Mattesini, Francesco La Guerra dei Sommergibili e dei Cacciatorpediniere italiani nel mediterraneo Orientale Giugno - Dicembre 194

L’operazione Britannica “M.A.3” e l’affondamento del Cacciatorpediniere Italiano Espero

This book covers episodes of war in which the Royal Italian Navy was involved from the start of the war on 10 June 1940 until the end of 1940. The episodes relate in particular to the activities and losses of the destroyers stationed in Tobruk (Cyrenaica) and the activities and losses of the submarines operating in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. After two modest bombardments of the small port of Sollum in Egypt on the border with Cyrenaica by a flotilla of Italian destroyers, the surface ships of the British Mediterranean Fleet and the aircraft of the British Air Force, often using aircraft carriers, had an easy time of it in taking out the two squadrons of Italian destroyers stationed in Tobruk and subsequently transferred to Benghazi, where the surviving submarines were destroyed, while the submarines, which encountered little traffic in this area of operations along the Egyptian coast and therefore achieved only modest successes, were relentlessly hunted by the enemy, resulting in very painful losses. The book also deals in detail with the battle and sinking of the destroyer Espero on 28 June 1941, as well as the sinking of the Greek minelayer Elli, which was torpedoed by the submarine Delfino in the harbour of the island of Tinos on 15 August 1941, the Feast of the Assumption. At that time, Italy was not yet at war with Greece and was therefore a neutral ship. The book also describes the particularly cautious strategy of the Italian Navy and Air Force on the eastern Mediterranean front, where incidents with Greece occurred. As the reader will note, the extremely high losses of the Italian Navy were not matched by a similarly favourable outcome against the British Navy.