Mattesini, Francesco Dalla distruzione del convoglio "Duisburg" alla prima battaglia navale della Sirte. Novembre-Dicembre 1941

The problem of greatest concern to the Italian army commands in the central Mediterranean in the summer of 1941 was the reinforcement of Malta, which had begun at the end of May following the withdrawal of the 10th German Air Corps from Sicily to Greece. The result was a significant increase in British aircraft and submarine activity against the Axis convoys en route to Libya, led by a highly efficient aerial reconnaissance operation using night aircraft equipped with ASV naval radar and an equally efficient intelligence service operated by the cryptographic organisation "Ultra". However, to allow the Italian convoys safe passage through the central Mediterranean, the Regia Aeronautica had to step up its efforts against Malta, from where the British planes and submarines took off and inflicted the greatest losses on the Italian convoys; losses that were often very painful, especially that of the "Duisburg" convoy on the night of 9 November 1941 in the Ionian Sea on its way to Tripoli. The British naval success was achieved by a small detachment of two light cruisers and two destroyers forming "Force K", which was stationed in Malta for a few days. This book describes the events that followed, with further destruction of Italian convoys and heavy losses among the naval forces, particularly on the night of 13 December in the waters off Cape Bon. British losses from German submarines were also very high. The story ends with the first naval battle of Sirte, which, together with the losses of "Force K" in the waters of Tripoli, finally enabled a large convoy that started from Taranto to reach Tripoli under the strong escort of the Italian fleet and the protection of the Italian and German air forces. From then on, the situation improved and in the course of 1942 another large German air force, the 2nd Air Wing of Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, arrived in Sicily.