June 1932Following the arrival of massed British forces in the area, Italian high command was hard-pressed to come up with a new plan. An open battle with the main portion of the Mediterranean Fleet was ruled out, and it didn’t seem as though a submarine campaign would produce the desired result on time. Furthermore, the British seemed to be reluctant to send out single squadrons on coastal raids as they had done before, removing that option. However, there was an opportunity present due to the nature of the British forces’ disposition: While the main forces of the Mediterranean Fleet were stationed at Gibraltar and Alexandria, with a forward base on Malta, another sizeable squadron operated out of the Albanian ports, severely restricting transadriatic trade. While still powerful, this force seemed to be of somewhat manageable size for the Regia Marina’s main battleforce. In an effort to deceit the British and ultimately isolate their Adriatic Force, a multi-stage plan was devised. First, all available forces were to be concentrated at Taranto. The main force, including as many battleships as possible as well as the carrier
Sparviero would then, under the cover of darkness, transfer to Ancona at high speed on June 27th. The reinforced 8th Battlecruiser division along with attached escorts would then show themselves on the Albanian coast, optionally shooting up some enemy installations if deemed appropriate to prompt a reaction of the British forces there, and then retreat into the Adriatic. There, the Italians could fight the isolated British force on near-equal terms.
The plan was approved after some discussion, and the forces were made ready. On the evening of the 27th, the Italian main force consisting of eight battleships, three light cruisers and a light destroyer screen set out from Taranto at high speed and made best speed for Ancona. Unfortunately, it was impossible for most Italian destroyers to make the trip, therefore the fleet had to rely on destroyers already stationed in the Adriatic to accompany the fleet in battle.
After flying some reconnaissance missions, the only Italian carrier followed suit on the evening of the 28th accompanied by heavy cruisers Zara and Varese. In the night, battlecruisers Carlo Alberto, Francesco Ferrucio and San Marco set out on their baiting mission. After shooting up a railline and running across a patrolling British destroyer, they pulled away, making sure the direction of their withdrawal was noticed by the British, who had also intercepted some deliberately placed messages and therefore had their forces at an increased state of readiness. Within hours, the British force was in full pursuit of the Italian battlecruisers. Meanwhile, the Italian main forces left port following some quick maintenance and joined up with the battlecruisers east of Rimini, with the fast battleships Cesare and Pompeo still lagging behind at first contact due to Cesare having some difficulties with an unexpected current near the harbour mouth, blocking her sisters’ path for half an hour before control was regained.
First contact was established at 1342 hours by spotters aboard
San Marco, the flagship of the scouting force. Both sides maneuvered to engage, while the Italian battleship squadrons lined up behind the battlecruiser. The Italian line had superior initial positioning, as the oncoming British battlecruisers sailed bow on into the broadside of the forming Italian battleline.
The three battlecruisers took a heavy battering from the oncoming British fleet, but they also dished one out, shortly joined by most of the battleline. As the vanguard of British forces was turned back, and a torpedo strike was being readied aboard
Sparviero.
3rd Battle Squadron, led by the fast battleship
Cesare, finally caught up with the engagement and started to trade shots with the British rear elements as they sailed up south behind the enemy fleet. As the two lone battleships came under heavy pressure while the enemy fleet headed around, Admiral
captainloggy aboard the battleship
Machiavelli ordered a pursuit south, meanwhile the battlecruisers would continue east.
In this run to the south of the battleships, the British battlecruiser Sutlej, who had led the vanguard of British forces before they had been turned back earlier, became the first victim of the engagement. Subjected to a vicious battering from Machiavelli, Francesco Ferrucio and Italia, she was beyond salvation by 1530h, and finally slipped beneath the waves half an hour later, when several air-launched torpedos from CANT Z.108 torpedo bombers launched from the carrier Sparviero hit the stricken battlecruiser. In the meantime, however, the British battleships had continued on a north-by-east course, right into the path of the three Italian battlecruisers. In response, the Admiral ordered a pursuit of the enemy off their starboard beam. This resulted in a running engagement with only sporadic hits scored by either side for the better part of an hour. However, repeated attacks by British destroyers against their pursuers proved painfully effective, as Machiavelli took three hits in short order. Though the torpedo protection system seemed to have held up reasonably well at first, heavy seas later feasted on the behemoth’s wounds sustained here.
