Battle of the Duisburg Convoy

9 November 1941, Ionian Sea, east of Sicily

British victory; the whole convoy sunk

Force K, two light cruisers and two destroyers under Captain William Agnew, had been sent to Malta to attack the convoys to Libya. Guided by a radar-equipped Wellington and by Ultra intelligence, it found the Duisburg convoy, seven merchant ships with six destroyers and a distant cover of two heavy cruisers, on a moonlit night east of Sicily. Using radar, Force K closed unseen to point-blank range from the dark side of the convoy. In about an hour all seven merchant ships were sunk and the destroyer Fulmine with them, while the heavy cruisers Trieste and Trento, a few miles away, never came into action. Force K was not hit. The next morning the submarine Upholder sank another escort, Libeccio, as she picked up survivors. In November 1941 more than three-quarters of the supplies shipped to Rommel were lost.