After the horrors of the Great War, an uneasy peace prevailed. Britannia ruled the waves - but for how long? The mid 1930's saw Germany rebuilding her fleets, defying the Versailles Treaty as Hitler planned to encircle Britain with his Kriegsmarine. Within hours of war's declaration, a U-boat had claimed its first victim in an underwater reign of terror that struck merchantmen and warship alike. By April 1940, Germany had sunk one million tons Of Allied shipping. The entrance of Mussolini's Italy shifted the balance of power in the Mediterranean. However the course of Naval warfarewas changed in 1941 when torpedo bombers from HMS illustrious decimated the Italian fleet at anchor in Taranto, crippling three of their battleships in the first Allied victory since the fall Of France.
