Battle of Cape Spartivento

Battle of Cape Spartivento
Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean of the Second World War
Top: Italian heavy cruiser Bolzano during the battle Bottom: British aircraft carrier Ark Royal straddled by bombs
Date 27 November 1940 Location Mediterranean Sea, near Sardinia, Italy 38°25′39″N 8°51′57″E Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Italy
Commanders and leaders
James Somerville Lancelot Holland	Inigo Campioni Angelo Iachino
Strength
1 carrier 1 battleship 1 battlecruiser 1 heavy cruiser 5 light cruisers 1 anti-aircraft cruiser 15 destroyers 4 corvettes 3 freighters	2 battleships 6 heavy cruisers 14 destroyers
Casualties and losses
7 killed 1 heavy cruiser damaged 1 light cruiser slightly damaged	1 destroyer damaged

The Battle of Cape Spartivento, known as the Battle of Cape Teulada in Italy, was a naval battle during the Battle of the Mediterranean in the Second World War, fought between naval forces of the Royal Navy and the Italian Regia Marina on 27 November 1940.

Origins

On the night of 11 November 1940, the British incapacitated or destroyed half of the battleships of the Italian fleet in a daring aerial assault as they lay at rest at Taranto. Until then, the Italians had mostly left their capital ships in harbour, hoping its mere presence as a fleet in being would deter British shipping through the area, though they would not decline battle if given the opportunity.

Six days later, on the night of 17 November, an Italian force consisting of two battleships (Vittorio Veneto and Giulio Cesare) and a number of supporting units attempted to intercept two British aircraft carriers, HMS Ark Royal and Argus and their cruiser escorts, who were en route to Malta to ferry aeroplanes to reinforce its defences (Operation White). The British were warned of their approach and immediately turned about and returned to Gibraltar, launching their aircraft (two Blackburn Skuas and 12 Hurricanes) prematurely. One Skua and eight Hurricanes ran out of fuel and were lost with the loss of seven airmen.

The Italians' success in disrupting the reinforcement of Malta cast serious doubt upon British plans to send a further convoy to supply the island (Operation Collar). The convoy was attempted, with increased support, including Force H from Gibraltar and Force D from Alexandria. The convoy was spotted by the Italian intelligence service and the Italian fleet sailed to intercept it. The first Italian naval unit to make visual contact with the convoy was the torpedo boat Sirio on the night of 26 November. After launching two torpedoes from long range, which missed, Sirio reported seven enemy warships heading eastwards.

Battle

The British knew of the Italian fleet's movements, sent their forces north to intercept them before they could close on the freighters. At 09:45 on 27 November, an IMAM Ro.43 reconnaissance floatplane from the heavy cruiser Bolzano discovered a British squadron steaming to the east, 17 nmi (31 km; 20 mi) north of Chetaïbi.

Shortly after, at 9:56, Admiral James Somerville received the report of his own aircraft from the carrier Ark Royal about the presence of five cruisers and five destroyers, and assumed that these were Italian units closing for battle. Force D had not yet arrived from Alexandria and the British were outgunned but 15 minutes later, Force D was spotted and the tables turned. The two forces were fairly even; although the Italian ships possessed larger and longer-ranged guns, the British had an aircraft carrier, which had shown several advantages over the battleship at Taranto. The Italian admiral, Inigo Campioni, had been given orders to avoid combat unless it was in his favour, making a decisive battle unlikely.

Somerville deployed his forces into two main groups, with five cruisers (Rear-Admiral Lancelot Holland) in front and two battleships and seven destroyers in a second group following to the south. Further to the south, Ark Royal was preparing to launch its Swordfish. The Italians had organised their fleet into three groups, two composed of the six heavy cruisers and seven of the destroyers and a third group of the two battleships and another seven escorting destroyers bringing up the rear. At 12:07, after a report received from the cruiser Gorizia's floatplane, Campioni realized the closeness in strengths of the two forces and in accordance with his orders commanded the cruiser groups to re-form on the battleships and prepare to depart. By this point, the lead cruiser formation had already angled toward the British and was beginning to engage them in battle.

At 12:22, the lead groups of both cruiser forces came into range and Fiume opened fire at 23,500 m (77,100 ft). Fire was exchanged as the distance between them closed, but as the range shortened Italian firepower began to put pressure on the outgunned British. The arrival of the battleship HMS Ramillies on the British side helped to even the odds but she was too slow to maintain formation and dropped out of battle after a few salvoes at 12:26. Four minutes later, Vice-Admiral Angelo Iachino, commander of the Italian cruiser group, received orders to disengage, although the battle had swung slightly in their favour. Iachino ordered an increase in speed to 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph), laid smoke and started to withdraw.

The Italian destroyer Lanciere was hit by a broadside from HMS Manchester and seriously damaged, although she was towed to port after the battle. The heavy cruiser HMS Berwick was hit at 12:22 by a 203 mm (8.0 in) shell, which knocked out "Y" turret, killed seven men, wounded nine others and ignited a fire that took an hour to subdue. A second hit at 12:35 destroyed the after breaker (electrical switchboard) room and cut power to the ship's aft section, including the remaining aft turret. Most sources believe that the first hit was scored by an Italian heavy cruiser from the 1º Cruiser Division, either from Fiume or Pola, The second round came from the 3º Cruiser Division, either from Trieste or Trento, at the time the only Italian warships within range.

