In the Battle of Calabria ("Battaglia di Punta Stilo"), "Regia Marina" escorts (two battleships, 14 cruisers and 32 destroyers) of an Italian convoy engaged the battleships , and and the aircraft carrier . The British cruisers and destroyers covered two convoys heading from Malta to Alexandria. The first, Malta Fast 1 (MF 1)/Malta East 1 (ME 1), was composed of "El Nil", "Knight of Malta" and "Rodi"; the second, Malta Slow 1 (MS 1)/ME 1 was composed of "Kirkland", "Masirah", "Novasli", "Tweed" and "Zeeland".