This week, seventy years ago, the British Royal Navy met the Regia Marina Italia in what is known as the Battle of Calabria, or to the Italians, the Battle Punta Stilo. The Battle occurred 30 miles to the east of Punta Stilo, which is the “toe” of the Italian Peninsula, on July 9, 1940.
    From the beginning of the Italian entry into the war it was obvious that the two Navies were going to clash. Italy had a north/south convoy run, across the Mediterranean, between the Italian mainland and its Colony of Libya, in North Africa, while the British had convoys running east, and west, to the British Colony of Malta, from Gibralter, and Alexandria, Egypt.  
    On this particular day each side’s convoys intersected. On July 6th an Italian convoy of four merchant ships left Naples, heading south across the Mediterranean to the Libyan Port of Benghazi. The next day they were joined by their escorts from the Italian Naval Base in Taranto which was divided into three groups. Immediately with the merchantmen were eight destroyers and four torpedo boats. Thirty-five kilometers to the east was another group of twelve more destroyers and the six heavy cruisers - Zara, Fiume, Gorizia, Pola, Bolzano and Trento. None of these cruisers would survive the war. The third group was anchored by the battleships Conte di Cavour and Giulio Cesare and included the eight light cruisers Eugenio di Savoia, Duca d’Aosta, Muzio Attendolo, Raimondo Montecuccoli, Alberico da Barbiano, Amberto di Giussano, Duca degli Abruzzi and Giuseppe Garibaldi. All but three of these cruisers survived the war. As the convoy passed Sicily it was joined by a fifth cargo ship from Catania.
    The Italian force was commanded by Admiral Inigo Campioni. The Admiral would not survive the war, being shot by the Fascist Government of the Italian Social Republic in May 1944.
    The Conte di Cavour and Giulio Cesare were sister ships. Both were constructed prior to World War I, but during the inter-war period both were reconstructed to such an extent that only 40 percent of the original structure remained. The battleships’ main armament consisted of two three-gun turrets and two 2-gun turrets of thirteen-inch guns. Their speed was upgraded to twenty-eight knots. The Conte di Cavour was put out of action for the balance of the war during the British carrier based air-raid against the Italian naval base of Taranto, in November of 1940.
    The Giulio Cesare did survive the war and was transferred to the Soviet Union and renamed the Novorossiysk where it was stationed at Sevastopol, serving as the Flag Ship of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet.  While moored there, an explosion occurred sinking the ship, in 1955, with the loss of six hundred and eight sailors. The tragedy cost the Admiral of the Fleet, Hero of the Soviet Union, Nikolay Kuznetsov, his job as First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR and demotion to the rank of Vice-Admiral.
    At the same time as the Italian ships were heading south, towards Libya, the British were sending a convoy from Alexandria, west towards Malta, escorted by ships of the Royal Navy. Like the Italians, the British divided their warships into three groups. Force A, which was the Seventh Cruiser Squadron, composed of the light cruisers Orion, Neptune, Gloucester and Liverpool and the Australian light Cruiser Sydney, was commanded by Vice-Admiral John Tovey. Admiral Tovey would gain fame a year later when he commanded the fleet which sank the Bismarck. Force B was commanded by Vice-Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham and included the battleship Warspite and five destroyers. Force C, commanded by Vice-Admiral Henry Daniel Pridham-Wippell, included the battleships Malaya and Royal Sovereign, aircraft carrier Eagle and eleven destroyers.  Ten of the British destroyers that participated in the battle did not survive the war.
    The British had set sail on July 7, 1940. The next day the light cruiser H.M.S. Gloucester, under the command of Captain F.R. Garside, was attacked by planes from the Regia Aeronautica and seriously damaged. Eighteen crew members were killed instantly, including the Captain, Commander J. R. D’Aeth and Lt. Commanders Churchill and Lindsey. The ship’s steering was impaired and it took some time before its new Commander, Lt. Commander Reginald P. Tanner, was able to get it under control. Within a year, the Gloucester would be sunk, off Crete, by the Luftwaffe.
