Operation MB8 was a British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

operation in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

from 4 to 11 November 1940. It was made up of six forces comprising two

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

s, five

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

s, 10

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...

s and 30

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

s, including much of

Force H Force H was a British naval formation during the Second World War. It was formed in 1940, to replace French naval power in the western Mediterranean removed by the French armistice with Nazi Germany. The force occupied an odd place within the ...

from Gibraltar, protecting four supply convoys. It consisted of Operation Coat,

Operation Crack Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

, Convoy MW 3, Convoy ME 3, Convoy AN 6 and the main element,

Battle of Taranto The Battle of Taranto took place on the night of 11–12 November 1940 during the Second World War between British naval forces, under Admiral Andrew Cunningham, and Italian naval forces, under Admiral Inigo Campioni. The Royal Navy launched ...

(Operation Judgement).Stephen, p. 38.

Operation Coat

Operation Coat was a reinforcement convoy from Britain to

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

, carrying troops and anti-aircraft guns. The convoy was made up of the

, heavy cruisers and and three escorting

s. It was covered by the

, light cruiser and three more destroyers, all from Force H, out to mid-Mediterranean; three Force H destroyers would remain, the rest turning back from

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

Convoy MW 3

Convoy MW 3 was made up of three empty merchantmen bound for Malta from

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

, plus an Australian destroyer and the

monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West Vir ...

bound for the base at Suda Bay in Crete.Greene & Massignani, p. 101 The convoy was escorted by the

anti-aircraft cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several h ...

, accompanied by three destroyers. The convoy left Alexandria on 4 November and reached Malta on 10 November.Hague, p. 192

Convoy ME 3

Convoy ME 3 comprised four merchantmen sailing in ballast from Malta to Alexandria, under escort of the battleship , ''Coventry'', and two destroyers. The convoy sailed from Malta on 10 November and arrived in Alexandria on 13 November.

Convoy AN 6

Convoy AN 6 consisted of four slow

tankers Tanker may refer to: Transportation * Tanker, a tank crewman (US) * Tanker (ship), a ship designed to carry bulk liquids ** Chemical tanker, a type of tanker designed to transport chemicals in bulk ** Oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanke ...

bound for

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

from

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, in support of the British expedition there, escorted by a slow trawler. Shaping a similar course were reinforcements for

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

, embarked in the light cruisers and as

Force B Force B was the name of several British Royal Navy task forces during the Second World War. Mediterranean Force B was first formed by the Mediterranean Fleet in July 1940. Comprising the battleship and five destroyers, it saw action at the ...

, while

Force C In physics, a force is an influence that can change the motion of an object. A force can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (e.g. moving from a state of rest), i.e., to accelerate. Force can also be described intuitively as a pu ...

, the light cruiser (Vice Admiral

Henry Pridham-Wippell Admiral Sir Henry Daniel Pridham-Wippell, (12 August 1885 – 2 April 1952) was a Royal Navy officer who served in the First and Second World Wars. Early life Educated at The Limes, Greenwich, and at Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Henry Daniel ...

) transported RAF supplies to Greece and inspected Suda Bay. All three would rejoin to form

Force X The Force X was a squadron of the French Navy, assembled on 29 April 1940, after the outbreak of the Second World War, to deter Italy from striking in the Levantine Sea. It was constituted of the old battleship '' Lorraine'', of the three modern he ...

for an 11/12 November raid on the Otranto Strait.

Operation Crack

Operation Crack was an attack on

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

by aircraft from ''Ark Royal'', ''en route'' to Malta, branching off from Operation Coat.

Operation Judgement

Operation Judgement, under the command of Admiral Andrew Cunningham, was executed by aircraft from the carrier , escorted by battleships ''Ramilies'', , and . They met the heavy cruisers and and three destroyers, then escorting Convoy MW 3, and provided cover. A rendezvous with the ''Barham'' group from Operation Coat was to be met, with ''Illustrious'', ''Gloucester'', ''York'' and ''Berwick'' detaching to attack Taranto, coincident with the Force X raid. The Italians were aware of sorties from Alexandria and Gibraltar by 7 November and sent nine

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s to attack a Malta convoy (MW 3) detected on 8 November. Bombers (unsurprisingly) failed even to pinpoint the Judgement force and when Force H was detected headed back toward Gibraltar on 9 November, the Italians presumed MW 3 had turned around, too.Stephen, p. 36. Italian confusion arose when ''Barham'', ''Berwick'', ''Glasgow'' and their destroyers were detected 10 November off Lemnos. The correct deduction, they had detached from the Gibraltar-bound force, was not accompanied by a correct guess they would join with Cunningham.Stephen, p. 39. The same day, ''Ramillies'', ''Coventry'' and two destroyers protecting ME 3 were detected and again, bombers failed even to locate them. The complexity of Operation MB8, with its various forces and convoys, deceived the Italians into thinking only normal convoying was underway. While Italian

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

was characteristically bad, in the end, the Italians had only failed to keep track of ''Illustrious''. That the Italians expected the British to behave in what was, at the time, their usual way was the root of the mistake.

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:MB8 Naval battles and operations of the European theatre of World War II MB8 MB8 Naval aviation operations and battles Conflicts in 1940 1940 in Italy November 1940 events