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Coordinates: 35°33′32″N 25°34′14″E / 35.55889°N 25.57056°E / 35.55889; 25.57056
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== Aftermath ==
== Aftermath ==
[[File:HMS Dainty.jpg|thumb|200px|HMS ''Dainty'']]
[[File:HMS Dainty.jpg|thumb|200px|HMS ''Dainty'']]
''Desmoulea'' remained at Suda Bay for weeks,<ref name=tow>[http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4104-31APR02.htm Battle for Greece, April 1941]</ref> down by stern and with her after [[well deck]] awash.<ref>[http://www.hmasperth.asn.au/drh0507/Hatfields_Diaries.pdf "'H.M.A.S. Perth' 1939 – 1941 trough the eyes of P.O. George Hatfield" p. 116]</ref> Her precious cargo was transferred to the tanker ''Eocene''.<ref name="escort" /> The disabled tanker was finally taken in tow by the armed boarding vessel HMS ''Chakla'' and escorted to Port Said by the antisubmarine trawlers HMS ''Lydiard'' and HMS ''Amber''.<ref name=tow/> ''Desmoulea'' arrived on 6 May<ref name="escort"/> and was moored off the western beacon at [[Suez]]. She was torpedoed again on 3 August 1941 while still awaiting repairs, this time by German bombers.<ref>[http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4108-35AUG01.htm Malta Convoys, Operation Style, August 1941]</ref> She was towed to [[Bombay]], [[British Raj|India]], where she was converted into a store ship and renamed ''Empire Thane.'' The vessel remained in port until 1947, from where she was towed back to the United Kingdom.<ref>[http://www.helderline.nl/tanker/2558/empire+thane/ ''Empire Thane'']</ref> She was rebuilt under her original name in 1949,<ref>{{Cite web|title = Anecdote about the Desmoulea by Hugh Brazell {{!}} Helderline.nl|url = http://www.helderline.nl/anecdote/605/desmoulea+by+hugh+brazell/|website = www.helderline.nl|access-date = 2016-02-09}}</ref> before being laid up in 1955 and scrapped in 1961.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Shell tanker 'Desmoulea' {{!}} Helderline.nl|url = http://www.helderline.nl/tanker/738/desmoulea/|website = www.helderline.nl|access-date = 2016-02-09}}</ref>
''Desmoulea'' remained at Suda Bay for weeks,<ref name=tow>[http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4104-31APR02.htm Battle for Greece, April 1941]</ref> down by stern and with her after [[well deck]] awash.<ref>[http://www.hmasperth.asn.au/drh0507/Hatfields_Diaries.pdf "'H.M.A.S. Perth' 1939 – 1941 trough the eyes of P.O. George Hatfield" p. 116]</ref> Her precious cargo was transferred to the tanker ''Eocene''.<ref name="escort" /> The disabled tanker was finally taken in tow by the armed boarding vessel HMS ''Chakla'' and escorted to Port Said by the antisubmarine trawlers HMS ''Lydiard'' and HMS ''Amber''.<ref name=tow/> ''Desmoulea'' arrived on 6 May<ref name="escort"/> and was moored off the western beacon at [[Suez]]. She was torpedoed again on 3 August 1941 while still awaiting repairs, this time by German bombers.<ref>[http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4108-35AUG01.htm Malta Convoys, Operation Style, August 1941]</ref> She was towed to [[Bombay]], [[British Raj|India]], where she was converted into a store ship and renamed ''Empire Thane.''<ref name=":0" /> During the protracted passage to India, the tanker ran aground twice.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ebooklibrary.org/articles/MV_Anna|title=MV Anna {{!}} World eBook Library - eBooks {{!}} Read eBooks online|last=Library|first=World eBook|website=www.ebooklibrary.org|access-date=2016-03-15}}</ref> The vessel remained in port until 1947, from where she was towed back to the United Kingdom.<ref name=":0">[http://www.helderline.nl/tanker/2558/empire+thane/ ''Empire Thane'']</ref> She was rebuilt under her original name in 1949,<ref>{{Cite web|title = Anecdote about the Desmoulea by Hugh Brazell {{!}} Helderline.nl|url = http://www.helderline.nl/anecdote/605/desmoulea+by+hugh+brazell/|website = www.helderline.nl|access-date = 2016-02-09}}</ref> before being laid up in 1955 and scrapped in 1961.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Shell tanker 'Desmoulea' {{!}} Helderline.nl|url = http://www.helderline.nl/tanker/738/desmoulea/|website = www.helderline.nl|access-date = 2016-02-09}}</ref>


