Taranto
City in ItalyWikipedia
71
MENTIONS
34
EPISODES
31
PODCASTS
Search complete. 71 mentions across 34 episodes found for "Taranto".
Sep 25, 2026
AndyHOST
Uh, uh, I think it's 'cause the...
AndyHOST
Was it the Battle of Taranto? Is that how you say it? Where he gets rid of the fleet.
AndyHOST
I think they didn't wanna-
JamesHOST
Yeah
AndyHOST
... reflect that, so I just get a fleet and he doesn't.
JamesHOST
Yeah.
JamesHOST
The Italians were crippled for like a minimum half a year because of it, and I mean, historically, what's funny is immediately after Taranto, the Italians did strike back, and they actually did some damage to the British.
JamesHOST
But after that, they were lame duck for most of the Mediterranean theater.
James HollandHOST
And it's all gone quite well to start off with.
James HollandHOST
A- and the British have also come through Taranto as well and built up, um, 8th Army.
James HollandHOST
The US 5th Army, which also contains some British troops as well, has gone up the, the western side of Italy.
James HollandHOST
Basically, there's four roads going up through the n- up, up, up the leg of Italy.
12 MINS LATER
James HollandHOST
... 25, 26, 27, 28.
James HollandHOST
28th is the Maoris, just purely Maori, um, volunteers to a man.
James HollandHOST
Um, but the 24th, they've landed at Taranto on the 5th of October.
James HollandHOST
They've undergone some training, played a lot of rugby, um, and then slowly worked their way northwards.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Only those who do not know the past can turn away from the present with scorn or despair.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
In this century a nation has arisen which in spite of all its troubles is alive with ambition, industry, movement, which has ten thousand miles of railway, which has conquered the malaria at Rome, which has doubled its population and halved its death rate, which sends out great battleships from Venice and Spezia, Castellamare and Taranto.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
This nation is Cavour's memorial.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.
Greg JacksonHOST
That gets us back to where we left off at the end of episode 201.
Greg JacksonHOST
It also gives us the background and context needed to continue following the Allies' imminent invasion of mainland Italy via two more operations, the British-executed and alba unopposed seizure of the southern Italian port of Taranto, and an American-led, heavily opposed, more northern amphibious landing, Operation Avalanche.
Greg JacksonHOST
Given its American flavor and far more significant action, we'll follow the latter.
Greg JacksonHOST
Thrown together in haste as the Allies secured Sicily in August, Operation Avalanche will land troops significantly farther north up Italy's western coast than where the Brits and Canucks have already planted the flag.
Jonathan NorthGUEST
And I want my troops to be in your ports so that the British don't have a way of getting in.
Jonathan NorthGUEST
So French troops come south and they occupy places like Toronto and around the coast.
Jonathan NorthGUEST
And that's all fair and good.
Jonathan NorthGUEST
But in 1805, you just can't trust the Bourbons.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
The young king was now installed in the royal palace of Palermo, and his private education commenced.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
The Archbishop of Taranto and the notary John of Trajetto were entrusted with the general supervision of his studies.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Strangely enough, Mussulman scholars were appointed to instruct him in various branches of learning.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
They were undoubtedly the most learned men of the day, but it is some cause for wonder that the education of the Pope's ward should have been entrusted during his tender years to the care of infidels.
7 HRS 15 MINS LATER
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
On December the 13th, 1250, Frederick, the greatest of earthly princes, the wonder of the world, and the regulator of its proceedings, departed this life.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
By his own wish, or in kindly response to the entreaties of his old friend, he had received absolution from the archbishop of Palermo before his death.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
His body, arrayed in the imperial robes and covered with a pall of crimson silk, guarded by an escort of Saracens and six troops of knights, was borne through wailing villages and towns to the port of Taranto.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
From there it was brought to Messina, and thence to Palermo, where it was laid near to the graves of his imperial father, his mother, and his first wife.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
The young king was now installed in the royal palace of Palermo and his private education commenced.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
The Archbishop of Taranto and the notary John of Trajetto were entrusted with the general supervision of his studies.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Strangely enough, Muslim scholars were appointed to instruct him in various branches of learning.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
They were undoubtedly the most learned men of the day, but it is some cause for wonder that the education of the Pope's ward should have been entrusted during his tender years to the care of infidels.
7 HRS 21 MINS LATER
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
On December the 13th, 1250, Frederick, the greatest of earthly princes, the wonder of the world, and the regulator of its proceedings, departed this life.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
By his own wish or in kindly response to the entreaties of his old friend, he had received absolution from the Archbishop of Palermo before his death.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
His body, arrayed in the imperial robes and covered with a pall of crimson silk, guarded by an escort of Saracens and six troops of knights, was borne through wailing villages and towns to the port of Taranto.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
From there it was brought to Messina and thence to Palermo, where it was laid near to the graves of his imperial father, his mother, and his first wife.
Tail DraggerHOST
And yet the pilots climbing into those cockpits are about to do something that nobody in the history of warfare has done before.
Tail DraggerHOST
They are going to launch from that carrier in the dark, fly 200 miles over the Mediterranean, and attack the entire Italian battle fleet where it sits in the harbor at Toronto.
Tail DraggerHOST
I'm Tail Dragger.
Tail DraggerHOST
This is The Hanger on Radio Hanger.
Tail DraggerHOST
But in the autumn of 1940, the swordfish was what they had.
Tail DraggerHOST
And what they had was about to be enough.
Tail DraggerHOST
Now, let me tell you about Taranto, because before you understand what happened there, you need to understand why the Italian fleet was such a problem.
Tail DraggerHOST
In the autumn of 1940, Mussolini's Italy had been in the war since June.
Peter George FlynnHOST
Does that sound familiar? But let's look at his father first of all.
Peter George FlynnHOST
a man named Felix Dessa who lived in the small village of Cupertino in the very south of Italy between the cities of Taranto and Otranto.
Peter George FlynnHOST
Felix de Sa was a carpenter but unlike Saint Joseph of Cupertino's namesake Saint Joseph the Carpenter Felix was not a great steward of his household.
Peter George FlynnHOST
Not because he was a bad man, but because he was a man of superlative and even slightly imprudent generosity.
Simon WhistlerHOST
That dubious honor belongs to Operation Colossus, launched on February 10, 1941.
Simon WhistlerHOST
This mission called for 38 Powerers under the command of Major Trevor Pritchett, to jump near Caltrini in southern Italy and destroy the Tregino aqueduct, which supplied fresh water to a large region, including the naval base at Taranto.
Simon WhistlerHOST
After completing their objective, the paras would then withdraw to the coast, where they would be exfiltrated by the Royal Navy submarine HMS Triumph, but right from the start everything went wrong due to navigational errors and icing of the aircraft's drop mechanisms a large number of powers including the six royal engineers tasked with blowing up the aqueduct were dropped three kilometers from the target while the parachute containers holding most of the team's explosives never arrived nonetheless the remaining powers made their way to the target and succeeded in destroying one of the aqueduct's peers however in their attempt to reach the exfiltration point all 38 were captured by the italian army and spent the rest of the war as pows still this was a far better fate than that suffered by their civilian interpreter fortunato peachy who was tortured and executed as a traitor to italy worse still the damage the aqueduct was repaired before taranto and the surrounding area experienced any serious water shortages rendering the mission a complete failure Nonetheless, Operation Colossus was a propaganda and morale victory for the British, proving that their armed forces could still take the fight to the enemy and demonstrating, in theory, if not in practice, the potential of airborne forces.
Simon WhistlerHOST
Operation Biting would give the Paris a second chance to prove their mettle.
24 more episodes mention Taranto.
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