 Several weeks later, she made a cautious transit of the recently mined Suez Canal and reached Alexandria on 10 March. 829 Squadron was issued Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers to replace its losses around this time. On 20 March Formidable escorted a convoy to Malta and flew off five aircraft for Crete while returning to Alexandria. On the morning of 27 March, major elements of the Italian Fleet were spotted en route to the sea lanes between Egypt and Greece and the carrier sailed later that afternoon to intercept them. Reinforced by three Fulmars from 806 Squadron, her air group only numbered 13 Fulmars, 10 Albacores and 4 Swordfish. An Albacore spotted the leading Italian ships the next morning; a strike force of six Albacores was loaded with torpedoes and began to attack the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto. Two German Junkers Ju 88 bombers intervened, but they were driven off by the escorting pair of Fulmars. The attack was unsuccessful and another strike force of three Albacores and two Swordfish was prepared. Shortly after launching them at 12: 22, Formidable was unsuccessfully attacked by a pair of torpedo-carrying Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bombers. Around 14: 50, one Albacore succeeded in torpedoing the Italian battleship, although the other aircraft missed. The hit briefly knocked out her engines and caused heavy flooding. Another air strike of six Albacores and two Swordfish was launched at 17: 30 to finish off the crippled battleship, but they mistook the Italian cruiser Pola for the battleship in the fading light. The cruiser was struck by a single torpedo from one of the aircraft, possibly from one of two Swordfish from 815 Squadron from Maleme, Crete, that linked up with Formidable's aircraft before the attack. The mistake allowed the battleship to reach port. One Albacore was shot down by Vittorio Veneto and two others were forced to ditch after running out of fuel during the day's operations.