Naval historian Vincent O`Hara states that after the action of the Italian torpedo boats, Allied shipping used to avoid passage into the Aegean Sea through the Kaso strait and choiced instead the [[Antikythera|Antikithera]] strait.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Struggle for the Middle Sea|last = O'Hara|first = Vincent|publisher = Naval Institute Press|year = 2009|isbn = 1612514081|location = |pages = 85}}</ref>
Naval historian Vincent O`Hara states that after the action of the Italian torpedo boats, Allied shipping used to avoid passage into the Aegean Sea through the Kaso strait and choiced instead the [[Antikythera|Antikithera]] strait.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Struggle for the Middle Sea|last = O'Hara|first = Vincent|publisher = Naval Institute Press|year = 2009|isbn = 1612514081|location = |pages = 85}}</ref>

Revision as of 00:32, 15 March 2016

Attack on Convoy AN 14
Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean of World War II

Italian torpedo boat Lupo
Date31 January 1941
Location
Aegean Sea, north of Crete
Result Italian victory
Belligerents
  Italy
Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom Herbert Annesley Packer Kingdom of Italy Francesco Mimbelli
Strength
  • 2 torpedo boats
Casualties and losses
1 tanker disabled none

The Attack on Convoy AN 14 was a naval engagement between a British naval force defending a convoy of merchant ships which had departed from Port Said and Alexandria to Piraeus and two Italian torpedo boats who intercepted them north of Crete on 31 January 1941, during World War II. The Italian vessels, Lupo and Libra, launched two torpedoes each one. The devices fired by Libra missed their target, but one torpedo from Lupo struck home, disabling the 8,120-ton British tanker Desmoulea which had to be towed to Suda Bay. The ship didn't return to service until the end of the war. Desmoulea was later towed to Egypt, were she was hit by a German aerial torpedo and remained as a store ship in Bombay until 1947 under the name of Empire Thane.

Background

Since the beginning of hostilities between Fascist Italy and Greece, British aircraft and stores started to flow through the Aegean Sea to improve Greece's military readiness. The Greek government, in exchange, provided the Allied with tugs, harbour vessels, and an important naval base for the British Fleet at Suda Bay.[1] Well before the Italian invasion, Greece and Britain had concluded a cooperation agreement in January 1940, which secured commercial relations between both countries and more important, the availability of the Greek merchant fleet for the transport of war supplies to the allies.[2]

Opposing forces

Allied forces

Convoy AN 14 consisted of ten cargo ships, seven British and three Greek.[3] The escort consisted of the light cruiser HMS Calcutta (Commander Herbert Annesley Packer), the destroyers HMS Dainty and Jaguar, and the corvettes HMS Peony and Gloxina. The bulk of the convoy sailed off from Port Said on 28 January, under the escort of the corvette Gloxina. A section of the convoy, composed by the merchant ship Levernbank and the large tanker Desmoulea and escorted by the cruiser Calcutta and the corvette Peony departed from Alexandria on 29 January, while the transport Ethiopia, carrying RAF personnel, left Alexandria some hours later, escorted by the destroyer HMS Hasty. The British cruiser HMS Ajax and the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth were to provide distant cover. The destroyers Jaguar and Dainty swept the Kaso strait ahead of the convoy.[4]

Italian forces

Italian naval forces in the Dodecanese were at odds with the resupply of their garrisons since the beginning of the war with Britain in June 1940. Most of the transport was carried out by submarine and aircraft, but this method proved to be insufficient and the Italians soon turned to coastal ships for the task. These ships ferried 4,500 tons of supplies to the Dodecanese, even after the closing of the Corinth Channel when Greece entered the war.[5] An Italian flotilla of torpedo boats were deployed in the area by the Italian navy in December 1940, under the command of captain Francesco Mimbelli, to reinforce the naval presence around Rhodes and Leros, whose naval base of Porto Lago (Lakki) was the main Italian stronghold in the Aegean.[6][7]

Torpedo boat attack

Italian torpedo boat Libra

On 31 January 1941, the Italian torpedo boats, after departing from Leros, were performing an antisubmarine search on the Kaso strait, when they spotted an Allied convoy escorted by a cruiser and three destroyers.[7][nb 1] The two vessels separated;[9] the Italian plan was for Libra to distract the escort, while Lupo would slip to launch her 450 mm (18 in) torpedoes at the convoy. The Italian report said that Lupo hit a large steamer with two torpedoes, and Libra launched another two on a cruiser without consequences. The Italians were met by a vigorous reaction from the escort, but managed to steam away.[9]

