Second Battle of Sirte

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Second Battle of Sirte
Part of World War II

Italian battleship Littorio, Admiral Iachino flag ship
Date 22 March 1942
Location Mediterranean, Gulf of Sirte
Result Italian victory
Combatants
United Kingdom Italy
Commanders
Philip Vian Angelo Iachino
Strength
4 light cruisers
1 anti-aircraft cruiser
18 destroyers		 1 battleship
2 heavy cruisers
1 light cruiser
8 destroyers
Casualties
3 light cruisers damaged
6 destroyers damaged
4 merchant ships sunk		 None
Mediterranean Campaign
Mers-el-Kebir – Calabria – Spada – Taranto – Spartivento – Matapan – Tarigo – Crete – Duisburg – Bon – 1st Sirte – 2nd Sirte – Harpoon – Vigorous–Pedestal – Torch – Skerki – Sicily

The Second Battle of Sirte was a naval battle between the Royal Navy and the Regia Marina during the Second World War. It took place on 22 March 1942, in the Mediterranean, north of the Gulf of Sirte, west of Malta.

The naval action was only a marginal Italian victory as the Italian units couldn’t exploit their gunnery advantage and were unable to sink or cripple a single cargo ship in the convoy. Nevertheless, they inflicted some damaged to the escorting warships which degraded their combat readiness, without any casualties of their own.[1] They also disrupted the British plans to reach Malta before dawn with a substantial escort, in order to outmaneuver the axis air supremacy by unloading their cargoes at dark.[2]

In consequence, Italian and German aircraft dive-bombing the British formation over the subsequent two days managed to destroy most of the convoy before the ships could deliver the supplies.

Contents

[edit] Background

By 1942, the tempo of action in the Mediterranean had increased, as the Italian and German air forces attempted to block the Royal Navy from supplying Allied ground forces in North Africa. Malta had long been a major factor in the Royal Navy's success against similar missions by the Italians and had been receiving an increasing amount of Axis attention by the early spring. As Malta was running short of aircraft, fuel, and ammunition, convoy MW10 set out on March 21st from Alexandria to re-supply the island.

The British expected opposition from German and Italian aircraft as well as Italian surface units. However, the British deemed the Italian surface threat less serious than that from the air because a string of British naval victories in the Mediterranean in 1941 had made the Regia Marina fairly "gun shy." Thus, only three light cruisers were thought sufficient to deal with the Italian surface threat, while the escort relied heavily on destroyers to provide anti-submarine coverage and included the anti-aircraft cruiser Carlisle to bolster the convoy's anti-aircraft capability. Additional destroyers and another light cruiser were also sent for from Malta. On the off-chance Italian surface units attacked, the British plan was to divide the convoy, the light cruisers and half the destroyers would hang back to lay smoke and delay the Italians while the Carlisle and the remaining destroyers would proceed with the cargo ships to Malta.

[edit] The battle

Italian cruiser Giovanni dalle Bande Nere.
Italian cruiser Giovanni dalle Bande Nere.

At 2:30PM the next day, the convoy's lookouts spotted smoke on the horizon. The British were surprised to learn they were facing not the expected small high-speed force, but rather a pair of heavy cruisers and escorting destroyers. Nonetheless, they immediately implemented their plan: the cargo ships and escorts turned away for Malta while the light cruisers and remaining destroyers laid smoke and charged the Italians. After an exchange of fire, the two Italian heavy cruisers backed off, but soon returned with the battleship Littorio and her screening destroyers.

The battle raged for two and a half hours, with the British ships exiting their huge smoke screen to fire a few volleys, returning when the Italian fire got too close. At 6:30PM the British decided to force the issue and sent their destroyers in to launch torpedo attacks from about six miles, the closest the Italians would allow the British to approach. None of the torpedoes hit their targets, but Havock and Kingston were both hit by 15" shells from the Littorio. Also Lively was struck by shrapnel from the battleship main guns, which penetrated a bulkhead, producing some floodings but no casualties. Meanwhile Littorio had been hit with negligible damage, while another cruiser was on fire from the burst of her own guns but not damaged.

