page_title: Raid on Souda Bay
section_title: The attack
hierarchical_section_title: Raid on Souda Bay / The attack
caption_attribution_description: The Royal Navy heavy cruiser HMS York (90) and the tanker Pericles , both damaged, at Souda Bay, Crete, in May 1941. A Short Sunderland flying boat is landing between them.
context_page_description: The Raid on Souda Bay was an assault by Italian Royal Navy small craft on Souda Bay, Crete, during the first hours of 26 March 1941. The Royal Navy heavy cruiser HMS York and the Norwegian tanker Pericles were disabled by the Italian motor launches and eventually lost.
context_section_description: At 23:30, the MT were released by the destroyers 10 mi (8.7 nmi; 16 km) off Souda. Once inside the bay, the six boats, under the command of Lieutenant Luigi Faggioni, identified their targets: the heavy cruiser HMS York, a large tanker (the Norwegian Pericles of 8,300 long tons (8,400 t)), another tanker and a cargo ship. At 4:46, two MTs hit HMS York amidships, flooding her aft boilers and magazines, and the ship was beached by her own crew to avoid capsizing. Two seamen were killed by the explosions. Pericles was severely damaged and settled on the bottom, while the other tanker and the cargo ship were sunk, according to Italian sources. According to British reports, the other barchini apparently missed their intended targets, and one of them ended stranded on the beach. The antiaircraft guns of the base opened fire randomly, believing that the base was under air attack.
  All six of the Italian sailors: Luigi Faggioni, Alessio de Vito, Emilio Barberi, Angelo Cabrini, Tullio Tedeschi, and Lino Beccati, were captured.
caption: York and Pericles both crippled and beached. A Short Sunderland flying boat is landing between them
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