Second Battle of Sirte

The Second Battle of Sirte saw the British Royal Navy square off against a more powerful Italian force during an attempt by the British to resupply the island fortress of Malta. The battle occurred on 22 March 1942, in the Mediterranean, north of the Gulf of Sirte and east of Malta, during the Second World War.

Background

Malta had long been a thorn in the side of the Axis as it harassed Italian convoys headed to North Africa. In return, the island became the target of an increasing number of heavy Axis air raids. Once the Allies lost the initiative in the central Mediterranean, Italian and German forces made plans to remove Malta as a threat. The need to resupply and reinforce the island was at hand. As Malta was running short of aircraft, antiaircraft guns, fuel, food and ammunition, convoy MW10 sailed from Alexandria on 21 March.

At the beginning of 1942, the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean force found themselves short on fire power after the loss of the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant to an underwater attack from the Italian frogmen led by Luigi Durand De La Penne. The loss of these two battleships meant that the Alexandria squadron was made up of only cruisers and destroyers. To offset this lack of heavy ships, the battleship HMS Malaya with the aircraft carriers HMS Eagle and HMS Argus, supported by the cruiser HMS Hermione and eight destroyers set sail from Gibraltar in an attempt to draw the Italian Navy away from the convoy. The next day, the squadron aborted the operation and returned to port. The carriers were unable to fly off aircraft reinforcements to Malta due to defective long-range fuel tanks.

The escort of convoy MW10 relied heavily on destroyers, including lighter-built escort destroyers, to provide anti-submarine protection and included the anti-aircraft cruiser Carlisle to bolster the convoy's anti-aircraft capability. Additional destroyers and another light cruiser were also sent from Malta.


British Defensive Plan

Vian organised his ships into six divisions plus a close escort for the convoy of five Hunt class destroyers.
1st Division: destroyers Jervis, Kipling, Kelvin and Kingston
2nd Division: cruisers Dido and Penelope with the destroyer Legion
3rd Division: destroyers Zulu and Hasty
4th Division: cruisers Cleopatra (flagship) and Euryalus
5th Division: destroyers Sikh, Lively, Hero and Havelock
6th Division: anti-aircraft cruiser Carlisle and Hunt class destroyer Avon Vale

In case of an Italian surface attack, Vian would have the first five divisions break away from the convoy to face the enemy while the sixth division laid smoke across the wake of the convoy to obscure it from the enemy. The first five divisions would act as a rearguard to lay smoke and delay the enemy while the Carlisle and the Hunt destroyers proceeded with the cargo ships to Malta.



The Battle

At 2:30pm next day, the British convoy was intercepted by a pair of Italian heavy cruisers and escorting destroyers. Admiral Vian immediately implemented his plan. The British cargo ships and escorts turned away to the south 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 in an attempt to lure the British toward the incoming main Italian squadron. At 4:37pm, the Italian heavy cruisers returned to attack with the battleship Littorio, a light cruiser and their screening destroyers.

For two and a half hours, the valiant Royal Navy escorts slugged it out with the superior Italian force. The British ships would leave the safety of their huge smoke screen to fire a few volleys and then returned to it when the Italian salvoes got too close. During one of these exchanges, HMS Havock suffered heavy damage when fired at by the Italian battleship. At 6:34pm Vian decided to send his destroyers in to launch torpedo attacks from about 5,000 yards. While none of the British torpedoes found their target, the Italian battleship Littorio landed a 15” shell on the HMS Kingston. The Littorio also caused minor damage to the HMS Lively.

While the Littorio was taking it’s toll on the British destroyers, she was hit by a 4.7" round, with negligible damage. Her floatplane caught fire from a burst of her main guns at the same time. This led to the claim by the British that one of the torpedoes struck home.

At dusk, about 7pm, the Italians, without the aid of radar, gave up and turned for home. Although Italians outgunned their British counterparts, they failed to deliver the decisive blow. This may be because of a fear of a torpedo attack from the superior British destroyer force.

