British strategy: Capitalized the first letter of the word "italy".
Okumaya devam et...
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| ===British strategy=== | ===British strategy=== |
| On 4 April, the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]] pressed Admiral [[Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope|Andrew Cunningham]], the commander of the [[Mediterranean Fleet]] to bombard [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]], the principal {{lang|fr|[[entrepôt]]}} of [[Italian Libya]] but Cunningham thought that a bombardment would not inflict serious damage and would expose the ships involved to air attacks from bases in Tripoli and Sicily which was too risky to contemplate. Another scheme was to use the obsolete battleship {{HMS|Centurion|1911|6}} as a block ship but Cunningham doubted that it could be sailed from Britain through the narrows between Sicily and Tunisia then survive the {{cvt|180|nmi|mi+km}} from Malta to Tripoli undetected. Churchill sent a directive on 14 April that the main task of the Mediterranean Fleet was to cut the Axis supply link from italy to Libya regardless of losses. Tripoli was to be bombarded and mined and an operational battleship was to be considered for use as a block ship if the ''Centurion'' proposal fell through. The Admiralty let Cunningham know that the battleship {{HMS|Barham|04|6}} and the cruiser {{HMS|Caledon|D53|2}} were to be used to bombard the port as they approached then be sunk to block the port. Cunningham was reluctant to throw away a third of his battleship force on an enterprise he considered futile and even with skeleton crews about 1,000 men would be lost; Cunningham signalled that he would rather use the fleet to bombard the port instead.{{sfn|Smith|Walker|1974|pp=27–28}} | On 4 April, the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]] pressed Admiral [[Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope|Andrew Cunningham]], the commander of the [[Mediterranean Fleet]] to bombard [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]], the principal {{lang|fr|[[entrepôt]]}} of [[Italian Libya]] but Cunningham thought that a bombardment would not inflict serious damage and would expose the ships involved to air attacks from bases in Tripoli and Sicily which was too risky to contemplate. Another scheme was to use the obsolete battleship {{HMS|Centurion|1911|6}} as a block ship but Cunningham doubted that it could be sailed from Britain through the narrows between Sicily and Tunisia then survive the {{cvt|180|nmi|mi+km}} from Malta to Tripoli undetected. Churchill sent a directive on 14 April that the main task of the Mediterranean Fleet was to cut the Axis supply link from Italy to Libya regardless of losses. Tripoli was to be bombarded and mined and an operational battleship was to be considered for use as a block ship if the ''Centurion'' proposal fell through. The Admiralty let Cunningham know that the battleship {{HMS|Barham|04|6}} and the cruiser {{HMS|Caledon|D53|2}} were to be used to bombard the port as they approached then be sunk to block the port. Cunningham was reluctant to throw away a third of his battleship force on an enterprise he considered futile and even with skeleton crews about 1,000 men would be lost; Cunningham signalled that he would rather use the fleet to bombard the port instead.{{sfn|Smith|Walker|1974|pp=27–28}} |
| ===Italian convoys=== | ===Italian convoys=== |
Okumaya devam et...