The British version said that only one torpedo hit the tanker Desmoulea, which was loaded with a cargo of petrol and white oils. According to Admiral Andrew Cunningham, the tanker was detached to Suda Bay from the Alexandria section of the convoy and was torpedoed at 18:00 of 31 January. Her close escort, HMS Dainty, took her in tow at 20:00, when she had already been abandoned by her crew. The cruiser Perth initially proceeded to assist Desmoulea, but the Commander in Chief ordered Perth to continue her escort duties.[10] Desmoulea was struck abreast her engine room and left in a sinking condition, but her complement reboarded the tanker when it became clear that she was still keeping afloat.[11] Desmoulea eventually arrived in Suda Bay under tow at 8:00 on 1 February.[4]

One of the escorts, the corvette Peony, was missed by hostile bombers while 40 miles away from Crete.[4] The rest of the convoy reached Piraeus on 2 February 1941.[3]

Aftermath

HMS Dainty

Desmoulea remained at Suda Bay for weeks,[12] down by stern and with her after well deck awash.[13] Her precious cargo was transferred to the tanker Eocene.[4] The disabled tanker was finally taken in tow by the armed boarding vessel HMS Chakla and escorted to Port Said by the antisubmarine trawlers HMS Lydiard and HMS Amber.[12] Desmoulea arrived on 6 May[4] and was moored off the western beacon at Suez. She was torpedoed again on 3 August 1941 while still awaiting repairs, this time by German bombers.[14] She was towed to Bombay, India, where she was converted into a store ship and renamed Empire Thane.[15] During the protracted passage to India, the tanker ran aground twice.[16] The vessel remained in port until 1947, from where she was towed back to the United Kingdom.[15] She was rebuilt under her original name in 1949,[17] before being laid up in 1955 and scrapped in 1961.[18]

Naval historian Vincent O`Hara states that after the action of the Italian torpedo boats, Allied shipping used to avoid passage into the Aegean Sea through the Kaso strait and choiced instead the Antikithera strait.[19]

See also

35°33′32″N 25°34′14″E / 35.55889°N 25.57056°E / 35.55889; 25.57056

Footnotes

  1. ^ This website erroneously states that one of the involved units was the torpedo boat Lince, which actually was escorting a steamer from the Dodecanese to Italy at the time.[8]

References

  1. ^ Titterton, G. A. (2002). The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean. London: Routledge, page 154. ISBN 0-7146-5205-9.
  2. ^ Koliopoulos, Ioannis (1978).[Internal and External Developments from March 1, 1935 to the October 28, 1940: The War of 1940–1941] (in Greek). no ISBN. Ekdotiki Athinon. pp. 406–408
  3. ^ a b Arnold Hague convoy database
  4. ^ a b c d e British East Coast convoys, January 1941
  5. ^ Smith, Peter; Walker, Edwin (1974). War in the Aegean. London: Kimber, pp. 8–9. ISBN 0-7183-0422-5
  6. ^ Francesco Mimbelli, Capitano di Fregata, Medaglia d'oro al Valor Militare Template:It icon
  7. ^ a b Un Saluto delle Regie Navi Lupo e Lince Template:It icon
  8. ^ Platon Alexiades statement
  9. ^ a b Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare (1959).La Marina italiana nella seconda guerra mondiale. Istituto poligrafico dello stato, p. 339 Template:It icon
  10. ^ Cunningham, Andrew Browne, Simpsom Michael A. (1999). The Cunningham Papers. V 140. Ashgate for the Navy Records Society, p. 270. ISBN 1840146222
  11. ^ Shipbuilding and Shipping Record, Volume 70
  12. ^ a b Battle for Greece, April 1941
  13. ^ "'H.M.A.S. Perth' 1939 – 1941 trough the eyes of P.O. George Hatfield" p. 116
  14. ^ Malta Convoys, Operation Style, August 1941
  15. ^ a b Empire Thane
  16. ^ Library, World eBook. "MV Anna | World eBook Library - eBooks | Read eBooks online". www.ebooklibrary.org. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  17. ^ "Anecdote about the Desmoulea by Hugh Brazell | Helderline.nl". www.helderline.nl. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  18. ^ "Shell tanker 'Desmoulea' | Helderline.nl". www.helderline.nl. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  19. ^ O'Hara, Vincent (2009). Struggle for the Middle Sea. Naval Institute Press. p. 85. ISBN 1612514081.
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