Battle of Cape Matapan: World War II Italian Naval Massacre

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On July 9, 1940, the Royal Navy caught the Italians off the coast of Calabria, where a first-round hit was scored by the battleship HMS Warspite on the battleship Giulio Cesare, disabling her for months. On July 19, at the Battle of Cape Spada, the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney, along with five destroyers, attacked two Italian light cruisers, sinking one and damaging the other. During night action on October 12, Italian destroyers and torpedo boats challenged a British cruiser south of Malta. Unfortunately for the Italians, the cruiser turned out to be the veteran HMS Ajax, which was equipped with radar, a technological advancement unknown in the Italian navy. Ajax was able to sink a destroyer and two torpedo boats, leaving the Italians defeated and bewildered. On November 11, the British Fleet Air Arm bombed the port of Taranto. The results were impressive by any standard, with three battleships sunk including the new 42,000-ton Littorio, at a cost of two Fairey Swordfish biplanes.

When Ultra intelligence reported in March 1941 that Italian warships were to set sail, even the normally phlegmatic Cunningham was delighted by the opportunity this presented. Fortunately, because of recent operations around Greece, the bulk of the Royal Navy was already deployed in the eastern Mediterranean. The 2nd Destroyer Flotilla and the light cruiser squadron under Vice Adm. Henry D. Pridham-Wippell at Piraeus, Greece, were alerted. At Alexandria lay the 1st Battleship Squadron, consisting of three of the proudest battleships in the Royal Navy — Warspite, Barham and Valiant — along with four destroyers from the 14th Destroyer Flotilla. In support, having just arrived in the area, was the aircraft carrier Formidable, loaded with 14 torpedo bombers. Most were Fairey Albacores, the marginally improved successor to the Sword-fish biplane. Also on board were 13 Fairey Fulmar fighters, slow but heavily armed.

On the night of March 26, 1941, Admiral Iachino left the port of Naples on his flagship Vittorio Veneto with four destroyers to rendezvous with three additional cruiser divisions in the Strait of Messina. From Brindisi came the 8th Division, composed of two of the best light cruisers in the Italian navy, Garibaldi and Abruzzi, along with two destroyers. These cruisers carried 10 6-inch guns as well as heavier armor protection.

The 1st Division from Taranto, under Admiral Carlo Cattaneo, consisted of the heavy cruisers Pola, Zara and Fiume, along with four destroyers. Last was the 3rd Division from Messina, Sicily, under Admiral Luigi Sansonetti, with the heavy cruisers Trieste, Trento and Bolzano, accompanied by three destroyers. With the exception of Bolzano, these warships were poorly designed and functionally obsolescent, having been launched in the mid-1920s. Above all else, what Iachino’s ships lacked was the technological breakthrough of the age — radar. Iachino also lacked confidence in his intelligence service and brought along his own cryptographer, who would be useful in deciphering some types of messages.

Things seemed to go wrong for the Italians from the start. Promised air support for the morning of March 27 never materialized. That afternoon, a British Short Sunderland reconnaissance plane from Crete spotted the Italian ships while they were still in the Aegean.

Iachino now knew that he had lost the element of surprise. Nevertheless, he decided to wait for Rome to make the decision to terminate the operation. Rome, however, was more influenced by political ramifications than military considerations and decided to modify, rather than terminate, the mission. At 1800 hours Iachino was advised that as a consequence of the Sunderland identification the sweep north of Crete by the 1st Cruiser Division would be canceled, and the fleet would concentrate its forces south of the island and sweep northward past Cape Matapan at the southern tip of Greece. When Cunningham received the decoded message from the Sunderland confirming that the Italians were at sea, he ordered Pridham-Wippell to rendezvous with his 1st Battleship Squadron south of Gaudo. Should Pridham-Wippell encounter the Italians prior to the meeting, he was to lure them southeastward toward the 15-inch guns of his battleships.

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, Naval Battles, World War II

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