Action of 1 November 1944 The Action of 1 November 1944 also known as the Ambush off Pag Island was a naval engagement in the Kvarner Gulf of the Adriatic Sea , between islands of Pag and Lussino ( present - day Lošinj ) on 1 November 1944 . It was fought between a British Royal Navy destroyer flotilla and a " Kriegsmarine " force of two corvettes and a destroyer . The German flotilla was deployed to escort a convoy retreating from Šibenik to Fiume ( present - day Rijeka ) . The British managed to destroy all three German ships in return for no loss . The action caused the death of more than 200 German crew . The attacking force rescued 90 , and an additional 20 sailors were rescued two days later by German vessels sent to search for survivors . The convoy of 19 landing craft , which was expected to be escorted by the three vessels sunk by the Royal Navy , was not intercepted and it reached its destination by 2 November . Background . After the Italian capitulation of 8 September 1943 , following the Allied invasion of Italy , the Yugoslav Partisans captured most of the eastern Adriatic coast in the region of Dalmatia . The Germans however rushed to occupy these areas particularly the northern Adriatic ports of Trieste , Fiume ( present - day Rijeka ) and Pula and established the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral ( – OZAK ) , with its headquarters in Trieste on 10 September . Since an Allied landing in the area was anticipated , OZAK also hosted a substantial German military contingent including newly formed German naval units which consisted of many captured Italian warships . As result an engagement with the Royal Navy seemed to be inevitable . In the second half of 1944 the Royal Navy sent a flotilla into the Adriatic , both to secure the area and to attack German coastal shipping . The coastal shipping became increasingly significant for the German forces deployed in the Independent State of Croatia , and especially Dalmatia — as road and rail routes became unsafe for use because of activity of the Yugoslav Partisans . To deny that option , the Royal Navy initiated Operation Exterminate , primarily aimed at destruction of German corvettes . On 26 October , the Yugoslav Partisans informed Lieutenant Commander Morgan Morgan - Giles , commander of the coastal forces in the north Adriatic , that there were two German destroyers in a cove on the south coast of the Rab Island . Prelude . The German withdrawal from the Dalmatian cities of Zadar and Šibenik to Fiume , codenamed Operation Viking ( " Operation Wikinger " ) involved transporting troops and materiel on board two ship convoys , protected by the " Kriegsmarine " . The withdrawal was a consequence of imminent capture of Zadar and Šibenik by Yugoslav Partisans . The " Wikinger II " convoy set sail from Šibenik at 17 : 00 on 1 November . The convoy consisted of Marinefährprahm landing craft " MFP 522 " , " MFP 554 " , " MFP 484 " and " MFP 354 " , representing group " A " of the convoy , and 13 Combat engineer Landing Craft ( " Pionier - Landungsboot " ) and two large " Sturmboot " assault landing craft , arranged into the group " B " . In the first part of the route , the convoy was protected by the 2nd Group of the 3rd E - boat Flotilla , before the escort duty was turned over to the 2nd Escort Flotilla ( " Geleitflottille " ) based in Fiume . The 3rd E - boat Flotilla originally consisted of " S 154 " , " S 156 " and " S 158 " E - boats , but during the 25 October Royal Air Force attack on Šibenik , de Havilland Mosquito s sunk " S 158 " and damaged " S 156 " , leaving only one operational E - boat for the convoy duty . At the time , the only operational vessels of the 2nd Escort Flotilla were " Torpedoboot Ausland " destroyer " TA 20 " ( ex - Italian " Urakaze " - class destroyer " Audace " ) , with a crew of 113 , and " U - Boot Jäger " corvettes " UJ 202 " and " UJ 208 " These were ex - Italian " Gabbiano " - class corvettes " Melpómene " and " Spingarda " , with crews of about 110 each , and fast minesweeper " R 187 " . The " TA 20 " was commanded by " Oberleutnant zur See der Reserve " ( Sub - Lieutenant ) Heinz Guhrke , the " UJ 202 " by " Oberleutnant zur See der Reserve " Heinz Trautwein and " UJ 208 " by " Oberleutnant zur See der Reserve " Klaus Wenke . The " TA 21 " ( ex - Italian destroyer " Insidioso " ) remained in port due to problems with fuel quality . The fuel problems also caused the force to depart the port at different times . The corvettes left at 16 : 00 , " R 187 " sailed a half an hour later , while the " TA 20 " left port at 19 : 00 , with the flotilla commander " Korvettenkapitän der Reserve " ( Lieutenant Commander ) Friedrich - Wilhelm Thorwest on board . Action . Acting upon the information provided by the Yugoslav Partisans , the Royal Navy sortied two Type II " Hunt " - class destroyer s , HMS " Avon Vale " and HMS " Wheatland " , from their base at the Ist Island at 17 : 00 on 1 November . " Avon Vale " was under command of Lieutenant Hugh Askew Corbett , while " Wheatland " was under Lieutenant Ivan Hall . The destroyers were accompanied by motor torpedo boat s " MTB 295 " , " MTB 287 " and " MTB 274 " , motor gun boat s " MGB 642 " , " MGB 638 " and " MGB 633 " and motor