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high level bombers.
    The initial CAP of eighteen aircraft was vectored onto the torpedo planes. The Italians had obviously been learning from the previous results of unescorted raids, and they split up into flights of three aircraft, making it much more difficult for the Goshawks to engage them all. As it was, the defending fighters managed to intercept some six of the ten groups before they closed the fleet, and succeeded in shooting down twelve of the torpedo planes. The other four flights were too close in to the ships close range AA defences to engage. The carriers were obviously the priority target, and six planes headed for the Implacable while another six went straight for the Courageous. One fighter was lost during the interceptions, flying into the sea as it tried too radical a manoeuvre to get on the tail of one of the torpedo planes.
    The planes attacking the Implacable were met with the same heavy close in AA defence that had deterred the planes attacking the Ark Royal the previous day. Three of them were shot down on their way in, and one more was damaged severely enough that she dropped her torpedo well out of range and limped away. However four torpedoes were dropped at the carrier. Fortunately for her, the attack was not terribly well coordinated, and her Captain threaded through the torpedo tracks expertly.
    The Courageous was not so fortunate. While she had a guard destroyer like the other carriers, her own AA defence was far weaker than the modern fleet carriers - the Implacable and her escort could bring 42 40mm guns to bear, she and her escort could only manage 26. The difference was enough to make the incoming planes task much less dangerous. One plane was still shot down, and another was actually on fire when it launched its torpedoes (which as a result went nowhere near anyone). But eight torpedoes were on their way towards the old carrier. Despite the best efforts of her Captain to doge them all, three plumes of water towered over her flight deck , the ship slewing (and nearly running down her escorting destroyer) before slowing to a halt, already listing.
    Meanwhile the huge high level attack had been boring in. Twenty Goshawks from the ready flights had been pushing their engines at full power to get up to intercept them, and the six planes launched late from Implacable were also heading for them. Only the ready flights managed to get among the bombers before they reached the fleets HA air defence zone. The bombers showed great discipline, staying close for mutual supporting fire. As a result the fighters only managed to shoot down twelve of them, and the bombers shot down three of the Goshawks in reply (two more were heavily damaged and had to break off attacks). The remaining 48 bombers kept on going, right into the massive black shellbursts of the ships HA fire.
    It was obvious that the Italian bombers meant business this time; even though the heavy fire shot down four of them, the rest kept in formation as they swept over the fleet at around 10,000 feet. Even so, it was not easy to get hits at that altitude on radically manoeuvring ships, as the Captains threw cruisers and aircraft carriers around as if they were driving a speedboat, not 10,000 tons or more of warship. The destroyer HMS Jervis was the first to be hit. Two 500lb bombs turned the destroyer into a wreck almost immediately, one blowing off her bows while the other destroyed her engine room. Without power, and already sinking by the bow, her Captain had no alternative other than to order abandon ship.
    Next to suffer was the cruiser HMS Liverpool. The first 500lb bomb hit her amidships, destroying her seaplane and hangar, and causing an aviation fuel fire. The second hit her aft, the explosion (and the splinters) knocking out her aft engine room and causing severe flooding. The final bomb to hit her landed on her B turret, destroying it and also knocking out A turret and killing many of the bridge crew. The ship, temporarily out of