Italy:
Spica class torpedoboat
Cigno during trials, 1937. She was part of the screen of destroyers and torpedo boats escorting a four-freighter convoy to Tripoli on 26 May 1941, when two
Blenheim bombers were shot down.
Cigno rescued hundreds of Italian survivors after the
Battle of Cape Bon, where she dodged four torpedoes launched by the Dutch destroyer
HNLMS Isaac Sweers. Sunk in
battle 16 April 1943 southeast of Marettimo island, by British destroyers
HMS Paladin and
HMS Pakenham, while escorting a transport ship to
Tunis.
Pakenham was also sunk in the same engagement.
During the afternoon of 15 April, the British destroyers
HMS Pakenham and
Paladin were on an exercise off Malta. A signal arrived from the C-in-C Malta that ships had been sighted off Pantelleria, giving orders to investigate.
At 02:48, after illuminating the foremost Italian ship,
Pakenham opened fire at 2,700 yd (1.3 nmi; 1.5 mi; 2.5 km).
[9] When the range was estimated by
Cigno at 2,500 yd (1.2 nmi; 1.4 mi; 2.3 km) it also opened fire and hit
Pakenham on the stern with a
100 mm (3.9 in) 100/47 shell, starting a fire and disabling its aft torpedo tubes.
Cassiopea, having steered north north-west to confront
Paladin, opened fire at 4,500 yd (2.2 nmi; 2.6 mi; 4.1 km). As soon as the firing was heard,
Belluno and its escorts turned for Trapani.
Pakenham received a second hit at 02:50 which exploded in the lower deck and caused a much bigger fire, leading to Stevens ordering the aft magazine to be flooded.
The ships were very close and both fired with every weapon that could be brought to bear, filling the air with multi-coloured
tracer ammunition.
Pakenham hit
Cigno in the forward boiler just to the rear of the bridge at 02:53, releasing a large cloud of smoke and steam over the ship as it came to a stop. While drifting,
Cigno fired torpedoes at
Pakenham to no effect and
Pakenham replied from its undamaged forward torpedo tubes and struck
Cigno amidships, breaking the ship in two. The stern quickly sank but the forward section of the ship stayed afloat; its 100 mm (3.9 in) gun-crew continuing to fire.
Pakenham turned north towards
Cassiopea but just after 03:00, one or two shells, fired from the forward half of
Cigno as it was sinking or from
Cassiopea, hit on the waterline cutting the boiler tubes and causing the engine room to flood; the steam forcing the engine-room crew to evacuate.
Pakenham listed 15° to port, electrical power was lost and stopped in the water, fires burning.
Cassiopea and
Paladin had not been hit until
Paladin raked
Cassiopea with a burst of
QF 2-pounder pom-pom fire, which jammed the rudder and started a big fire forward and a smaller one aft. The crews of the two 100 mm (3.9 in) guns to the rear remained in action and at 03:06
Cassiopea fired a torpedo at 1,200 yd (0.59 nmi; 0.68 mi; 1.1 km) to no effect.
At 03:08
Paladin doused its lights and ceased fire, which misled the crew of
Cassiopea into claiming a hit.
Paladin was taking evasive action and broke away to the south-east, after its captain mistook
Cassiopea for a
Capitani Romani-class cruiser, because Italian shells exploding in the water caused unusually large splashes.
Pakenham had regained power and continued north, achieving a hit on
Cassiopea at 4,000 yd (2.0 nmi; 2.3 mi; 3.7 km);
Cassiopea returned fire from its rearward guns and scored two hits on its stern pom-pom mounting and searchlight at 03:13.
Pakenham ceased fire and turned to follow
Paladin;
Cassiopea was badly damaged, with two large fires onboard and did not pursue.
In 2009,
Vincent O'Hara wrote that the Battle of the Cigno Convoy was a rare occasion when Italian naval escorts defeated a night attack by British ships. The British thought that they had been engaged by two fleet destroyers and believed that they had sunk them, putting the loss of
Pakenham down to an unlucky hit and the lack of experience of both British crews. O'Hara wrote that experience had more influence on the result; the British ships had recently been transferred from the
Indian Ocean and Rich deciding to turn away was "unusually cautious". The two Italian crews were veteran and spotted the British ships before the British opened fire but for the Italians to call the engagement a success when one ship was saved for the loss of one escort and another seriously damaged showed the extent of the British ascendancy in night-fighting
Cigno suffered the loss of 103 crew.
Pakenham suffered nine crew killed and fifteen wounded; one of whom died on 18 April