Battle of Cape Matapan The Battle of Cape Matapan ( ) was a Second World War naval engagement fought from 27 – 29 March 1941 . The cape is on the southwest coast of Greece ' s Peloponnesian peninsula . Acting on intercepted signals broken by the Government Code and Cypher School ( GC & CS ) at Bletchley Park , a force of British Royal Navy ships accompanied by several Royal Australian Navy vessels , under the command of British Admiral Andrew Cunningham , intercepted and sank or severely damaged several ships of the Italian " Regia Marina " under Admiral Angelo Iachino . The opening actions of the battle are also known in Italy as the Battle of Gaudo . Background . As British ships of the Mediterranean Fleet covered troop movements to Greece , intelligence received information reporting the sailing of an Italian battle fleet which comprised : one battleship , six heavy and two light cruisers , plus destroyers to attack the convoys . The content of intercepted signals was made possible by decryption at the Government Code & Cypher School but , as ever , this was concealed from the Italians by ensuring there was a plausible reason for the Allies to have detected and intercepted their fleet . In this case , it was a carefully directed reconnaissance plane . As a further deception , Admiral Cunningham made a surreptitious exit after dark from a golf club in Alexandria to avoid being seen going on board his flagship , HMS . He had made a point of arriving at the club the same afternoon , with his suitcase prominently paraded as if for an overnight stay , and spent time on the golf course within sight of the Japanese consul . An evening party on his flagship was advertised for that night but was never meant to take place . At the same time , there was a failure of intelligence on the Axis side . The Italians had been wrongly informed that the Royal Navy ' s Mediterranean Fleet had only one operational battleship . In fact , there were three , and a lost British aircraft carrier had been replaced . Prelude . The Allied force was the British Mediterranean fleet , consisting of the aircraft carrier , the modernised World War I battleship s , and " Warspite " . The main fleet was accompanied by two flotilla s of destroyer s : Also present were and " Havock " . A second force , under Admiral Sir Henry Pridham - Wippell , consisted of the British light cruiser s , " Gloucester " and " Orion " , the Australian light cruiser and the British destroyers , " Hereward " and " Ilex " . The Australian had returned to Alexandria . In addition , Allied warships attached to convoys were available , such as : , " Jaguar " and " Juno " waited in the Kithira Channel and " Decoy " , " Carlisle " , " Calcutta " and " Bonaventure " and were nearby . The Italian fleet was led by Iachino ' s vessel , the modern battleship . It also included almost the entire Italian heavy cruiser force : ( under Vice - Admiral Carlo Cattaneo ) , " Fiume " and " Pola " ; four destroyers of the 9th Flotilla ( " Alfredo Oriani " , , " Vincenzo Gioberti " and ) . The heavy cruisers " Trieste " ( Vice - Admiral Luigi Sansonetti ) , " Trento " and " Bolzano " were accompanied by three destroyers of the 12th Flotilla ( " Ascari " , " Corazziere " and " Carabiniere " ) , plus the light cruisers ( Vice - Admiral A . Legnano ) and ( 7th cruiser division ) and two destroyers of the 16th Flotilla ( namely " Emanuele Pessagno " and " Nicoloso de Recco " ) from Brindisi . None of the Italian ships had radar , although several Allied ships did . The 13th Flotilla of Italian destroyers , with " Alpino " , " Bersagliere " , " Fuciliere " , " Granatiere " was also involved screening the flagship . Battle . On 27 March , Vice - Admiral Pridham - Wippell — with the cruisers " Ajax " , " Gloucester " , " Orion " and " Perth " and a number of destroyers — sailed from Greek waters for a position south of Crete . Admiral Cunningham with " Formidable " , " Warspite " , " Barham " and " Valiant " left Alexandria on the same day to meet the cruisers . The Italian Fleet was spotted by a Sunderland flying boat at noon , depriving Iachino the advantage of surprise . The Italian Admiral also learned that " Formidable " was at sea , thanks to the decryption team aboard " Vittorio Veneto " . Nevertheless , after some discussion , the Italian headquarters decided to go ahead with the operation , in order to show the Germans their will to fight and confidence in the higher speed of their warships . Action off Gavdos . On 28 March , an IMAM Ro . 43 floatplane launched by " Vittorio Veneto " spotted the British cruiser squadron at 06 : 35 . At 07 : 55 , the " Trento " group encountered Admiral Pridham - Wippell ' s cruiser group south of the Greek island of Gavdos . The British squadron was heading to the southeast . Thinking they were attempting to run from their larger ships , the Italians gave chase , opening fire at 08 : 12 from . The Italian guns had trouble grouping their rounds , which had little effect . The rangefinder s also performed poorly , with the exception of those of the " Bolzano " . The three heavy cruisers fired a total of 535 rounds of 203 mm ammunition : " Trieste " fired 132 armour piercing rounds ; " Trento " fired 204 armour piercing and 10 explosive shells , and " Bolzano " fired another 189 armour piercing ; until 8 . 