page_title: Second Battle of Sirte
section_title: The battle
hierarchical_section_title: Second Battle of Sirte / The battle
caption_attribution_description: IWM caption&#160;: ROYAL NAVY CONVOY FROM ALEXANDRIA TO MALTA MEETS AND ENGAGES ITALIAN WARSHIPS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. HMS CLEOPATRA throws out smoke to shield the convoy as HMS EURYALUS elevates her forward 5.25 inch guns to shell the Italian Fleet. Comment&#160;: This was the Second Battle of Sirte.
context_page_description: The Second Battle of Sirte was a naval engagement on 22 March 1942 in which the escorting warships of a British convoy to Malta held off a much more powerful Regia Marina squadron. The British convoy was composed of four merchant ships escorted by four light cruisers, one anti-aircraft cruiser, and 17 destroyers. The Italian force comprised a battleship, two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and ten destroyers. Despite the initial British success at warding off the Italian squadron, the Italian Fleet attack delayed the convoy's planned arrival before dawn, which exposed it to intense air attacks that sank all four merchant ships and one of the escorting destroyers in the following days. The battle occurred in the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Gulf of Sidra and southeast of Malta, during the Second World War.
context_section_description: At 14:30 the next day, the British were faced by a pair of heavy cruisers and escorting destroyers. Admiral Vian immediately implemented his plan; the cargo ships and escorts turned away to the south while the light cruisers and remaining destroyers laid smoke and charged the Italians. After an exchange of fire, the two Italian heavy cruisers backed off in an attempt to lure the British toward the incoming main Italian squadron, and at 16:37 they returned to attack with the battleship Littorio, a light cruiser and their screening destroyers.
  The battle raged for two and a half hours, with the British ships leaving the safety of their huge smoke screen to fire a few volleys and then returning to it when the Italian salvos got too close. During one of these exchanges, Havock suffered heavy damage from a near-miss when fired at by the Italian battleship, and was ordered to withdraw from the battle line and join the convoy. At 18:34, Vian decided to send his destroyers in to launch torpedo attacks from about 5,000 yd (4,600 m), the closest the Italians would allow the British to approach. None of the torpedoes found their targets, but as Kingston turned she was hit hard by a round which penetrated her boiler room, ignited a fire and temporarily brought her to a halt. The battle began with a 25 kn (29 mph; 46 km/h) wind blowing to the North-west, with the wind continuing to increase during the day; a factor which favoured the gunnery of the larger Italian ships throughout the battle, but the direction of the wind aided the laying of smokescreens by Vian's ships.
  Lively was also struck by shell splinters from the battleship's main guns that pierced a bulkhead, causing some flooding but no casualties.
  Right at the end of the action, at 18:55, Littorio had been hit by a 4.7 in (120 mm) shell, with negligible damage. Her floatplane caught fire from the blast from a salvo of her after turret at the same time. This led to the claim by the British that one of the torpedoes struck home.
  At dusk, before 19:00, the Italians gave up and turned for home. Without radar, they would have been at a significant disadvantage in a night action, as in the Battle of Cape Matapan.
  The Italians outgunned their British counterparts but they appeared unwilling to close for a decisive blow, perhaps wary of the torpedo threat from the numerically superior British destroyer force.
caption: British cruisers Cleopatra (making smoke) and Euryalus (foreground) moving into action
exif: {}