Battle of the Cigno Convoy
| Battle of the Cigno Convoy | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Mediterranean Theater of World War II | |||||||
 RM torpedo boat Cassiopea |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 United Kingdom |
 Italy |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Cdr. Basil Jones[1] Lt.Cdr. Lawrence St. George[2] |
Captain Carlo Maccaferri Captain Vittorio Nasta[3] |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 2 destroyers | 2 torpedo boats 1 transport ship |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1 destroyer sunk 1 destroyer damaged 10 dead |
1 torpedo boat sunk 1 torpedo boat disabled 100-120 dead |
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The Battle of the Cigno Convoy was a naval engagement between two British Royal Navy destroyers and two Italian Regia Marina torpedo boats which took place southeast of Marettimo island, on the early hours of 16 April 1943. The Italian units were escorting the transport ship Belluno, of 4,200 long tons (4,300 t).
Contents |
[edit] Background
The battle was part of the daily aerial, naval and submarine campaign mounted by the Allies against Axis forces, in the spring of 1943, in order to achieve a complete naval and air supremacy around North Africa and Sicily. Their aim was to isolate and defeat the bulk of the German Afrika Corps and the Regio Esercito (Italian Royal Army) in Tunis by strangling their supply lines. The struggle was so fiercely contested that the maritime area between Italy and Africa was dubbed the "route of death".[4] By April, Axis merchant ship losses reached an average of 3.3 per day.[5] The huge extension of minefields planted by both sides made surface trips against Axis shipping more unlikely than during the Libyan campaign.[6] The supply route for the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) was also shorter but the Allied air supremacy and the attrition of the war made it almost impossible to assemble large convoys. This along with a shortage of fuel, forced the Italians to use small and fast destroyers or torpedo boats to escort their cargo ships heading to Africa.[7] The convoys were only capable of making 8–10 kn (9.2–12 mph; 15–19 km/h) in practice, due to the loss of the main high-speed cargo ships by 1943.[8]
[edit] The action
One of these small convoys—comprising two Italian Spica-class torpedo boats Cigno and Cassiopea escorting the 4,200 long tons (4,300 t) transport Belluno—sailed from Trapani bound for Tunis on 15 April. A rearguard escorting force composed of the torpedo boats Tifone and Climene was scheduled to depart a couple of hours later from Palermo to reinforce the convoy.[9] At 02:38 on the 16th, the forward escort spotted two British destroyers approaching, HMS Pakenham and Paladin. This was one of the few night engagements in the Mediterranean in which the British failed to take their opponents by surprise, owing to the full moon.[10] The moonlight was decisive to the outcome of the battle. The firepower of Pakenham and Paladin was fairly superior to that of the Italian side. In fact, they were armed with five 4 in (100 mm) guns, compared to the three 3.9 in (99 mm) of the Italians. The armour protection also favoured the Royal Navy ships. The first vessel to suffer the effects of gunfire was Cigno, which was almost immediately knocked out. The Italian unit continued to fire on the British ships until a torpedo sank her at 03:00. Around 100 seamen went down with the ship. Nonetheless, Cassiopea, albeit also struck by several rounds, was able to counter attack by launching a torpedo at Paladin and raking Pakenham with gunfire. The port side of the latter was hit at least four times and the engine room was seriously damaged. Several of her crew were scalded by the explosion of a boiler. Nine men were killed, another died of his wounds two days later.[11] Paladin was also damaged by shell splinters.[12] During the clash, Belluno turned back to the northeast under the protection of the rear escorting force; the British ceased fire and withdrew. The torpedo boat Cassiopea, almost disabled, was assisted by Climene, which towed her back to Trapani and later to Taranto for repairs.[10] After trying to reach Malta with an auxiliary engine, Pakenham broke down off Sicily and then Paladin, unable to take her in tow, scuttled her sister ship with a torpedo at 06:30 at the position 37°26′N 12°30′E / 37.433°N 12.5°E. The transport Belluno reached her destination safely some hours later.[5][13][14][15]
[edit] Notes
- ^ U-boat.net
- ^ Uboat.net
- ^ Roberti, Vero: Con la pelle appesa a un chiodo: la guerra sul mare: 1940-1943. U. Mursia, 1970. Page 240 (Italian)
- ^ Bragadin, page 237
- ^ a b Sadkovich, page 326
- ^ Bragadin, page 247
- ^ Bragadin, pp 244-245
- ^ Sadkovich, page 317
- ^ Roberti, Vero: Con la pelle appesa a un chiodo: la guerra sul mare: 1940-1943. U. Mursia, 1970. Page 241 (Italian)
- ^ a b Andò, Elio & Bagnasco, Emilio: Navi e marinai italiani nella seconda guerra mondiale. Albertelli, 1977, page 273. (Italian)
- ^ www.naval-history.net
- ^ Rivista Maritima, November 2006 (Italian)
- ^ Ufficio storico della Marina Militare: La Marina italiana nella seconda guerra mondiale, Volume 8. Stato maggiore della Marina Militare, 1958, pp. 236-237 (Italian)
- ^ BBC interview to survivor
- ^ Kemp, Paul: The Admiralty Regrets: British Warship Losses of the 20th Century. Sutton Publishing,1999, page 212
[edit] References
- Bragadin, Marc'Antonio: The Italian Navy in World War II, United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, 1957. ISBN 0405130317.
- Sadkovich, James: The Italian Navy in World War II, Greenwood Press, Westport, 1994. ISBN 031328797X.
Coordinates: 37°48′35.22″N 12°11′29.01″E / 37.8097833°N 12.1913917°E
