French mop up? With their ships? France goes after Italy, so those are usually dead and they are def. blocked from the correct square, I’m not sure how France can help
There are two ways to Taranto. Neither of them are “required”, but if you don’t do it, you’ll be facing Italy Rampaunt rather than Italy Nerfed.
Way #1 Bring it all. (sub) dd ca cv tb fighter fighter strat. He has 1 TT left after you are done with him, and the chances of success are high. If he doesn’t add a german scrambler, then chances are awesome. If you trade uk air for the Italian air, that’s still probably a plus because the Italians cant really replace their starting airforce.
Way #2 Taranto Lite (sub) dd ca tb fighter fighter strat. This way lets you build a new fleet in the red sea of 1 CV 1 CA 2 TT and 1 BB if you don’t get J1d. However, against 5 units (with 6 hits), its not enough and you can blow the attack.
Way #3. Don’t do either. You are much safer from Sea Lion because you kept your planes, but Italy has choices. With a nice sized fleet, Italy can 1) take da oil 2) double sea lion you 3) block Gibraltar with everything its got to delay the American cross.
If you’d played the game with Italy Rampaunt (Italy without the diminishment of Taranto), you’d probably come to the conclusion that you’d rather deal with Italy on the basis of Way #1 than Way #3. If you keep getting sea lioned and turtled, then your Taranto may be too predictable. And unless you Taranto Lite, you lose pretty much all the good UK stuff that is in that area, and it is not replaceable.