    Like the Italian battleships, the three British battleships had undergone significant upgrades during the inter-war years.  Each of the British battleships, for its main armament, sported four two-gun turrets of fifteen-inch guns, with speeds ranging from 23 to 25 knots. All three British ships survived the war.  
    When construction began on the Eagle, it was as the battleship Almirante Cochrane for the Chilean Navy.   Construction was interrupted by World War I and after the war the British decided to complete it as an aircraft carrier and purchased the unfinished ship from Chile for 1.3 million pounds. The Eagle carried a complement of eighteen Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers.
    At noon on July 9th the two Fleets were ninety miles apart. An hour and fifteen minutes later the Eagle launched several of its Fairey Swordfish against the Italian heavy cruisers but no hits were scored. At 3:15 p.m., Force A sighted the Italian warships. The opposing forces opened fire at a range of 23,000 yards.  Within three minutes the Italians had found the range. A few minutes later the range was down to 22,000 yards and the British began finding the range. When a six-inch shell from the Italian cruiser, Giuseppe Garibaldi, hit the Neptune, Vice-Admiral Tovey decided to break off the action and by 3:30 p.m. firing between the two groups had ceased. Within 18 months, Neptune would fall victim to Italian mines off the Libyan coast.
    Meanwhile the British battleship Warspite had been firing, without success, on the sister ships, Alberico da Barbiano and Alberto di Giussano. Both would be sunk within 18 months.
     Admiral Campioni then moved his two battleships into position to challenge the Warspite. At 3:52 p.m. Giulio Cesare opened fire at a range of 29,000 yards. The Conte di Cavour did not fire, for two reasons. One, the Italians had previously determined that when more than one ship was firing, it was difficult to determine range for each ship; and two, the slower Malaya and Royal Sovereign were headed her way and she did not want to get involved with the Warspite.  
    Meanwhile, the Warspite was firing at both Italian battleships. Some of Giulio Cesare’s rounds passed over the Warspite, striking and damaging her escorting destroyers Hereward and Decoy.  Within a year, the Hereward would fall victim to the Luftwaffe and the Regia Aeronautica.
    Although out of range, the Malaya began firing at 3:54 p.m., hoping to cause confusion amongst the Italians. A minute later the Warspite came under fire from the Italian heavy cruisers. At 3:59 p.m. Giulio Cesare scored two near misses on the Warspite.  Next, the Warspite hit the Giulio Cesare on its rear deck detonating ammunition being stored for its 37-millimeter anti-aircraft gun, killing two seamen and wounding several. The fumes from the burning ammunition caused the engine room to shut down half of the boilers. The Giulio Cesare and Warspite were well more than 26,000 yards apart when the Warspite scored its hit, which is a record for naval gunnery against a moving target, that still stands. The Italian battleship’s speed quickly fell and the Conte di Cavour took over.  
    The Warspite then turned away and the Malaya discovered that her rounds were falling 2700 yards short of the Giulio Cesare. Malaya had thought it was more accurate because it had been watching Warspite’s rounds. This was the reason for the Italian custom.
    Meanwhile, the cruisers began tangling. At 4:07 p.m. the Italian cruiser,  Bolzano, was struck three times, temporarily locking her rudder and causing two fatalities. A near miss on the destroyer, Vittorio Alfieri, caused minor damage. By now, the Italians had repaired two of the four damaged boilers on Giulio Cesare, allowing it to reach a speed of 22 knots.  Admiral Campioni, seeing that his remaining battleship, Conte di Cavour, was out numbered three to one, decided to withdraw. During the next hour torpedo runs were made by destroyer groups from both sides without success.  
    The next day the Italian destroyer, Leone Pancaldo, was struck and damaged by a torpedo from one of the Eagle’s Fairey Swordfish torpedo-bombers, while it was in the Augusta Harbor in Sicily.  
    On July 11th the destroyer H.M.S. Escort, which had been dispatched from Gibralter, was sunk near Sardina by the Italian submarine, Marcone.
    Both the Italian and the British convoys reached their respective destinations, so the battle ended in a draw.

Mr. Wimbrow writes from Ocean City, Maryland, where he practices law representing those persons accused of criminal and traffic offenses, and those persons who have suffered a personal injury through no fault of their own.