The pace changed when at around 1700h, the battlecruisers reappeared on scene quite dramatically by blowing the British “heavy” cruiser
Comus, which had been harassing Italian battleships with her 6in-guns, clean out of the water, the unfortunate misclassified ship sustaining between 25 and 30 heavy hits within 15 minutes. The elderly Bulwark-class battleship
Goliath then became the focus of the Italian heavy guns, receiving hits from
Pompeo,
Tiberio,
Cesare Borgia and
Machiavelli along with a torpedo hit from
E8 at 1710h, sealing her fate. The barrage continued, however, as the Italian fleet turned south-by-east after the British, with the rear ships of the line continuing to lay down fire on the stricken battleship. At 1718, the floating wreck of the
Goliath disappeared in a fireball following a hit by
Italia.
While this was going on, British destroyers had commenced a venerable charge to relieve the pressure from their battleships. This was met with considerably less success than the earlier skirmishes, however, as the modern Eden-class destroyer
Cherwell blew up following a direct magazine hit scored by
Taranto’s secondary guns. In return,
Cherwell’s sister ship
Derwent landed an ultimately fatal torpedo on the already battered battlecruiser
Carlo Alberto, as well as a less effectful hit on
Tantalo.
Aside from this, the charge failed to save HMS
Goliath and resulted in the loss of four destroyers.
As the British vanguard crumbled under this convergence of Italian heavy firepower, the British light battleship
Majestic was the next to come under concentrated heavy fire, with over 30 heavy shells and 3 torpedos landing home on the battleship before she went down at 1738h.
The British fleet was now on the run south, with their Italian counterparts chasing them in three columns, claiming the seaplane carrier
Elmsgarth and the battleship
Victorious by 1740h and 1800, respectively, though the latter stayed afloat until a full 7 torpedos from
Insidioso blew the wreck apart.
This new course had, unfortunately, also put the carrier
Sparviero and her escort in the path of the British fleet, now led by the remarkably intact battlecruiser
Glorious,
who had been in the thick of the initial engagement and the first run to the South with the Italian battleships. The carrier was only saved by a valiant charge of the Italian heavy cruisers right into the guns of most of the incoming British fleet, drawing attention from the escaping carrier and sustaining fire from 13in, 15in and even HMS
Glory’s massive 18in guns. While
Sparviero’s survival was still in question at the time due to fires raging in the hanger, the heavy cruisers miraculously emerged from the inferno afloat and still capable of fighting.
Further north, the Italian fleet had run down the battlecruiser
Courageous by 1752h, when a torpedo hit from the light cruiser
Torino cut her electrical power, leaving her helpless in the water.
About at that time, the duel between light cruisers
Nola and
Canada concluded with
Nola landing a torpedo on her defeated opponent.
With the retreat of the three surviving British capital ships and their destroyer escorts, the fight died down, with various Italian destroyers eagerly quickening the demise of various enemy vessels, supported in their endeavour by several flotillas of patrol boats who had found themselves in the vicinity of the battlefield. As several Italian ships were severely damaged as well, a withdrawal to port at Ancona was ordered at 1820h.
While underway to port, trailing light forces established a new sighting contact at 2025h. This turned out to be the battleship
Glory and the battlecruiser
Argonaut,
who had withdrawn westwards earlier and now likewise tried to make for port. While
Glory’s mighty 18in guns were silenced in short order by several torpedos from the ever-aggressive
Insidioso and E10,
Argonaut came under a withering barrage of fire from various light guns, with a torpedo hit from Irrequieto and a 6in AP shell to the torpedo flat by Nuoro sending her limping off into the falling darkness. SIGINT and onshore spies confirmed that the battlecruiser was never seen again.
Shortly thereafter, the Italian battlecruiser
Carlo Alberto finally succumbed to her wounds in the unusually heavy seas. After the crew were evacuated, she was sent to the bottom by a torpedo from
Eridano,
after an attempt by her sister
E6 failed when the torpedos went on various erratic courses in the high waves, some allegedly leaping out of the water like porpoises.
The fate of the pride of the fleet, the battleship
Machiavelli, was a far more grim one. Following three torpedo hits, numerous shell impacts and constant attack by the seas, she had taken on vast amounts of water over time, and now was racing time to make it to Ancona. Her main deck aflood, she was taken in tow by
Pompeo at 2130, crewmen still desperately fighting the water.
By 2155, they fought no more.
Machiavelli slipped below the high waves, taking hundreds of men still in her bowels with her.
She was the last victim of this vicious battle, as the light cruiser
Nuoro barely made it into port before flooding could claim her too.
Final losses:Italy: 1 BB, 1 BC, 27 aircraft
Great Britain: 4 BB, 3 BC, 2 CL, 11 DD, 15 aircraft