Ahoy mates! Time to put your thinking beanies on.

When it come to the naval war in World War II, we know that the Pacific Front gets the lion share of the attention. What I would like to know is what do you consider the most important, decisive or influential naval battle in the ETO, whether it be Atlantic or Med.

Remember to tell us why you chose that battle.

Sound off mates!

Here are just a few:
1939
December 13 River Plate
1940
May 10 and 13 May First and Second Battles of Narvik
July 3 Mers-el-Kebir - British fleet attacks French fleet in harbour in Algeria
July 9 Calabria (Punta Stilo) - British fleet attacks Italian fleet
July 19 Cape Spada - HMAS Sydney sinks Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni off Crete
September 23-35 Dakar - Vichy French fight off a British/Free French landing at Dakar
November 1 Taranto - British air attack on Italians anchored at Taranto, inspiring the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
November 27 Cape Spartivento (Cape Teulada) - British fight back an Italian interception
1941
March 28 Cape Matapan - British fleet defeats Italian fleet notably in night action
April 16 - British ships attack Italian convoy Duisburg. Lampo, Tarigo and Baleno are sunk, as well as HMS Mohawk
May 24 - Battle of the Denmark Strait - Bismarck and Prinz Eugen sink HMS Hood
May 24- May 27 - Hunt for the German battleship Bismarck ends in her sinking
December 13 Cape Bon - British destroyers sink Italian cruisers
December 17 First Sirte - Indecisive British-Italian fight off Libya
1942
March 22 Second Sirte - Regia Marina obstacles a British convoy to Malta
1942-44 German U-Boats campaign in Gulf of St. Lawrence
December 31 Barents Sea - British convoy escorts fight off German surface attack
1943
October 23 - German light force defeats similar British force
December 26 North Cape - British ships sink Scharnhorst off northern Norway
December 28 Operation Stonewall - British cruisers sink three German destroyers in the Bay of Biscay

Gator,
First, I have to agree the Naval war in the ETO is way too much ignored. As for my vote, I have to go with Taranto. The British were one of the first to properly use Naval Airpower, which then showed others how to do it. Plus utilizing "Stringbags" to accomplish this was shear brass.

That's my vote anyway, how about it, crew ? Semper Fi .....................Bruce

I would say the battle for Malta and by supplying that island with aircraft from carriers both American and British was a very important part of that. If Malta had fallen then Rommel might not have been driven out of North Africa as soon as we did.
Later, Kelly

I've been able to narrow it down to three.
In no particular order.
Battle of the Barents Sea. If the German ships hadn't been fought off the convoy would have been decimated (the same could be said about Bismark's breakout into the Atlantic if she hadn't been intercepted. However she was so who can say how much damage would have been done).
Operation Pedestal. The decisive Malta convoy.
and for the third I'll go along with Bruce. Taranto. Not only did it show what carrier air power could do it also damaged the Italian navy severly.
Tom

I've always wondered how the "Heid Honcho" at Taranto explained to his boss just what exactly had decimated the entire "Pride of the Italian Navy" the night before.

Boy is this ever a hard one. Quite a few can be very good answers. If I had to narrow it down to just one I'd have to go with the battle to relieve Malta. It's hard to say what would have happened if Malta had fallen.

I would have to give honorable mention to two others though.

Taranto is important because not only for what it accomplished, but to show others what could be accomplish.

The other is the British action against the French fleet. This was important ant because of the bad feeling it started with the French. So many decisions later on in the war were directly related to that ill feeling.

Great question.

It may be kind of dull, but I think that the most important, decisive or influential naval battle was really the long tough and repeated convoys to England and Russia. All action outside the western hemisphere, beyond the unsupported range of ships and planes, logistically relied on the merchant marine and their escorts.

Good question Gator,

For me its two of which both involved the merchant marine in their slow convoys.

The resupply of Malta and the Battle of the Atlantic (1940 - 1945) whose convoys kept Malta and Britain in the war, if either had failed who can say what the out come would have been.

It was only in 1943 when the Allies introduced the sub-hunter groups that the tied started to turn, with escort carriers, sloops, DE's and the like.

Ciao
Luciano