According to British reports, Cleopatra had one of her turrets destroyed by 6" fire from the Giovanni dalle Bande Nere; 16 seamen were killed. Cruisers Euryalus and Penelope were also damaged. Kingston was hit amidships by a shell that killed 15 men of her crew and left the destroyer dead in the water, with her whaler torn apart, her anti-aircraft guns, searchlight tower and torpedo launchers shattered by the explosion. Although she had an engine in flames and a flooded boiler, she managed however to recover speed, reaching Malta the next day. Havock was also badly damaged in a boiler by a near miss, suffering 8 deaths. Lively was forced to retreat to Tobruk for repairs. Three more destroyers, Sikh, Legion and Lance, suffered lesser damage from 8" cruiser fire.

Follow-up actions

Short of fuel and ammunition due to the protracted engagement and unable to find the convoy, most of the escorts returned to Alexandria. The damaged destroyers and the cargo ships were sent on to Malta, with Carlisle, Penelope and Legion. The next day the convoy was subjected to continuous air attacks that proved to have deadly effectiveness. The cargo ship Clan Campbell was sunk twenty miles from harbor, and the oil tanker Breconshire was too damaged to even reach Valletta. Nonetheless, the other two merchantmen, Talabot and steamer Pampas, reached Malta's Grand Harbor virtually unharmed, save for two bombs that hit Pampas but failed to explode. HMS Penelope attempted to tow Breconshire, but the tow parted in heavy seas. She anchored short of the protective minefields and the destroyer Southwold attempted to take her in tow, hitting a mine in the process. She was eventually towed into Marsaxlokk Bay by tugs.

Intense Axis air raids against Malta on March 24 and March 25 failed to damage the three surviving convoy ships. However, on March 26, German dive bombers scored bomb hits on all three ships, sinking Talabot and Pampas that day with Breconshire capsizing on March 27. Much of Breconshire's oil was salvaged through the hole in her hull. Only about 5,000 tons of cargo had been unloaded, of the 26,000 tons that had been loaded in Alexandria.

The Italian fleet units were no more lucky after the battle. After failing to destroy the convoy by themselves, they were caught en-route to their bases by a severe storm that sank the destroyers Scirocco and Lanciere.
Destroyer HMS Kingston had been hit in the battle by a 15" shell fired by the Italian battleship Littorio.
Whilst under repair in dry dock at Malta, Kingston was attacked a few days later by German aircraft and suffered further damage, this time beyond repair. She was scrapped at Malta in the following months.

Assessments

As with the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle off Samar, the Second Battle of Sirte must be broken down in to tactical and strategic victories. The naval portion of this battle finds the British scoring a narrow tactical victory, mostly due to bad weather and lack of radar prevented the Italian force from continuing the pursuit of the convoy at dusk.

But when the main objective, to re-supply Malta, is included in the assessment, the outcome is different. The British intention to reach Malta before dawn with a substantial escort was disrupted by the intervention of the Italian Navy. This left the cargo ships exposed to Axis air supremacy.

Thereafter, Italian and German aircraft caught the British convoy at sea and chased the surviving steamers to the harbor; more than 80% of the supplies were lost. The British convoy operation was, therefore, a strategic failure.


Order of battle
Italy
Admiral Angelo Iachino
1 battleship: Littorio
6 destroyers: Alfredo Oriani, Ascari, Aviere, Geniere, Grecale, Scirocco (sunk by a storm after the action)
2nd division, Admiral Parona
2 heavy cruisers: Gorizia, Trento
1 light cruiser: Giovanni dalle Bande Nere (damaged)
4 destroyers: Alpino, Bersagliere, Fuciliere, Lanciere (sunk by a storm after the action)
Submarine: Platino.[43]

United Kingdom
Carlisle squadron:
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: Clan Campbell, Breconshire, Pampas and Talabot.
15th Cruiser Squadron (Admiral Vian):
3 cruisers: Dido; Euryalus (slightly damaged); Cleopatra (seriously damaged).
14th Destroyer Flotilla: Jervis; Kipling; Kelvin; Kingston (heavily damaged).
22nd Destroyer Flotilla: Hasty; Havock (heavily damaged); Hero; Lively (seriously damaged); Sikh (slightly damaged); Zulu (damaged).
Support squadron from Malta:
1 cruiser: Penelope;
1 destroyer: Legion (damaged);
4 submarines: Unbeaten, Upholder and P-34.
Submarine based in Alexandria:
Proteus.