Second Battle of Sirte

22 March 1942, Gulf of Sirte, south-east of Malta

British tactical victory; the convoy was saved, then lost off Malta

Malta was starving, and four supply ships sailed from Alexandria escorted by Rear-Admiral Philip Vian's light cruisers and destroyers. Admiral Iachino came out with the battleship Littorio, three cruisers and ten destroyers to stop them. In a rising gale Vian sent the convoy south-west and fought a two-and-a-half-hour action with smoke and torpedoes, his ships dashing out of the smoke to fire and back into it, while the Italians, with no radar, would not go into it after them. Littorio's 15-inch shells hit Havock and Kingston, and Cleopatra's bridge was hit by Bande Nere; no British ship was sunk. Iachino turned away at dusk without reaching the convoy, and on the way home the destroyers Lanciere and Scirocco foundered in the storm. But the action had delayed the convoy until daylight, and German bombers caught it short of Malta: Clan Campbell and Breconshire were sunk, and Pampas and Talabot bombed in harbour. Of 26,000 tons of supplies, about 5,000 were landed.