As darkness fell, the Italians gave up and turned for home at about 7:00PM. Not equipped with radar, they would have been at a significant disadvantage in a night action. Though the Italians outgunned their British counterparts and could have easily charged the convoy with either of their two groups, they appeared unwilling to close for a decisive blow, perhaps for fear of torpedoes from the numerically superior British destroyer force.

HMS Cleopatra
HMS Cleopatra

According to British reports, Cleopatra had one of her turrets destroyed by Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, with the loss of 16 seamen. Cruisers Euryalus and Penelope were also damaged. A direct hit on Havock killed 12 sailors and left the ship dead in the water for a time, although it was later able to get underway. Kingston was also badly damaged amidships, suffering at least 13 fatalities. Lively was forced to retreat to Tobruk for repairs. Four more destroyers, Sikh, Legion and Lance, suffered lesser damage from 8" cruiser fire.[3]

[edit] Follow-up actions

Most of the escort force, now short of fuel and ammunition due to the protracted engagement, turned back for Alexandria. The damaged destroyers and convoy were sent on to Malta, with Carlisle, Penelope and Legion. The next day they were subjected to continuous air attacks. Cargo ship Clan Campbell was sunk twenty miles from harbour, oil tanker Breconshire was damaged and anchored outside, steamer Pampas was hit by two bombs that failed to explode, while only Talabot reached Grand Harbour intact. Breconshire was later towed to a protected bay.[4]

The next day German dive bombers appeared, hitting all three of the remaining ships. Breconshire rolled over in the bay, but much of her oil was salvaged through the hole in her hull. Talabot and Pampas were both sunk in the harbour. By this point only about 5,000 tons of cargo had been unloaded, of the 26,000 tons that had been loaded in Alexandria. The slow pace of unloading prior to the bombing, led to a great scandal between the military and civil dockyard authorities of the island, and a much better effort for the next convoy.[citation needed]

The Italians were no more lucky after the battle. After failing to destroy the convoy, they were caught en-route to their bases by a severe storm that sank destroyers Scirocco and Lanciere.

[edit] Order of battle

[edit] Regia Marina

[edit] Royal Navy

  • Carlisle squad:
    • 1 cruiser: Carlisle;
    • 5th Destroyer Flotilla (Hunt class):
      • Southwold (sunk by a mine on March 23);
      • Beaufort;
      • Dulverton;
      • Hurworth;
      • Avon Vale;
      • Eridge.
    • 4 cargo ships;


  • 15th Cruiser Squadron (Admiral Vian squad):
    • 22nd Destroyer Flotilla:
      • Hasty;
      • Havock (heavily damaged);
      • Hero;
      • Lance (damaged)
      • Lively (seriously damaged);
      • Sikh (slightly damaged);
      • Zulu (damaged).


  • Support squad from Malta:

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Cunningham, page 454:
    • Nor must the mistake be made of thinking the Italians were inefficient in this action. Our destroyers...were received by heavy and accurate fire, and was only by the mercy of Providence that many were not sunk and still more severely damage.
  2. ^ Bragadin, page 166:
    • The four British supply ships with their precious cargo for Malta did not suffer any direct damage from the Italians in the battle itself, but the fight indirectly brought important results. The convoy was scheduled to arrive at Malta during the night, and was to begin unloading before the (expected) air raids began, but the naval battle made it at least four hours late in arriving, and this delay proved fatal. When the axis aircraft began its air raids next morning, the convoy was still considerably south of Malta.
  3. ^ Woodman, pp. 301-305. Information about Havock casualties retrieved from this Index of Malta-related casualties
  4. ^ Green & Massignani, pp. 220-221

[edit] Sources

  • Bragadin, Marc'Antonio: The Italian Navy in World War II, United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, 1957.
  • Green, Jack & Massignani, Alessandro: The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1940-1943, Chatam Publishing, London, 1998.
  • Woodman, Richard: Malta Convoys, 1940-1943, Jack Murray Ltd., London, 2000.
  • Thomas, David A.: Malta Convoys, Leo Cooper Ed., South Yorkshire, 1999.
  • Cunningham, Andrew: A Sailor's Life, New York, 1955.

[edit] References and external links

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