Did the scuttling of the "Umbria" on 10 June 1940 affect Italian air operations on AOI?

[Sid Guttridge]

I see that the British forced the scuttling of the Italian merchant ship Umbria off Port Sudan on 10 June 1940. She appears to have been carrying a large number of bombs to Massawa in AOI. One English-language source says 6,000 tons of them!
Was Umbria really carrying that many bombs?
If so, did her loss significantly restrict the R. A. bombing campaign in AOI over 1941-42?
Many thanks,
Sid.

 

[jbroshot]

A brief perusal of Christopher Shores' DUST CLOUDS IN THE MIDDLE EAST THE AIR WAR FOR EAST AFRICA, IRAQ. SYRIA, IRAN AND MADAGASCAR, 1940-1942, Section I, "East Africa with Corrado Ricci" (1996), turns up no mention of the scuttling of Umbria

Only mention of bomb shortage of any kind that I could find so far is in this paragraph:

"The operational directive for bomber units under General Pinna's immediate command on the outbreak of hostilities was to attack the most important British bases - ports and airfields - within range. Bombs of over 100kg were in short supply. [my emphasis] and aircraft were therefore normally to carry 50kg or 100kg bombs. Only against important concentrations of targets, especially ships in harbour, were 250kg bombs to be employed: because of the difficulty of hitting ships under way was well known to the Italians, only 50kg bombs were to be used against these, the greater number carried giving a better chance of a hit of some sort being obtained." At page 10.

 

[Sid Guttridge]

A brief perusal of Christopher Shores' DUST CLOUDS IN THE MIDDLE EAST THE AIR WAR FOR EAST AFRICA, IRAQ. SYRIA, IRAN AND MADAGASCAR, 1940-1942, Section I, "East Africa with Corrado Ricci" (1996), turns up no mention of the scuttling of Umbria

Only mention of bomb shortage of any kind that I could find so far is in this paragraph:

"The operational directive for bomber units under General Pinna's immediate command on the outbreak of hostilities was to attack the most important British bases - ports and airfields - within range. Bombs of over 100kg were in short supply. [my emphasis] and aircraft were therefore normally to carry 50kg or 100kg bombs. Only against important concentrations of targets, especially ships in harbour, were 250kg bombs to be employed: because of the difficulty of hitting ships under way was well known to the Italians, only 50kg bombs were to be used against these, the greater number carried giving a better chance of a hit of some sort being obtained." At page 10.

Thanks. By sheer coincidence I managed to get a copy of

 

[Sid Guttridge]

Thanks. By sheer coincidence I managed to get a copy of "Dust Clouds....." about three days ago but hadn't got around to reading it yet.

Normally Shores has an Italian co-author on his Mediterranean and Middle East books but not on this one, so it may not be as comprehensive on "the other side of the hill" as the others.

The passage you found about a shortage of heavier bombs may play into the Umbria story. It may be that the Umbria's cargo was a belated and unsuccessful effort to rectify this before the declaration of war.

It would be interesting to see a list of the Umbria's cargo.

Many thanks,

Sid