Battle of Cape Matapan

Events leading up to the battle

For about 4 months the Italian Navy was not very active and all of the big ships stayed in port recovering from the British raid , but on the 27 March 1941 the Eastern Fleet left port to raid the British troop and supply convoy's bringing reinforcements to Greece , they were also instructed to attack the British fleet anchored at Suda Bay the British Naval base on the Island of Crete . Although the Italian Airforce was designated to provide air cover for the ship's they failed to carry out even the most basic reconnaissance which would prove to be of vital importance later on . On the other hand the British knew precisely what was going on thanks to radio intelligence combined with there air reconnaissance and where constantly prepared for action . The British fleet under Admiral Cunningham included the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable as well as the battleship's HMS Warsprite (Cunningham's flagship) HMS Valiant and HMS Barham .

The Battle

At 0745 hours on the morning of 28 March the cruiser HMS Orion which was scouting ahead of the main British fleet spotted the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto which immediately opened fire on her . The Orion reversed course and headed straight towards the British battleships leading the Vittorio Veneto with her . On learning of the position of the Italian battleship the HMS Formidable launched 3 separate airstrikes at 1130 hours , 1530 hours and the last one at around 1700 hours these torpedo bombers scored a hit on the Vittorio Veneto near her port propeller damaging her , although she was able to keep going , as well as hitting the cruiser Pola and damaging her steering gear leaving her stranded in the water . The British fleet continued to close on the Italian's and at about 2200 hours they came upon the stricken cruiser Pola as well as the 8 inch cruisers Fiume and Zara and the destroyers Alfieri and Carducci . The Italians once again were taken by surprise the crews were mostly asleep and the ships totally unprepared for action with the guns still trained for and aft . The British closed to about 4,000 yards when the destroyer HMS Greyhound trained her searchlight on the Italians and the Warsprite opened fire , soon all three cruisers were shattered by the Warsprite's gunfire , the two destroyers were also hit and sank soon after . In the midst of the battle the HMS Jervis got close enough to Pola to rescue some 250 men still aboard the shattered cruiser and it was proposed that she be towed back to Alexandria as a prize of war . This idea was soon abandoned as too risky due to the threat posed by axis aircraft, shortly afterwards a British cruiser closed in and finished all three Italian ships off with torpedo's .

The Aftermath of the Battle

At the end of the battle the British had achieved what they had set out to do and had gained the upper hand in the Mediterranean sinking 3 Italian cruisers as well as a number of destroyers with not a single casualty aboard any of there warships . Although they had missed sinking the Vittorio Veneto the Italian navy was a spent force and never again did they mount a major sortie with there warships which enabled the British to continue with her supplies to Malta and Africa without the constant fear of the Italian navy . The Axis navies were however not completely out of the war in the Mediterranean , on the 25 November 1941 U-331 torpedoed and sank the battleship HMS Barham and a month later 3 Italian midget submarines sneaked into Alexandria harbor and fixed charges to 2 British battleships the HMS Valiant and the HMS Queen Elizabeth .