilizing aerial torpedoes despite the shallow depth of the harbor. The devastation wreaked by the British carrier-launched aircraft on the large Italian warships was the beginning of the rise of the power of naval aviation, over the big guns of battleships..."

I-Origins (short of):

"...During 1940–41, Italian Army operations in North Africa, based in Libya, required a supply line from Italy. The British Army's North African Campaign, based in Egypt, suffered from much greater supply difficulties. Supply convoys to Egypt had to either cross the Mediterranean via Gibraltar and Malta, and then approach the coast of Sicily, or steam all the way around the Cape of Good Hope, up the whole east coast of Africa, and then through the Suez Canal, to reach Alexandria. Since the latter was a very long and slow route, this put the Italian fleet in an excellent position to interdict British supplies and reinforcements.

The British had won a number of actions, considerably upsetting the balance of power in the Mediterranean. The Italian fleet at Taranto was powerful: six battleships (five battleworthy), seven heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and eight destroyers, making the threat of a sortie against British shipping a serious problem.

The complete UK naval task force, commanded by Rear Admiral Lyster, who had authored the plan of attack on Taranto (operation "Judgement"), consisted of aircraft carrier "Illustrious", two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and four destroyers.

The 24 attack Fairey Swordfish (nicknamed "Stringbags") came from 813 Naval Air Squadron, 815 Naval Air Squadron, 819 Naval Air Squadron, and 824 Naval Air Squadron. Illustrious also had fighters of 806 Naval Air Squadron aboard to provide air cover for the task force.

Half of the Swordfish were armed with torpedoes as the primary strike aircraft, with the other half carrying aerial bombs and flares to carry out diversions. 60 imp gal (- 72 US gal or 270 L) auxiliary tanks replaced the usual third crewman to extend the operating range enough to reach Taranto..."

Nota: it is to be noticed that upper wings intrados wear id figures and that lower ones wear English cockades.

II-The attack (condensed).

"...The first wave of 12 A/C led by Lt.-Cdr. M. W. Williamson, 815 Sqn. left Illustrious just before 21:00, followed by a second wave of nine about 90 minutes later.

Of the second wave, one Swordfish turned back with a problem with its auxiliary fuel tank, and one other launched 20 minutes late, after requiring emergency repairs to damage from a minor taxiing accident.

The 1st wave, consisted of a mixture of six armed with aerial torpedoes and six with aerial bombs, was split into two sections when three of the bombers and one torpedo bomber strayed from the main force while flying through thin clouds. The smaller group continued to Taranto independently. The main group approached the harbor at 22:58. A flare was dropped east of the harbor and the flare dropper and another aircraft made a dive bombing attack to set fire to oil tanks.

The next three aircraft, led by Lt Cdr K. Williamson RN of 815 Squadron, attacked over San Pietro Island, and struck the battleship Conte di Cavour with a torpedo that blasted a 27 ft (8.2 m) hole in her side below her waterline. Williamson's plane was shot down by the anti-aircraft guns of the Italian battleship. The two remaining aircraft in this sub-flight continued, dodging barrage balloons and receiving heavy anti-aircraft fire, to press home an unsuccessful attack on the battleship Andrea Doria. The next sub-flight of three attacked from a more northerly direction, attacking the battleship Littorio, hitting it with two torpedoes and launching one torpedo at the flagship—the battleship Vittorio Veneto—which failed to hit its target. The bomber force led by Capt O. Patch RN next attacked. They found the targets difficult to identify but attacked two cruisers from 1,500 ft (460 m) followed by another aircraft which straddled four destroyers.

A fairey Swordfish Mk I in typical torpedo attack attitude.

The second wave of 9 A/C led by Lt.-Cdr. J. W. Hale, 819 Sqn.was now approaching, two of the four bombers also carrying flares, the remaining five carrying torpedoes. Flares were dropped shortly before midnight. Two aircraft aimed their torpedoes at Littorio, one of which hit home.

One aircraft, despite having been hit twice by anti-aircraft fire, aimed a torpedo at Vittorio Veneto but that torpedo missed its target. One aircraft hit the battleship Caio Duilio with a torpedo blowing a large hole in her hull and flooding both of her forward magazines. The aircraft flown by Lt G. W. L. A. Bayly RN was shot down by the heavy cruiser Gorizia while following the attack on Littorio, this being the only aircraft lost from the second wave. The final aircraft to arrive on the scene 15 minutes behind the others made a dive bombing attack on an Italian cruiser despite heavy anti-aircraft fire, and then made a safe getaway, returning to Illustrious at 02:39.