55 AM . HMS " Gloucester " fired back three salvos , but these were short , even though they caused the Italians to change their heading . After an hour of pursuit , the Italian cruisers broke off the chase , as the distance had not been reduced , and turned northwest under orders to rejoin the " Vittorio Veneto " . The Allied ships also reversed their course , and followed the Italians at extreme range . Iachino ' s plan was to lure the British cruisers into the range of " Vittorio Veneto " s guns . An officer eating a sandwich on " Orion " s bridge remarked to a companion , " What ' s that battleship over there ? I thought ours were miles away . " The Italians eavesdropped on " Orion " s signal that she had sighted an unknown unit and was going to investigate . At 10 : 55 , " Vittorio Veneto " joined the Italian cruisers , and immediately opened fire on the shadowing Allied cruisers . She fired 94 rounds from a distance of , all well aimed , but again with an excessive spread of her salvos . The Allied cruisers , until then unaware of the presence of a battleship , withdrew , suffering slight damage from shell splinters . A series of photographs taken from HMS " Gloucester " showing Italian salvos falling amongst Allied warships was published by " Life " magazine on 16 June 1941 . " Veneto " fired a total of 94 shells in 29 salvos . Another 11 rounds got jammed in the barrels . Air attacks . At this point , Cunningham ' s forces , which had been attempting to join up with Pridham - Wippell ' s , had launched a sortie of Fairey Albacore torpedo bomber s from HMS " Formidable " at 09 : 38 . They attacked " Vittorio Veneto " without direct effect , but the required manoeuvring made it difficult for the Italian ships to maintain their pursuit . The Italian ships fired 152 , 100 and 90 mm guns and also 37 , 20 and 13 . 2 mm guns when at close range , repelling the attack , while one of the two Junkers 88 escorting the Italian fleet was shot down by a Fairey Fulmar . Realising that they might not be so lucky next time , Iachino broke off the pursuit at 12 : 20 , retiring towards his own air cover at Taranto . A second sortie surprised the Italians at 15 : 09 . Lieutenant - Commander Dalyell - Stead flew his Albacore to from " Vittorio Veneto " , before releasing a torpedo which hit her outer port propeller and caused of flooding . The ship stopped while the damage was repaired , but she was able to get underway again at 16 : 42 , making . Cunningham heard of the damage to the " Vittorio Veneto " , and started to pursue her . Dalyell - Stead and his crew were killed when their aircraft was shot down by AA fire from the battleship . A third strike by six Albacores and two Fairey Swordfish from 826 and 828 Naval Air Squadrons on " Formidable " — as well as two Swordfish from 815 squadron on Crete — was made between 19 : 36 and 19 : 50 . Admiral Iachino deployed his ships in three columns and used smoke , searchlights and a heavy barrage to protect the " Vittorio Veneto " . This tactic succeeded , but one torpedo hit the " Pola " , which had nearly stopped in order to avoid running into the " Fiume " and could not take any avoiding action . This blow knocked out five boilers and the main steam line . " Pola " lost electric power and drifted to a stop . The torpedo was apparently dropped by Lieutenant F . M . A . Torrens - Spence . Unaware of Cunningham ' s pursuit , a squadron of cruisers and destroyers were ordered to return and help " Pola " . This squadron was composed of " Pola " s sister ships , " Zara " and " Fiume " . The squadron did not start to return towards " Pola " until about an hour after the order had been given by Iachino , officially due to communication problems , while " Vittorio Veneto " and the other ships continued to Taranto . Night action . At 20 : 15 , " Orion " s radar picked up a ship six miles to port , apparently dead in the water ; she was the crippled " Pola " . The bulk of the Allied forces detected the Italian squadron on radar shortly after 22 : 00 , and were able to close without being detected . The Italian ships had no radar and could not detect British ships by means other than direct sight ; the resulting military doctrine did not envisage night actions and the Italians had their main gun batteries disarmed . They managed to spot the Allied squadron at 22 : 20 , which they thought to be Italian ships . Therefore the British battleships " Barham " , " Valiant " and " Warspite " were able to close to unnoticed by the Italian ships – an extremely