Today I Found Out's video: The Forgotten European Pearl Harbor That Laid the Blueprint for Pearl Harbor

Air raid sirens blared and curtains of tracer rounds rose into the sky as the ominous drone of aircraft engines grew ever closer. Suddenly, a flight of enemy aircraft swooped low over the sleeping anchorage, unleashing their deadly cargo of torpedoes and bombs onto an unsuspecting fleet. All around, geysers of water and flame erupted into the air, lighting up the harbour in infernal shades of yellow and orange. Anti-aircraft gunners desperately filled the air with a hail of steel and explosives, but still the aircraft kept coming. In little more than an hour, it was all over. When the smoke finally cleared, three mighty battleships - the pride of the fleet - lay at bottom of the harbour. While this scene might sound familiar, it did not take place on December 7, 1941 in Hawaii. The ships were not American but Italian, and the attacking aircraft not Japanese but British. On November 11, 1940, more than a year before America’s Day of Infamy, the Royal Navy launched the first-ever carrier airstrike against an enemy fleet at anchorage, attacking the Italian Navy’s home port of Taranto. The raid forever changed naval warfare, heralding the ascendancy of the aircraft carrier and setting the blueprint for a later, more well-known surprise attack. This is the story of Operation Judgement, Italy’s forgotten Pearl Harbor. Author: Gilles Messier Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Producer: Samuel Avila