launch " ML494 " . The destroyers were tasked with landing a team of South African coast watchers on the north tip of Rab , the MTBs with patrolling the Kvarner Gulf between Rab and Krk islands , while the rest of the force loitered southwest , near Premuda . Morgan - Giles , aboard " Wheatland " , commanded the force . The coast watchers landed at 19 : 50 , the same time the MTBs reported sighting of two enemy " destroyers " sailing south — in fact the two corvettes . Using radar , the corvettes detected the destroyers on their port side at 20 : 15 and ordered general quarters , while " UJ 202 " fired two star shell s . The crew of " R 187 " saw this as she followed the corvettes from afar . The destroyers engaged the German corvettes at 20 : 20 , at a position due west of Lun on the island of Pag , assigning a corvette each as a target . The first British salvos scored hits on the corvettes , using their guns , from a distance of . " UJ 202 " was hit directly by several shots , knocking out its gun , a bow - mounted quadruple gun , and a stern - mounted gun . Her bridge and radio room were also hit . She continued to return fire while attempting to sail to Rab . " UJ 208 " was also quickly hit , and its and bow - mounted guns were knocked out of action . Her crew managed to put out fire on her stern , but another blaze amidships blocked all communications between the forward and aft sections of the vessel . By 20 : 30 , she rolled to the port and began sinking . " UJ 202 " sank at 21 : 00 . The Royal Navy force took only ten minutes to disable the corvettes . They then began to pull survivors out of the sea , but the rescue was suspended at about 22 : 30 , when the " TA 20 " was picked up by radar and fired upon . The first salvo hit her bridge killing all officers , and knocking out her fire - control system . She sank close to Pag Island . Neither " TA 20 " , nor the corvettes managed to radio news of the attack . " R 187 " had maintained radio silence and sailed east to evade detection . It linked up with the convoy sailing from Šibenik at approximately 23 : 45 , and proceeded to escort it north . The combat engineer landing craft reached Kraljevica , except for two which made port in Senj due to poor weather conditions . The rest of the convoy reached Fiume on 2 November . The Royal Navy destroyers sailed back to Ist with empty magazines . Aftermath . As weather conditions worsened , Royal Navy destroyers were only able to rescue 90 survivors from the three German ships . Before the rescue operation was suspended to engage " TA 20 " , " Wheatland " pulled out of the sea three officers and 68 seamen — most of them crew of " UJ 202 " . The " Kriegsmarine " sortied " TA 40 " and " TA 45 " corvettes as well as " S 33 " and " S 154 " E - boats to look for survivors , finding seventeen " TA 20 " crew members on the islet of Trstenik on 3 November . The group included seven wounded , tended by a local lighthouse crew . Besides them , the ships rescued one " UJ 202 " and three " UJ 208 " crew members from the sea . The deteriorating weather also prevented retrieval of the coast watchers for four days . More than two hundred Germans perished in this action , including the flotilla commander and all three ship commanding officers . Corbett was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Hall the Distinguished Service Cross for their " bravery , resolution and skill " in the battle . All four " Kriegsmarine " commanders involved in the action were posthumously awarded the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross , and Thorwest was promoted to the rank of " Fregattenkapitän " ( Commander ) . Yugoslav Partisans captured Šibenik and Zadar by 3 November 1944 , but the war in the Adriatic continued until April 1945 . Allied destroyers never engaged large " Kriegsmarine " vessels in the Adriatic after November 1944 . Dwindling German naval assets in the area resulted in limited action , while the last recorded loss was " TA 45 " torpedoed by Royal Navy MTBs in April . Only four " Kriegsmarine " ships survived to be captured or scuttled when German forces in Italy surrendered at the end of April to advancing forces of the British 8th Army . The shipwreck of " TA 20 " was found by Italian wreck divers in 1999 , she lies on a part of sea floor near a commercial trawling zone , and is regularly obscured by large quantities of silt . The two corvettes were located in 2000 . Since divers who found them could not identify them as " UJ 202 " or " UJ 208 " specifically , they became known as the " northern " and the " southern " corvette . The northern corvette rests on her keel , with her bow pointing to Rab and her stern partially destroyed , either from hostile fire or secondary explosions from her own depth charge s . The divers ' description of the wreck indicates that she is " UJ 202 " . The southern corvette lies on her starboard side covered in silt . Several depth charges are still found on her stern in Gatteschi - type racks indicating that the southern corvette is the wreck of " UJ 208 " . The three shipwrecks are a part of " the Ghost Fleet of Pag " ( ) together with the wrecks of HMS " Aldenham " , and Austro - Hungarian steamships SS " Albanien " and SS " Euterpe " .