The Second Battle of Sirtewas a naval battle between a convoy of the Royal Navy and various units of the Royal Navy fought during World War II. It was held on March 22, 1942, in the Mediterranean Sea north of the Gulf of Sidra, west of Malta.

The action was a victory for the Italian fleet, which managed to take down the convoy, which was destroyed by the aviation Axis. However the reluctance of the Navy to exploit their advantage, due to the courageous and skillful defense of Admiral Vian, made it only a partial victory.

Action

In 1942, the war in the Mediterranean was beginning to intensify: The Axis air and naval forces tried desperately to prevent British supply convoys from reaching ports in Egypt to supply the British troops engaged in North Africa, while the unit fighting the British Royal Navy was making enormous efforts to protect them.

The island of Malta took on this theater of great importance for both sides: a strategic location in the middle of the Mediterranean was a potential threat to supply convoys, and Italians, at the same time, secured some confidence in the British convoys.

In the early spring of 1942, the Axis commanders began to understand the strategy fully and planned to conquer the island or at least reduce it to impotence, bombarding it constantly and preventing any convoys from reaching it in view of the planned employment; Operation C3 will never be made.

Since the island was beginning to shrink, the number of efficient aircraft, stocks of fuel, and ammunition was organized by the convoy MW10 British Admiralty, which departed on March 21 from Alexandria in Egypt.

The British were aware that any attempt to supply the island was met with strong opposition, both by the Italian Regia Aeronautica and Luftwaffe air squadrons in Sicily and by the Italian Navy.

However, the threat of an attack by the Italian navy was deemed less likely to be a part of aviation; the British knew that the Navy was beginning to suffer from the shortage of fuel and also hoped that the battles of 1941 had convinced Supermarina ( the high command of the Italian Navy) to conduct a more cautious one.

The stock was composed of a large number of destroyers and included the antiaircraft cruiser Carlisle to provide adequate coverage of anti-aircraft and anti-submarine; it contained only three light cruisers for protection against surface threats.

Additionally, light cruisers and destroyers were sent from Malta. When approaching the Italian surface ships, the British were planning to leave Carlisle and half of the destroyer escort cargo ships anyway. In contrast, the rest of the ships would raise the smoke screens and would have delayed the Italian ships.

At 14:30 the next day, smoke was sighted on the horizon. The British discovered, to their surprise, that they were faced with a small force as fast as expected, but a group of heavy cruisers escorted by destroyers.

They put their plan into effect immediately; the convoy and its escorts veered away from Malta while the remaining units rose the smoke screens and engaged the Italians. After an exchange of artillery fire, the Italian cruisers withdrew but soon returned accompanied by the battleship Littorio and its destroyer escort.

The battle raged for about two and a half hours, with the British ships coming out of the smoke screen to throw a few broadsides and then going back into hiding when the Italian prejudice came too close. At 18:30, the British decided to force his hand and launched their torpedoes from destroyers to 9 km, the maximum distance at which the Italians were approaching.

No torpedo hit the target, but the Havock and Kingston were both hit by bullets from Littorio. In the meantime, the Littorio was practically free, while another cruiser was burned but not damaged.

At the fall of darkness, Italians gave up and sailed into the harbor at about 19:00. Not being equipped with radar would have been significantly difficulty if the battle had continued.

For all the fighting, the Italians overcame the firepower of their opponents, and the British could quickly launch one of their two groups against the convoy. However, they appeared to strike a decisive blow, probably fearing an attack by torpedoes from the numerically superior force of British destroyers.

According to British reports, the towers were destroyed when Cleopatra hit the cruiser Giovanni delle Bande Nere. The cruisers Euryalus and Penelope were severely damaged. The Havock was immobilized in water by a direct hit (although later he was able to share), and the destroyers Sikh, Lively, Legion, Lance, and Kingston were all damaged.

Most of the power supply ran out of fuel as a result of the clash and came back to Alexandria. The destroyers were damaged, and the convoy was sent to Malta with Carlisle, Penelope, and the Legion. Thus, they were isolated, and the next day, they were constantly attacked by aviation.

The cargo ship Clan Campbell was sunk thirty kilometers from the port, and the oil tanker Breconshire was damaged and anchored outside the harbor. At the same time, only Talabot and Pampas reached Grand Harbour, the latter hit by three bombs that exploded. The Breconshire was later towed to a sheltered bay.

The next day, the German dive bombers hit all three surviving ships. The Breconshire capsized in the bay, but most of its oil was recovered through a hole in its hull. The Talabot, the Pampas, and the damaged destroyer Legion were sunk in the harbor. Only 5,000 tonnes of cargo had been unloaded, the 26,000 sent from Alexandria.

The Italian ships were not much luckier. After failing to exploit their attacks, they were surprised by an intense storm while they were en route to the port, which sank the destroyers Scirocco and Lancer.

Order of Battle

Navy

• Admiral Angelo Iachino
• 1 battleship - Littorio (damaged)
• 6 destroyers: Alfredo Oriani, Ascari, Aviere, Engineer, Grecale, Scirocco (sunk in a storm after the fight)
• 2nd Division, Admiral Angelo Parona
• 2 heavy cruisers, Gorizia, Trento
• 1 light cruiser: Giovanni delle Bande Nere (damaged)
• 4 destroyers: Alpine, Sharpshooter, Rifleman, Lancer (sunk in a storm after the fight)