close range for battleship guns – from where they opened fire . The Allied searchlights illuminated their enemy . ( The searchlights aboard " Valiant " were under the command of a young Prince Philip . ) Some British gunners witnessed the cruiser ' s main turrets flying dozens of metres into the air . After just three minutes , two Italian heavy cruisers — " Fiume " and " Zara " — had been destroyed . " Fiume " sank at 23 : 30 , while " Zara " was finished off by a torpedo from the destroyer HMS " Jervis " at 02 : 40 of 29 March . Two Italian destroyers , and , were sunk in the first five minutes . The other two , " Gioberti " and " Oriani " , managed to escape , the former with heavy damage . Towing " Pola " to Alexandria as a prize was considered , but daylight was approaching and it was thought that the danger of enemy air attack was too high . The British boarding parties seized a number of the much needed Breda anti - aircraft machine guns . " Pola " was eventually sunk with torpedoes by the destroyers " Jervis " and " Nubian " after her crew was taken off , shortly after 04 : 00 . The only known Italian reaction after the shocking surprise was a fruitless torpedo charge by some destroyers and the aimless fire of one of " Zara " s 40 mm guns in the direction of the British warships . The Allied ships took on survivors , but left the scene in the morning , fearing Axis air strikes . Admiral Cunningham ordered a signal to be made on the Merchant Marine emergency band . This signal was received by the Italian High Command . It informed them that due to air strikes the Allied ships had ceased their rescue operations , and it granted safe passage to a hospital ship for rescue purposes . The location of the remaining survivors was broadcast and the Italian hospital ship " Gradisca " came to recover them . Allied casualties during the battle were a single torpedo bomber shot down by " Vittorio Veneto " s anti - aircraft batteries , with the loss of the three - man crew . Italian losses were up to 2 , 303 sailors , most of them from " Zara " and " Fiume " . The Allies rescued 1 , 015 survivors , while the Italians saved another 160 . Aftermath . Balance of Naval Power in the Mediterranean . Matapan was Italy ' s greatest defeat at sea , subtracting from its order of battle a cruiser division , but the battle was hardly decisive . The British in the Mediterranean lost the heavy cruiser " York " and the new light cruiser " Bonaventure " in the same period ( 26 – 31 March 1941 ) . The fact that the Italians had sortied so far to the east established a threat potential that forced the British to keep their battleships ready to face another such sortie during the operations off Greece and Crete . After the defeat at Cape Matapan , the Italian Admiral Iachino wrote that the battle had : The Italian fleet did not venture into the Eastern Mediterranean again until the fall of Crete two months later . Despite his impressive victory , Admiral Cunningham was somewhat disappointed with the failure of the destroyers to make contact with " Vittorio Veneto " . The escape of the Italian battleship was , in the words of the British Admiral , " much to be regretted " . The Government Code and Cypher School , Bletchley Park . For reasons of operational security , codebreakers at the GC and CS were rarely informed about the operational effects of their work . The impact on The Battle of Cape Matapan was a rare exception to this rule . A few weeks after the end of the battle , Admiral Cunningham dropped into Bletchley Park to personally congratulate ' Dilly and his girls ' , with a positive impact on morale : < br > Mavis Batey ( née Lever ) , one of the codebreakers remembers : " Our sense of elation knew no bounds when Cunningham came down in person to congratulate us " . < br > Admiral John Godfrey , the Director of Naval Intelligence stated : " Tell Dilly that we have won a great victory in the Mediterranean and it is entirely due to him and his girls " . Post War Controversies . Orders to Recover " Pola " . There is still controversy in Italy regarding the orders given by the Italian Admiral Angelo Iachino to the " Zara " division in order to recover the " Pola " , when it was clear that an enemy battleship force was steaming from the opposite direction . Libel and False Accusations . For many decades after the end of the Second World War , the involvement of the GC & CS , as well as the codebreaking methods used , were kept a closely guarded secret . A number of controversial theories were published before more complete accounts emerged after records were declassified in 1978 . Only later , after Dilly ' s rodding method was demonstrated by Mavis Batey to the Admiral in charge of naval history , were Italian official records corrected . Order of battle . Allies . Force A , 14th Destroyer Flotilla , 10th Destroyer Flotilla ( of Force C ) , Force B , 2nd Destroyer Flotilla , Force D