HMS Southampton was also hit once, by either Gorizia, Fiume, Pola, Trieste or Trento; the shell hit her belt at about 18,000 m (59,000 ft) range. At around 12:40, eleven Swordfish from Ark Royal attacked Vittorio Veneto with torpedoes, but did not score any hits.

For the next few minutes, the tables turned in favour of the British when the battlecruiser HMS Renown closed the distance on the Italian cruisers and straddled Trieste with two salvoes, hitting it with splinters. At 13:00, Vittorio Veneto opened fire from 27,000 m (89,000 ft). Vittorio Veneto fired 19 rounds in seven salvoes from long range and that was enough for the outgunned British cruisers, which turned back at the fourth salvo. As giant water-spouts erupted around Berwick and Manchester, Holland ordered smoke and his ships fled south-east to close with Renown. Manchester was holed by splinters from Vittorio Veneto's rounds. Both forces withdrew, the battle lasting for 54 minutes and causing little damage to either side.

Aftermath

After the battle Winston Churchill wanted Somerville to be replaced, having questioned his offensive spirit ever since his objections to attacking the French at the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir. A board of inquiry exonerated Somerville, who enjoyed the strong support of several fellow admirals. As for Campioni, although he had a mandate to be conservative, he had presided over the loss of Italy's best opportunity to deal the British a sharp setback in a fleet action. His days of command at sea were numbered. As Iachino remarked, "the use of these ships, which constituted at that moment nearly all of our fleet's effective units after the blow at Taranto, was decided by Supermarina mainly for reasons of morale and to demonstrate that our combative spirit remained intact."

Popular culture

The battle features in the 1941 Italian film The White Ship directed by Roberto Rossellini.

Order of battle

Regia Marina

• Admiral Angelo Iachino
  • 6 heavy cruisers: Bolzano, Fiume, Gorizia, Pola, Trieste, Trento
  • 7 destroyers: Ascari, Carabiniere, Lanciere (damaged), Alfredo Oriani, Vittorio Alfieri, Giosuè Carducci, Vincenzo Gioberti
• Admiral Inigo Campioni
  • 2 battleships: Vittorio Veneto, Giulio Cesare
  • 7 destroyers: Alpino, Bersagliere, Fuciliere, Granatiere, Dardo, Freccia, Saetta

Royal Navy

• Admiral Sir James Somerville Force H (from Gibraltar)
  • 1 battlecruiser: Renown
  • 2 light cruisers: Sheffield*, Despatch (covered convoy)
  • 1 aircraft carrier: Ark Royal (12 Fairey Fulmar fighters, 12 Blackburn Skua dive bombers, 30 Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers)
  • 9 destroyers
• Admiral Andrew Cunningham Force D (from Alexandria)
  • 1 battleship: Ramillies
  • 3 cruisers: Berwick*, Coventry (covered convoy), Newcastle*
  • 5 destroyers
• Admiral Lancelot Holland Force F (convoy escort)
  • 2 light cruisers: Manchester*, Southampton*
  • 1 destroyer: Hotspur
  • 4 corvettes: Gloxinia, Hyacinth, Peony, Salvia

'*'Cruiser force detached under Holland: 1 heavy cruiser: Berwick (damaged) and 4 light cruisers: Manchester (slightly damaged), Newcastle, Sheffield, Southampton

destroyers which approached the battle: Encounter, Faulknor, Firedrake, Forester, Fury, Hotspur

destroyers escorting Ark Royal during the battle: Jaguar, Kelvin

destroyers covering the convoy during the battle: Defender, Duncan, Gallant, Greyhound, Griffin, Hereward, Wishart

• Convoy
  • 3 freighters: Clan Forbes, Clan Fraser, New Zealand Star

See also

• Jean Chiappe – thought to have died during the battle after the mail plane he was travelling in, La Verrier, was shot-down.

References

• Green, Jack & Massignani, Alessandro. The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1940-1943, Chatham Publishing, London 1998. ISBN 1-885119-61-5
• O'Hara, Vincent P.: Struggle for the Middle Sea, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2009. ISBN 978-1-59114-648-3.
• Shores, Cull and Malizia. Malta: The Hurricane Years (1940–41). Grub Street, London, 1999. ISBN 0-948817-06-2
• Stern, Robert C. (2015). Big Gun Battles: Warship Duels of the Second World War. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 1-4738-4969-1.

Further reading

• Bragadin, M. (1957) [1948]. Fioravanzo, G. (ed.). The Italian Navy in World War II. Translated by Hoffman, G. (Eng. trans. ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. OCLC 602717421.
• Dannreuther, Raymond (2005). Somerville's Force H: The Royal Navy's Gibraltar-based Fleet, June 1940 to March 1942. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 1-84513-020-0.
• Hague, Arnold (2000). The Allied Convoy System 1939–1945. London: Chatham. ISBN 1-86176-147-3.
• Playfair, I. S. O.; et al. (1959) [1954]. Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The Mediterranean and Middle East: The Early Successes Against Italy (to May 1941). History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. Vol. I (4th impr. ed.). HMSO. OCLC 494123451. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
• Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (3rd rev. ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
• Roskill, S. W. (1957) [1954]. Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The War at Sea 1939–1945: The Defensive. History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. Vol. I (4th impr. ed.). London: HMSO. OCLC 881709135. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
• Woodman, Richard (2003). Malta Convoys 1940–1943. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7195-6408-6.

External links

• The Battle of Cape Teulada
• Battaglia di Capo Teulada - Plancia di Commando (in Italian)

Media related to Battle of Cape Spartivento at Wikimedia Commons