John Carrier wrote in message ...
Taranto was relatively deep, on the order of 100' IIRC. Pearl was 40'. No
standard aerial torpedo would operate properly in that harbor. SOOOO, the
Japanese developed one that would.


Be careful here, Taranto is two harbours, a near land locked
Mar Piccolo, the channel to which could handle cruisers and
below and the 12 square mile Mar Grande, an artificial harbour
formed by breakwaters that incorporated two islands out in
what was the bay, which is where the battleships were berthed,
amongst the barrage balloons and anti torpedo nets. All the
battleships were berthed near the main coastline on the night
of the RN strike, one was being sheltered by a further breakwater
the Diga di Tarancola. As far as I am aware the water depth
where the Italian Navy battleships were berthed was less that
the depth in Pearl Harbor, Taranto at 42 feet versus Pearl
Harbor at 45 feet.

By the looks of it at Taranto 5 of the 9 torpedo droppers actually
approached from over the Taranto urban area.

Battleships have the deepest draft, typically a WWII US battleship
was around 35 to 36 feet, at designed full load, before the wartime
overloading, the battleships end up in the deepest part of the harbor.

Geoffrey Sinclair
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