Operation Harpoon (1942)

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Operation Harpoon

Light cruiser Eugenio di Savoia, Admiral Da Zara's flag ship

Date	12 June - 15 June 1942
Location	Western Mediterranean, towards Malta
Result	Substantial Italian victory

Combatants

United Kingdom

Italy

Commanders

Henry Harwood

Alberto da Zara

Strength

2 aircraft carriers
1 battleship
4 cruiser
9 destroyers
1 minesweeper
6 merchant ships

2 light cruisers
5 destroyers
unknown number of aircraft

Casualties

2 destroyers sunk
4 merchant ships sunk
2 light cruiser damaged
5 destroyers damaged
1 minesweeper damaged
1 merchant ship damaged

1 destroyer damaged

Mediterranean Campaign
Mers-el-Kebir – Calabria – Spada – Taranto – Spartivento – Matapan – Tarigo – Crete – Duisburg – Bon – 1st Sirte – 2nd Sirte – Harpoon – Vigorous–Pedestal – Torch – Skerki – Sicily

In World War II, Operation Harpoon was one of two simultaneous Allied convoys sent to supply Malta in the Axis-dominated Mediterranean Sea in mid-June 1942. One convoy, Operation Vigorous, left Alexandria. The other, Harpoon, travelled in the opposite direction from Gibraltar. Both convoys met with fierce Axis opposition and only two of seventeen merchant ships completed the journey, at the cost of several Allied warships.

They were followed by Operation Pedestal.

1 Background
2 The convoy
3 The operation
4 Aftermath
5 Footnotes
6 External reference
7 Sources

[edit] Background

Until the French surrender and Italy's declaration of war, the Mediterranean had been an Allied "lake". The French Fleet and the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet dominated the only potential and credible adversary, Italy's Regia Marina.

The French surrender and its consequences changed that. The French Fleet became a potentially potent threat in Axis hands and so was, in part, destroyed, adding to French antipathy towards the British. French bases in North Africa ceased to offer protection to Allied, ie, British, shipping. The Regia Marina possessed potent modern warships, particularly battleships and heavy cruisers, and Italian and Libyan territory provided centrally located naval and air bases that could cut British supply routes. The fall of Greece and Crete in 1941 extended the reach of Axis forces which were consequently able to intercept Allied shipping from Alexandria and Suez by air.

Italian and German armies in Libyan territory also threatened Egypt and the control of the strategically important Suez Canal. A catastrophe in Egypt might in turn lead to destabilisation of Britain's control of Middle Eastern oil supplies, or even worse, to the Axis gaining control of them. This apocalyptic scenario depended upon Axis forces in North Africa receiving adequate supplies from Italy.

Malta threatened this Axis supply route, but itself needed regular resupply and reinforcement, in order to be effective and to resist Axis invasion.

By mid-June, 1942, Malta's supply situation had deteriorated. The Luftwaffe had joined the Regia Aeronautica to isolate and starve the island and it had become untenable as an offensive base. Axis armies had advanced into Egypt and Crete thereby acquiring their own advance bases and denying the British safety over much of the eastern Mediterranean.

Fresh aircraft were regularly flown in to Malta, but food and fuel were diminishing. In response, the British invested large amounts of effort to ensure resupply. Two convoys, codenamed Harpoon and Vigorous, were gathered, sailing simultaneously to split the Axis opposition.

A series of British naval disasters^[1] in the Mediterranean allowed the Regia Marina to gain naval supremacy in the central Mediterranean. The Italian Fleet took advantage of the situation and moved onto the offensive, blocking or decimating at least three large British convoys bound for Malta. This led to a number of naval engagements, such as the Second Battle of Sirte, the Battle of Mid-June or Operation Harpoon (plus Operation Vigorous) and finally to Operation Pedestal, all of them favourable to the Axis. The only real success of the Italian Fleet, however, was the attack on the Harpoon convoy.

[edit] The convoy

The Italian Poeti class destroyer Oriani at full speed. Water-colour taken from the Regia Marina's official photo.

