In late March of 1941 a cryptanalyst at Bletchley Park (an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War) named Mavis Batey had made serious strides breaking the Italian military codes and had finnally broken the Italian naval Enigma. “Today’s the day minus three,” was the first code Batey read followed by a second message about the sailing of a major Italian squardron.
Admiral Cunningham received the news in Alexandria and left his golf club stealthily after midnight to board his flagship HMS Warspite. The Admiral had even told a number of others about a party that would take place on his boat the following night, which would of course never happen.
To make matters worse for the Italians, they had been given faulty information by the Germans on the Royal Navy’s lack of strength in the Meditteranean, which was simply not the case. The Royal Navy had a substantial fleet.
Italy’s ruler Benito Mussolini had famously called the Meditteranean “Mare Nostrum” (Our Sea). The Royal Navy would soon correct that thinking.
The Italian fleet was commanded by Admiral Angelo Iachino and his orders were to sink any Allied convoys or escort ships and he had been upset by how hard it was for him to access air support in this endeavor north of Crete. Anytime he needed either the Luftwaffe(German Air Force) or the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force) the request would need to be made through central Italian naval command. A long and tedious process that made no sense during a battle where every minute counted. Plus, the Regia Aeronautica had a poor on-time performance record, they had a tendency to arrive at the end of the battle and attack the wrong ships.
