Battle of the Campobasso Convoy

Battle of the Campobasso Convoy
	Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean of World War II
	; HMS Petard photographed from HMS Formidable, December 1943
Date	3-4 May 1943
Location	Off Cape Bon, Mediterranean Sea36°45′N 10°45′E / 36.750°N 10.750°E
Result	British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Italy
Commanders and leaders
Deric Holland-Martin	Saverio Marotta †
Strength
3 destroyers	1 torpedo boat ; 1 merchantman
Casualties and losses
No casualties	76 men killed (Italian merchant navy); 133 men killed (Italian Navy): Total: 209; 103 men rescued ; 1 torpedo boat sunk ; 1 merchantman sunk

The Battle of the Campobasso Convoy was a naval engagement between three British Royal Navy destroyers and an Italian Regia Marina torpedo boat which took place off Cape Bon in the Mediterranean sea on the night of 3/4 May 1943. The Italians were escorting the 3,566 gross register ton (GRT) freighter Campobasso to Tunisia.

Background

As the North Africa campaign neared its conclusion, HMS Paladin and HMS Nubian of Force K patrolled the waters off Cape Bon. On the night of 29/30 April, the destroyers made a sweep along the south coast of Sicily and encountered the merchant ship Fauna (575 gross register tons (GRT) escorted by German E-boats. The British destroyers sank Fauna without loss.^[1]

Prelude

A few days later, alerted by signals intelligence, Nubian, Paladin and HMS Petard, were sent to wait in ambush for an Italian convoy. The Italian merchant ship Campobasso (3,566 GRT) had left Pantelleria island at 19:00 on 3 May, loaded with bombs, land-mines, motor transport and other supplies to the Axis forces in Tunisia. The merchant ship was joined by its escort, the Italian torpedo boat Perseo commanded by Saverio Marotta, soon after departure.^[2]

The two ships undertook a winding course through the Axis and Allied minefields.^[2] On the night of 3/4 May off Kelibia on the Cape Bon peninsula, the British destroyers picked up radar contacts of vessels heading towards the Tunisian coast.^[3] Perseo, equipped with a Metox radar detector, was alerted to the transmissions from the British destroyers and signalled a warning to Supermarina, the headquarters of the Regia Marina, that the convoy had been found.^[4]

Action

Map of Tunisia showing Cape Bon (top right)

At 23:35 star shells burst overhead when the Italian ships were about 7 nmi (8.1 mi; 13 km) east of Kelibia (Cape Bon) and Campobasso was hit soon after and caught fire. After the action a crewman on Perseo wrote

Remembering the previous 15 January everyone knew what would happen; immediately the torpedo boat turned towards the enemy to launch.^[4]

Perseo launched its two starboard torpedoes from 700 yd (640 m) then sailed at full speed to the north-west towards Cape Bon. Campobasso exploded at 23:48 illuminating Perseo. The British ships fired more star shell and Perseo began abrupt evasive action until 23:52 when its rudder suffered a mechanical fault. Before the crew could steer manually the hull was hit by two shells then more shells hit the bridge and the engine rooms. Steam escaped from the hull and covered the deck as the engines stopped operating. The British destroyers came as close as 500 yd (460 m), firing their main guns and anti-aircraft armament and at 23:58 Marotta ordered the ship to be abandoned. Perseo remained afloat for about an hour, when the magazine exploded and the ship sank by the stern at 01:00.^[5] The next day the Italian hospital ship Principessa Giovanna picked up four survivors from Campobasso (twenty men reached the coast in a lifeboat) and 67 from Perseo. On 6 May the hospital ship was bombed and damaged by Allied aircraft, with 54 men killed and 52 wounded.^[3]

Aftermath

Casualties

The crew of Campobasso suffered 73 fatal casualties out of the crew of 93 men; the complement of Perseo suffered 133 fatalities and 83 men were rescued; Marotta was among those killed.^[5]

Subsequent operations

A second convoy, led by the Ciclone-class torpedo boat Tifone, loaded with aviation spirit, escorted the merchant ship Belluno to Tunis from Trapani and managed to evade the British destroyers, after witnessing the destruction of Campobasso. The Tifone convoy arrived on 4 May and was the last Axis supply run to reach Africa during the war.^[6]^[1] Another Italian convoy comprising the Italian lighter MZ 724 and the water supply ship Scrivia sailed on 4 May and evacuated 200 Italian troops from Bizerte, reaching Cagliari undetected the following day.^[7]

Operation Retribution

Cassiopea, another Spica-class torpedo boat

As Axis airfields in Tunisia were captured, Allied fighters could escort Allied ships in the seas between Tunisia and Sicily, making day patrols feasible. Allied convoys along the coast and to Malta were stopped to divert their escorts to the blockade of Tunisia. Aircraft were to attack Axis ships within 5 nmi (5.8 mi; 9.3 km) of the Tunisian shore and beyond the limit, Allied ships would have freedom of movement. British mines had been timed to sink in early May and intelligence on Axis minefields was judged sufficient to risk sailing in some areas.^[8]

From the night of 8/9 May, Paladin, with HMS Jervis, Petard and Nubian, from Force K bombarded Kelibia on 7 and 9 May and with Force Q based at Bône, comprising HMS Laforey, Loyal, Tartar and ORP Błyskawica with the Hunt-class destroyers HMS Zetland, Lamerton, Aldenham, Hursley, Wilton, Dulverton, Lauderdale and RHS Kanaris maintained a daylight blockade off Cape Bon but had to paint their superstructures red to avoid attacks by friendly aircraft.^[9]

British Motor Gun Boats, Motor Torpedo Boats and US PT boats patrolled closer inshore at night. Allied superiority was so great that Supermarina decided that an evacuation attempt would be futile. Sporadic attempts were made to flee Tunisia; after 7 May, the German KT 22, some Axis torpedo boats and MAS boats (Motoscafo armato silurante) were the only vessels to run the blockade. By the Axis surrender, the blockading vessels had taken 800 prisoners.^[9]^{[lower-alpha 1]}

Notes

↑ Rohwer and Hümmelchen (2005) recorded 700 prisoners.^[1]

Footnotes

1 2 3 Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, p. 248.
1 2 O'Hara 2009, p. 210; Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, p. 248.
1 2 O'Hara 2009, pp. 210–211.
1 2 O'Hara 2009, p. 210.
1 2 O'Hara 2009, p. 211.
↑ Giorgerini 2002, p. 556.
↑ "W 1 - Marina Militare". www.marina.difesa.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on 7 September 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
↑ Playfair et al. 2004, p. 424.
1 2 Playfair et al. 2004, p. 424; O'Hara 2009, p. 211.

References

Giorgerini, Giorgio (2002). La guerra italiana sul mare. La Marina tra vittoria e sconfitta 1940–1943 [The Italian War on the Sea. The Navy between Victory and Defeat 1940–1943] (in Italian). Milano: Mondadori. ISBN 978-8-80-450150-3.
O'Hara, V. P. (2009). Struggle for the Middle Sea. London: Conway. ISBN 978-1-84486-102-6.
Playfair, I. S. O.; Molony, C. J. C.; Flynn, F. C.; Gleave, T. P. (2004) [1966]. Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The Mediterranean and Middle East: The Destruction of the Axis Forces in Africa. History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. Vol. IV (pbk. repr. Naval & Military Press, Uckfield ed.). London: HMSO. ISBN 978-1-84574-068-9.
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. ISBN 1-86176-257-7.