“I doubt it. What would they do, shell the Germans on the coast near Tartus? It wouldn’t be worth the effort, or the risk.”
“Then might they have a go at the Suez Canal?”
“Oh, they’d love nothing more than to put that out of action, and that’s why we’re here. Our first job is to put up a steel wall in the Eastern Med and dare them to come for us. But I rather think they’ll have other business. I believe they’ll turn west once they get down near Crete under friendly air cover, and make for the Ionian Sea. From there, Taranto would be a save harbor, or they might even be so bold as to try the straits of Messina. A pity we lost Malta in a situation like this.”
“We could get after them, sir.”
“We could, but not until we know their course is truly west, and not south. No Captain, this is a defensive sortie, as much as I’d love to take Raeder by the lapels and give him a good shaking. He’s got a ten-knot speed advantage on us, so if he does take a westerly course, we’ll never catch him. It will have to be up to the air force. All we can do is make a brave show here and thumb our nose at him. I’m afraid Raeder won’t risk his ships in any action with us now. His real trouble is in the Central Med. Tovey’s been putting the squeeze on their supply runs into Tunis and Bizerte with Operation Retribution. That’s what I think this movement is all about.”
“Then you believe Raeder will try to break the blockade?”
“If he can. First he has to get his ships west and into the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the Air Force might get after him in the Straits of Messina. After that, if he does get through, he might lay over at Naples and operate from there with what remains of the Italian fleet.”
“We gave them a good thumping a few weeks back,” said Russell.
“That we did,” said Cunningham.
The Captain was referring to the attack made on the Italian base at La Maddalena, in the Straits of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia. In April, the Americans had sent 84 B-24 Liberators to bomb the place, sinking the Heavy Cruiser Trieste, a pair of motor torpedo boats, and damaging the cruiser Gorizia so badly that she had to be towed to La Spezia. It was all part of Operation Retribution, a move to neuter the Italian Navy, choke off supplies to Tunisia, and eventually allow Allied ships through the Sicilian Narrows, opening the whole of the Med to friendly sea traffic.
That would not happen just yet, for the enemy had one more card to play in that game, and it was his Ace. Admiral Raeder’s fleet represented a powerful threat, and Nelson was out that day to stand the first watch.
“Perhaps we can keep Raeder in port,” said Cunningham. “Our bombers can reach Naples easily enough, so he might have to run off to La Spezia with the Italians, or even return to Toulon. Then we’ll have to watch him like a hawk, for one day or another, he’ll have to come out and face his last hour.”
“Well sir, we might be slow, but those nine 16-inch guns can still deliver a good punch,” said Russell. “Let’s hope Nelson will be there to join the action. That would be a grand show.”
Even as HMS Nelson turned north to take up her watch, the man that ship was named for was standing his own patrols out to sea, and from that very same base that had been bombed by the American B-24s. It’s strategic position in the Bonifacio strait allowed him to anchor his Mediterranean Fleet at the Maddalena Islands, and lie in wait for the French out of Toulon.
Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté was ailing, but determined. He had been bothered by a hacking cough of late, something he was often prey to with his endless hours at sea. With his flag aboard HMS Victory, he had been at sea since February of that year, operating from La Maddalena, and sending squadrons of two and three frigates to cruise off Toulon and spy on the French.
“Bad weather again today,” came the voice of Nelson’s Flag Captain, Sir Thomas Hardy.
The Admiral looked up, as if noting the grey skies for the first time, and nodded. “Any further dispatches from our patrols off Toulon?”
“Not yet,” said Hardy, “though Arrow is expected hourly.”
“The moment the French Fleet leaves that port, it can have as many destinations as there are countries in these waters,” said Nelson. “They have designs upon Sardinia itself, and would like nothing more than to occupy the island, which would deny my squadrons these waters as a preferred station to stand this watch. Well, let them try. We are in right fighting trim. I never saw a fleet altogether so well officered and manned. It’s the weather that bedevils me as much as the French, but if I am to watch them, I must be at sea, and if at sea, I must contend with bad weather. If our ships are not fit to stand bad weather, they are useless.”[1]
“Well sir, word is that they’ve no more than a fistful of fighting sail there at Toulon, though Admiral La Touche is undoubtedly been sent to remedy that.”
“Indeed,” said Nelson, “well I should like to take his charge, and my preferred remedy would be to see that fleet at the bottom of the sea.”
Nelson’s opposite number on the side of the French was one Vice-Admiral Louis-Rene Madalaine La Touche Treville, a man who had had been dueling with British frigates since the time of the American Revolution. He had only lately come to Toulon from Boulogne, where Napoleon ordered him to organize the massive fleet of transport ships to be used for the invasion of England, and to repel British raids led by Nelson on that port in an attempt to unhinge that plan. So the two men had little love for one another, and now La Touche was at Toulon reorganizing a part of the fleet that would soon meet Nelson at the famous Battle of Trafalgar.
With only seven ships of the line and three frigates, La Touche nonetheless kept up a regular patrol off the port to discourage British reconnaissance, which was frequent, as Nelson was eagerly waiting for the French to sortie so he could catch La Touche at sea and engage. It would never happen, at least under La Touche, who would die in just a few months of a fever. Another Admiral would take his place, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve.
At this time, Admiral Nelson had chosen the excellent anchorage off the Maddalena Islands, Sardinia, as his principle operating base to keep an eye on the French. That small island was at the eastern end of the Bonifacio Strait, the narrow waters between Corsica to the north and Sardinia to the south. Nelson would, indeed, send small groups of two or three ships to Toulon to keep an eye on the French, and on one occasion, La Touche sortied with four ships of the line and three frigates to drive off a squadron of three British ships. He then boasted in a letter that he had driven off the entire British fleet, putting Nelson to flight, which rankled the British Admiral.
“I’ll make him eat that letter if I catch him at sea,” warned Nelson. “I’ll put the damn thing right down his gullet. He dared venture out with seven ships before returning to port. If he carries on with this game, I will soon put salt on his tail, and my ships will make his look like a plum pudding!”
“Indeed, sir,” said the Captain. “On the matter of letters, the secretary has prepared the drafts from your dictation last evening. If you’d care to review them, I have them at hand.”
“There was the matter of the Cameleon, and I should look that one over,” said Nelson. “Good of Captain Raynsford on the Morgiana to clue us in on what’s been going on in the Adriatic. I sent her up with the Fish Ships some months ago, and Raynsford’s report was quite enlightening. I have therefore ordered Captain Thomas Staines and Cameleon to get up there and deal with those French Privateers.”