Harpoon left Gibraltar on the 12th June 1942, comprising six merchantmen (Troilus, Burdwan and Orari from Britain; Tanimbar from Holland and the Chant and Kentucky from the USA) carrying a total of 43,000 tons of cargo and oil. They were escorted by a cruiser (HMS Cairo), nine destroyers, a mine-layer (HMS Abdiel) and smaller ships. Distant cover was provided by the battleship HMS Malaya, aircraft carriers HMS Argus and Eagle, cruisers HMS Kenya, Charybdis, Liverpool and destroyers.^[2]

[edit] The operation

The first Italian air attacks, on the 14th, sunk one freighter, the Tanimbar, south of Sardinia. The cruiser HMS Liverpool was damaged and returned to Gibraltar. Later on the same day, the covering force also returned to Gibraltar, just before the Strait of Sicily.^[3]

Italian Condottieri class Cruiser Montecuccoli.

Next day, the 15th, the now lightly defended convoy was subjected to a coordinated attack, near Pantellaria, by Axis aircraft and the ships of the Italian 7th Division (cruisers Raimondo Montecuccoli, Eugenio di Savoia and destroyers Ascari, Oriani, Malocello, Premuda and Vivaldi), commanded by Vice-Admiral Alberto da Zara.

The five fleet destroyers in the convoy escort made to attack the Italian squadron but the Tribal class destroyer HMS Bedouin and the P class destroyer HMS Partridge were hit by gunfire from both Italian cruisers and disabled.

Partridge was recovered and managed to make back for Gibraltar, but Bedouin, already shattered by at least twelve 6" shells and several near misses, was finally sunk by aerial torpedoes. Twenty-eight of her crew died and more than 200 were taken POWs.^[4]

An artist's impression of the end of SS Kentucky, in flames after being hit by a 6 inch salvo from Italian Cruiser Montecuccoli. Later she was torpedoed and sunk by the destroyer Oriani. (From an aerial reconnaissance photo taken by the Regia Aeronautica Italiana and published by an Italian magazine on June 24, 1942.)

Three more merchantmen (the 10,000 ton tanker Kentucky, Chant and the freighter Burdwan) were disabled by air attack, abandoned and later sunk by gunfire and torpedoes from the Montecuccoli and the destroyers Ascari and Oriani. The Chant had already been send to the bottom by aerial bombs when the Italian squadron found her still smoldering wreckage site.^[5] The cruiser HMS Cairo and the minesweeper HMS Hebe also received hits from Italian gunfire. In return, the Italian destroyer Vivaldi was struck by her British counterparts and caught fire, but was taking in tow and saved by the Malocello and the Premuda.^[6]

Another Regia Marina 7th Division victim: The crippled destroyer HMS Bedouin was finished off by an aerial torpedo from a Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bomber.

In the evening of the 15th, the surviving ships ran into a minefield off Malta. Two destroyers and another freighter (Orari) struck mines there and the Polish destroyer (ORP Kujawiak) sank next day.^[7]

Just two of the original six merchantmen reached Malta, the Orari and Troilus, the former losing some of her cargo due to the mine explosion. HMS Hebe also struck a mine and suffered further damaged, but after a month in drydock she was seaworthy again.^[8]

[edit] Aftermath

This was the only undisputed squadron-size victory for the Italian surface forces in World War II.^[9] However, it should be remembered that, at this stage, any supplies reaching Malta were an Allied success. But those supplies were insufficient and fuel for the Malta's RAF contingent was running low, in great part due to the sinking of the Kentucky.

The next, and critical, convoy was Operation Pedestal: it would decide the fate of Malta.

[edit] Footnotes

^ See First Battle of Sirte and Luigi Durand De La Penne articles
^ Woodman, pp. 329-330
^ Thomas, page 158
^ Greene & Massignani, page 238
^ Bragadin, page 184
^ Bragadin, page 181
^ Woodman, pp. 343-344. Twenty-five men of the Kujawiak complement loss their lives
^ Bragadin, page 185
^ Greene & Massignani, page 238