Thread by @garius

The last time a Royal Navy ship fired a full broadside, and a triumph based in part on the work of Dilly Knox and his entirely female team of codebreakers at Bletchley.

And Cunningham admitted that (unlike Monty). Even visited Bletchley to thank them.

https://twitter.com/OnthisdayRN/status/1243789941651451904

Also indirectly led, decades later, to the public admission of Bletchley's existence. Thanks to a randy Italian admiral, accusations of spying and an in-court decryption of the original fleet order by the late, great Mavis Batey (one of Dilly's team).

Must write that up one day

Both Cunningham and Monty wrote autobiographies BEFORE Ultra/Bletchley's existence was public, btw. They're both fascinating to read knowing what we know, now.

Cunningham makes lots of little clues and comments suggesting he had 'help'. Monty doesn't.

Donitz' autobiography is also a great read, if you can find a pre-Ultra edition. Spends most of it guessing at why his U Boats kept being found.

You want to beat him over the head with it and shout:

THEY BROKE YOUR CODES YOU IDIOT

Highlights his mental block over that so well.

Oh soz: final mental wandering about Matapan.

The young officer who turns on the spots just before they FIRE the last great broadside in naval history (right into an unsuspecting Italian cruiser they've crept up on in the night) was a certain young, Greek prince called Philip...

NO WAIT one more Matapan fact. I forgot. And it's great.

So BEFORE the battle, Cunningham is in Alexandria with the Med fleet. But he now knows the Italians are at sea thanks to Ultra, and wants to smash them.

Trouble is if the Italians get wind he's sailing, they'll go to port

And Alexandria is a MASSIVE HOTBED of spies. Not least of all the Japanese ambassador.

So Cunningham hits on a plan: lean into the British stereotype and play stupid.

Now this isn't the first time Cunningham has done this. He'd been a destroyer commander, stationed in Latvia in 1919 during the chaotic aftermath of WW1.

During that time, local people would occasionally seek refuge on his ship during chaos.

The local militias didn't like this, so started building a barricade alongside where his ship was birthed. Cunningham pretended not to notice what it was for - to control who boarded.

They spend AGES fortifying this barricade. Fighting starts, they prepare to stop people escaping onto his destroyer with smug glee.

Cunningham calmly orders his crew to up anchor and moves to the next berth along.

"The nice thing about ships is they move" he later says
😂

ANYWAY. MATAPAN. STEREOTYPES.

So THIS time Cunningham knows that the Japanese ambassador and Italians think the Brits are lazy/stuffy (remember, he's effectively reading their mail).

So he tells the fleet to quietly prepare to sail, then makes a VERY PUBLIC song and dance about how he is spending the weekend socialising, then dons his white dress uniform and goes ashore very publicly.

He even invites the Japanese ambassador to join him for golf that weekend.

Japanese ambassador duly reports this, as do other spies, and the Italians feel assured that they're safe at sea.

Then, moment night falls, Cunningham quietly sneaks back onboard Warspite and the whole fleet sails.

Bosh. Battle of Matapan. Mediterranean secured.

Basically, I think there is a reasonable argument that there were only two, great British Admirals in the 20th century - i.e. Nelson-level brilliance and Cunningham is one of them. Certainly the only 'fighting' one.

(The other being Ramsey, obviously)

GOD WAIT NO ONE MORE SORRY.

Remember it was Dilly Knox and his team that broke the Italian codes?

Well back in WW1, there was this little thing the British intercepted called the Zimmerman Telegram that dragged the USA into the war.

Guess who the chap was who decoded it... 😁

Poor old Dilly, another largely forgotten hero from WW1 AND Bletchley. Fought hard to be allowed to have female codebreakers (not just transcriptionists) because he believed brains, not sexism, mattered.

Died of cancer before WW2's end. Absolute TITAN of codebreaking history.

BTW, if you don't know, Cunningham is also the Admiral who refuses to abandon the evacuation of Crete at the beginning of the war.

"It takes the Navy three years to build a new ship. It will take 300 years to build a new tradition"

That guy.

That's Admiral Cunningham #badass