Battle of Cape Spada

19 July 1940, Off Cape Spada, north-west Crete

British victory; Bartolomeo Colleoni sunk

Two fast Italian light cruisers under Admiral Casardi, sent to raid shipping in the Aegean, ran into four British destroyers sweeping for submarines north of Crete. The destroyers fell back towards HMAS Sydney, which Captain John Collins had brought up against orders. Sydney came out of the haze and hit Bartolomeo Colleoni, whose thin armour could not stop a 6-inch shell; one in her engine room stopped her dead. The destroyers finished her with torpedoes and picked up 525 of her crew. Sydney chased Giovanni delle Bande Nere south-west until she was almost out of ammunition, and was hit once herself, in the funnel. Collins was made a CB, and the battle confirmed the Mediterranean Fleet's belief that it had the measure of the Italian navy.