 
Of the two aircraft shot down, the two crew members of the first plane were taken prisoner. The other two fliers died in their plane..."

 
"...The Italian battleships received very heavy damage:

--Conte di Cavour had a 12 × 8 m (39 × 26 ft) hole in the hull, and in the six hours following the attack all the attempts to save her failed (later, she was raised and partially repaired, but never regained service in the Navy, so she was in effect lost that night);

 
--Andrea Doria had only a slightly smaller hole (11 × 7 m (36 × 23 ft)) and was saved by running her aground;

 
--Littorio had considerable flooding caused by three torpedo strikes. Despite the underwater protection (Pugliese system, standard in all the Italian battleships), the damage was extensive. She suffered 32 lives lost and many wounded, and the ship was totally disabled. She was holed in three places, once on the port side (7 × 1.5 m (22 ft 10 in × 4 ft 10 in)), and twice on the starboard side (15 × 10 m (49 × 33 ft) and 12 × 9 m (39 × 30 ft)). She too was saved by running her aground. Despite this, in the morning the ship's bows were totally submerged..."

"...Italian defences fired roughly 13,489 shells from the land batteries, while several thousand were fired from the ships. The anti-aircraft barrage was, at least on paper, extremely powerful, having 101 guns and 193 machine-guns. There were also 87 balloons, but strong wind caused the loss of 60 of these. Additionally, only 4.2 km (2.3 nmi; 2.6 mi) of anti-torpedo nets were actually fielded around the ships, up to 10 m (33 ft) in depth, while the need was for 12.8 km (6.9 nmi; 8.0 mi). Finally, there were also 13 aerophonic stations and 22 searchlights (ships had two searchlights each).

Later, Littorio was repaired with all available resources, while repairs to the older battleships proceeded at a much slower pace (seven months for Doria, never completed for Cavour). In all, the Swordfish attack was made with just 21 aircraft. Two Italian aircraft were destroyed by the bombing, and two unexploded ordnance hit cruiser Trento and destroyer Libeccio. Near misses damaged destroyer Pessagno..."

III-Aftermath (not too much)

The Italian fleet lost about half its strength in one night, and the next day the Regia Marina transferred its undamaged ships from Taranto to Naples to protect them from similar attacks.

Repairs to Littorio took about five months, and to Caio Duilio six months;

Conte di Cavour required extensive salvage work and her repairs were incomplete when Italy simultaneously surrendered in 1943 and declared war against Nazi Germany. The Italian "fleet-in-being" diminished in importance, and the Royal Navy attained improved control of most of the Mediterranean.

This control of the sea, with the help of the U.S. Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy during 1943–44, was to become complete, for all practical purposes (excepting only the Turks, who were neutral).

Aerial torpedo experts in all modern navies had previously thought that torpedo attacks against ships must be in deep waters, of at least 30 m (98 ft) deep. The Taranto harbor had a water depth of only about 12 m (39 ft). However, the Royal Navy developed a new method of preventing torpedoes from diving too deep. A drum was attached beneath the nose of the aircraft, from which a roll of wire led to the nose of the torpedo. As the torpedo dropped, the tension from the wire pulled up the nose of the torpedo, producing a belly-flop rather than a nose dive.

The Italians used wooden fins to break the dive of the torpedo, and it is likely that the Japanese took this idea from the Italians.

The Imperial Japanese Navy's planning staff carefully studied the Taranto attack when planning their aerial torpedo attack on Pearl Harbor over a year later.

The air attack on Pearl Harbor was a considerably larger operation than Taranto, with six fleet carriers, each one carrying an air wing that was more than double the planes that a British carrier had. It resulted in far more devastation, sinking or disabling seven American battleships, and seriously damaging other warships. However, it can be argued that this air attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet did not alter the balance of power in the Pacific in the same way that the attack on Taranto did in the Mediterranean Sea."

And here is a link to U-Tube simulation regarding the Taranto raid (though Swordfishs camo is not accurate):

http://youtu.be/U-mmWOBL5Lk 

IV-The model (integral Jeff's text !!)

Corgi Aviation Archive 1/72 AA36306