Italy:
Destroyer
Espero passes the swing bridge at Taranto, 12 September 1935.
At 22.45 on 27 June 1940, 2a Squadriglia cacciatorpediniere (2nd Destroyer Squadron), consisting of the destroyers
Espero,
Ostro, and
Zeffiro, departed Taranto on a special mission. Their task was to transport desperately needed supplies to Tobruk for the 10th Army. Loaded aboard the destroyers were ten Breda 20mm/65 AA guns, 162 men, and 450,000 rounds of 20mm ammunition.
Espero was the flagship of the small force, commanded by Captain (Capitano di Vascello) Enrico Baroni, and had aboard her 57 men as passengers, which, combined with the 198 crew then aboard, brought the number of men aboard to a total of 255.
Espero and her sisters were all destroyers of the
Turbine-class, ordered in the FY 1924/25 and 1925/26.
Espero was laid down in April of 1925, launched on 28 January 1927, and completed in November of the same year. As built, she was 1,210 tonnes standard and 1,715 tonnes full, with a designed top speed of 36 knots from her 40,000 shp propulsion plant. She was armed with four 120mm/45 M1926, which had a maximum range of 15,500 meters, as well as two triple banks for 533mm torpedoes. In the early 1930s her fire control systems had been upgraded, giving her a proper director system, though this increased her top weight with detriment to her seaworthiness. This was compounded by twelve years of active service that had seen her steam as far as China in a near-sprint, as well as extensive operations against Republican traffic in the Spanish Civil War. By 27 June 1940, her real service speed had fallen to about 31 knots.
The first evening of the operation, and the subsequent morning of the 28th, went very smoothly. However, the fortunes of the three-ship convoy ran out as soon as the afternoon began – at 12.10 a British Sunderland seaplane (228th RAF out of Malta) spotted the ships and reported three destroyers 50 miles west of Zakynthos. The Sunderland did not go unnoticed by the Italians, but what they didn’t know would be the greater threat – a sortie of the Mediterranean fleet the day before to support convoys at sea, with a carrier, two battleships, five cruisers, and eight destroyers. The British, upon learning of the Italian ships, detached the 7th Cruiser Squadron (
Orion,
Neptune,
Sydney,
Liverpool, and
Gloucester) under command of Vic -Admiral Tovey. At 16.40 Tovey received news that the Italian force was 35 miles west of his position, and he formed two lines of bearing with his cruisers, splitting into a division of three (the
Leander’s) and two (the Town’s).
At 18.30, positioned roughly a hundred miles north of Tobruk, 2a Squadron spotted enemy cruisers. Three minutes later, the second division of cruisers (the Town’s) likewise spotted the Italians. The British cruisers immediately accelerated towards the Italian destroyers, with
Liverpool being the first to open fire at 18.36 and a range of roughly 20,000 meters – these would be the first shots fired between any warships of the Regia Marina and British Royal Navy.
Liverpool’s first salvo fell ~450 meters to port, and her second 500 meters to starboard – a bracket. Baroni immediately altered course and ordered an increase in speed. However, this was foiled by a failure in the third boiler, which could not be brought online. Thus,
Espero could only make 25 knots versus the 32 knots of the enemy cruisers. An already bad situation became worse when the second division of British cruisers spotted the Italians at 18.55, with the flagship
Orion opening fire at 18.59 from 16,500 meters. Recognizing the impossible situation, Baroni ordered
Ostro and
Zeffiro to disengage at a sprint, and turned his own
Espero back towards the British, made smoke, and opened fire. Thus began the unequal duel.
Liverpool and
Gloucester both concentrated their 152mm guns on
Espero, to which
Espero replied.
Espero also launched three torpedoes at
Orion, causing the three smaller British cruisers to briefly disengage to avoid being hit. The dance, in fact, would continue for another hour, as the lone destroyer did its best to hold off five enemy cruisers, laying smoke, chasing salvos, and tossing out 120mm salvos of her own. By 19.20, Liverpool had brought the range against Espero down to just 12,800 meters. She turned to give her full broadside to the enemy destroyer, and at that moment first blood was drawn – a 120mm shell from
Espero impacted
Liverpool’s armor belt just under a meter over the waterline at 180 180 station starboard, with the resulting splinters damaging the warheads of two torpedoes and cutting deguassing cables.
Liverpool fell back, starting to run low on ammunition anyways, fell back, with
Gloucester following her. Tovey, who had been trying to work around
Espero to reach the other Italian destroyers, finally gave up on the task at this point and brought his three cruisers in to engage the angry little tin can.
As the three additional cruisers engaged,
Espero found herself under a literal deluge of shells. Finally,
Espero took her first hit, on the fifteenth salvo, and soon more followed. A first shell landed on deck, killing many of the troops gathered there. A second penetrated to the no.1 boiler, and shortly after the no.2 boiler. Several more hit near the aft magazine, and another set off a barrel of gasoline under the bridge, and cut the connection of the director to the guns. The guns then went into local control, though the fore gun fell silent after running out of ammunition.
Espero, now ablaze and flooding, had come to a stop by 20.00, and despite courageous damage control efforts, it was clear she was lost. Tovey, still intent on catching the other two destroyers, set of in pursuit, and left the light cruiser HMAS
Sydney to finish off Baroni’s ship. An Australian broadside fired from 12,800 meters hammered the crippled
Espero, which appeared to be mostly finished. However,
Espero’s crew still had some fight in her, with the aft guns returned fire, though their shots fell short, and two more torpedoes dropped into the water. As
Sydney's captain had wisely kept his bow in, these were easily dodged. At 5,500 meters and closing
Sydney fired four broadsides, her last at just 1,800 meters.
Espero was finally silent, with the aft gun finally out of available ammunition. Finally, Baroni gave the order to abandon ship – he could buy no more time for the other destroyers, and he could no longer resist. Though he helped free the surviving life rafts, he would not board any, instead choosing to stand at the bow of his ship, going down with
Espero as she sank, eighty years ago today.
Espero would be the first major Italian warship sunk in action against the Allies, and the first victim of the North African convoy routes. However,
Espero’s sacrifice, that of Captain Enrico Baroni, and that of her crew would not be in vain. On the morning of the 19th,
Ostro and
Zeffiro arrived safely at Tobruk – Tovey had been unable to catch them due to the actions of
Espero and her crew.
Espero’s battle had another unintended consequence, too. As it turns out, in their effort to sink the destroyer, the five British cruisers had expended some 5,000 of their 152mm shells – about 85% of all those in-theater, leaving only 800 remaining. This shortage forced the cancellation and rescheduling of two upcoming Malta convoys – a disproportionate result indeed.
Sydney would rescue 47 men from the waters where
Espero sank, though three died of their wounds aboard the cruiser. She also left behind one of her cutters for any survivors to use, with oars, food, and water aboard. However, it appears this was not discovered at the time, and only six other men were found, after fourteen days at sea – thirty-six men had been aboard their life-raft, but most had died in the intervening period. Ultimately it was the miraculous chancing upon
Sydney’s drifting cutter by this raft days after the incident that saved the last six men.
157 of
Espero’s crew would go down with the ship, as well as 48 of the 57 passengers embarked aboard her, leaving a total of 50 survivors (41 crew, 9 passengers). For his actions, Captain Baroni would receive the MoVM (Gold Medal for Military Valor). Three other men would receive the Silver Medal for Military Valor, and another three the Bronze Medal.
Espero lays smoke screen before being sunk
, photo taken from HMAS
Sydney (Australian War Memorial).
