Battle off Zuwarah
| Battle off Zuwarah | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean of World War II | |||||||
 HMS Javelin (1941) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United Kingdom |
 Italy | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Michael Townsend | Giuseppe Di Bartolo † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 2 destroyers |
6 minesweepers 1 trawler 1 patrol boat 1 pump boat[1] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 7 wounded |
180 killed 6 minesweepers sunk 1 trawler sunk 1 patrol boat sunk 1 pump boat sunk[2] | ||||||
The Battle off Zuwarah (19/20 January 1943) was a night encounter during the Second World War. The battle took place in Libyan waters between the Royal Navy and the Regia Marina. An Italian flotilla of small minesweepers and auxiliary vessels evacuating Tripoli was destroyed by two British destroyers.
Background
[edit]On 15 January 1943, the destroyers HMS Kelvin and HMS Nubian, blockading the port of Tripoli in Libya, had forced the Italian torpedo boat Perseo to retire damaged and then sunk the 4,537 GRT D'Annunzio, a merchant ship trying to escape from Tripoli, on 15 January. On the night of 19/20 January, the British destroyers Kelvin and Javelin patrolled off Zuwarah, about 55 nmi (102 km; 63 mi) west of Tripoli, to cut off the escape of the last Italian ships from Tripoli.[3]
Prelude
[edit]The Type 271 radar on Javelin detected ships heading west towards the Tunisian coast, from the direction of Tripoli. The ships were the Tripoli minesweeping flotilla (Lieutenant Giuseppe Di Bartolo), which had been ordered to leave the city for Tunisia and then to Italy, to avoid capture. The flotilla was made up of four small minesweeping tugs (RD 31, RD 36, RD 37 and RD 39, of which RD 36 and 37 had Italian Guardia di Finanza crews; the naval trawler Scorfano, the largest ship in the convoy, the small tanker Irma; the auxiliary minesweepers DM 12 Guglielmo Marconi (a requisitioned brigantine); R 26 Angelo Musco and R 224 Cinzia (two former fishing vessels); the auxiliary patrol vessel V 66 Astrea (a motor sailing vessel) and the pump boat S. Barbara (towed by Scorfano).[2]
Battle
[edit]
Javelin and Kelvin moved to intercept the Italian ships, fired star shells to illuminate them and then mistook the vessels for an Italian convoy.[2] The Italians were able neither to fight back (the RD minesweepers being armed with a 76 mm gun and two 6.5 mm machine-guns each, while the other ships carried only machine guns) nor to escape, being slower than the destroyers. RD 36, the flotilla leader, tried to cover the retreat of the other ships but was soon sunk with all hands. The other vessels, fleeing towards the coast to allow their crews to escape, were picked off one-by-one. RD 37 and Scorfano were sunk with no survivors; Marconi was set on fire but all of her crew escaped before she sank and Irma was finished off with a torpedo.[4]
Aftermath
[edit]Analysis
[edit]By the morning of 20 January, the flotilla had been annihilated. Kelvin had expended 300 rounds of 4.7-inch ammunition and Javelin 500 rounds.[2] Javelin and Kelvin quickly headed for Malta, where they arrived safely the next day.[5] RD 36 and its crew were awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valour for the action against overwhelming odds.[citation needed]
Casualties
[edit]The Italians suffered 180 fatal casualties and the survivors either swam ashore or were picked up by Italian vessels the next day.[citation needed]
Orders of battle
[edit]British destroyers
[edit]| Name | Flag | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| HMS Kelvin |  Royal Navy
|
K-class destroyer | Fired 300 4.7-inch shells, returned to Malta |
| HMS Nubian | Royal Navy
|
Tribal-class destroyer | Fired 500 4.7-inch shells, returned to Malta |
Italian convoy
[edit]| Name | Flag | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| RD 31 | Kingdom of Italy
|
RD 31-class minesweeper | Guardia di Finanza, sunk |
| RD 36 | Kingdom of Italy
|
RD 31-class minesweeper | Guardia di Finanza flag Giuseppe Di Bartolo, sunk |
| RD 37 | Kingdom of Italy
|
RD 31-class minesweeper | Guardia di Finanza, sunk |
| RD 39 | Kingdom of Italy
|
RD 31-class minesweeper | Guardia di Finanza, sunk |
| Scorfano | Kingdom of Italy
|
Naval trawler | Towed Santa Barbara, sunk |
| R 224 Cinzia | Kingdom of Italy
|
Auxiliary minesweeper | 71 GRT, sunk |
| DM 12 Guglielmo Marconi | Kingdom of Italy
|
Auxiliary minesweeper | Brigantine, 304 GRT, sunk |
| R 26 Angelo Musco | Kingdom of Italy
|
Auxiliary minesweeper | 69 GRT, sunk |
| Irma | Kingdom of Italy
|
Tanker | 305 GRT, sunk |
| V 66 Astrea | Kingdom of Italy
|
Tanker | 136 GRT, sunk |
| Santa Barbara | Kingdom of Italy
|
Barge | Towed by Scorfano, sunk |
Footnotes
[edit]- ^ Tomblin 2004, p. 104.
- ^ a b c d e f O'Hara 2009, p. 206.
- ^ O'Hara 2009, pp. 205–206.
- ^ Cuccuru 2007; Dragamine 2025.
- ^ Langtree 2002, p. 157.
References
[edit]- Cuccuru, Salvatorico (2007). "Dragamine 36" [Minesweeper 36] (PDF). Retrieved 14 May 2025.
- "La distruzione dei piccoli dragamine" [The Destruction of the small Minesweepers]. 2025. Retrieved 14 May 2025.
- Langtree, Christopher (2002). The Kelly's: British J, K, and N Class Destroyers of World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-422-7.
- O'Hara, Vincent P. (2009). Struggle for the Middle Sea. London: Conway. ISBN 978-1-84486-102-6.
- Tomblin, Barbara (2004). With Utmost Spirit: Allied Naval Operations in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-7198-2.
Further reading
[edit]- Bragadin, Marc'Antonio (1957). The Italian Navy in World War II. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute. OCLC 974408748.
- Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard (2005) [1972]. Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (3rd rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-257-7.
- Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia (Part 2). Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.
