On the afternoon of 22 March 1942, in a rising gale in the central Mediterranean, a British force of light cruisers and destroyers under Rear Admiral Philip Vian stood between a four-ship convoy bound for Malta and an Italian squadron led by the battleship Littorio. For several hours Vian's ships dodged in and out of their own smoke screen and threatened torpedo attacks, until at dusk Admiral Angelo Iachino turned for home. The convoy was saved at sea, but German and Italian bombers destroyed most of its cargo in the days that followed.
A convoy for a starving island
By early 1942 Malta, the British base between Sicily and Libya, was besieged and blockaded by Axis air and naval forces, and the despatch describes the convoy's cargo as most urgently required. Convoy MW 10, the supply ship Breconshire and the merchant ships Clan Campbell, Pampas and Talabot, left Alexandria on 20 March according to the despatch later published in the London Gazette, escorted by the anti-aircraft cruiser Carlisle and destroyers. Vian's 15th Cruiser Squadron, with Cleopatra, Dido and Euryalus, followed, and the cruiser Penelope and the destroyer Legion came out from Malta to meet them on the morning of the 22nd.1
The Italians knew the convoy was at sea. A British submarine off Taranto reported heavy ships leaving harbor in the early hours of 22 March. Iachino had the Littorio, the heavy cruisers Gorizia and Trento, the light cruiser Giovanni delle Bande Nere and ten destroyers. The Royal Navy's battleships in the eastern Mediterranean had been disabled in December 1941, so Vian had nothing heavier than light cruisers.2
Smoke and torpedoes
Vian had worked out and rehearsed a plan for this moment. If the Italian fleet appeared, the convoy would turn away with its close escort, while his cruisers and destroyers, in separate divisions, laid smoke between the enemy and the merchant ships and threatened torpedo attacks from behind it. The strong south-easterly wind carried the smoke across the Italians' line of approach.3
Euryalus reported smoke to the north at 14.10, and the first exchange of fire began about 14.35 against the Italian cruisers, which drew off after about an hour. At about 16.40 they returned with the Littorio. Cleopatra was hit on the bridge at 16.44; the despatch records one officer and 14 men killed, and the historian J. Rickard also gives 15 dead. While Vian searched to the east for ships he could not see, the destroyer Sikh with Havock, Lively and Hero held off the Italian squadron alone for about half an hour, and Havock was badly damaged.4
Around 18.00 Vian ordered a general torpedo attack under cover of the smoke, and the Italians turned away. The British despatch claimed that the battleship had almost certainly been hit by a torpedo, but Italian and later accounts record only one small shell hit on Littorio, with negligible damage. Iachino broke off the action as darkness approached; the despatch records the Italians last seen steering north at 19.00 and notes that no attempt was made to reach the convoy after dark.5
Victory at sea, loss in harbor
The battle had pushed the convoy south and delayed it, so dawn on 23 March found it still at sea and exposed to bombers. Clan Campbell was sunk short of Malta and Breconshire was disabled, while Talabot and Pampas reached Grand Harbour, only to be sunk there by air attack before they could be emptied. According to the despatch, only about 5,000 tons of the 25,900 tons of cargo carried to Malta were landed; J. Rickard and the Regia Marina site give 5,000 of about 26,000 tons. The Italians lost two destroyers, Lanciere and Scirocco, to the storm on the way home.6
The British saw the action as a model of how a weaker force could beat off a stronger one, and Vian was knighted. Admiral Andrew Cunningham, the Mediterranean commander, wrote in his memoir, as quoted by the Naval Historical Society of Australia, that he would always consider Sirte one of the most brilliant naval actions of the war. The Regia Marina site concludes that Axis naval and air forces together still managed to impede the resupply of Malta and keep the island isolated. More great sea fights are gathered in our guide to the greatest naval battles.7
