Italy:
Soldati-class destroyer
Artigliere foundering after the battle of Cape Passero
With HMS Orion and HMAS Sydney in the background
And is finished by torpedoes from heavy cruiser HMS
York at 9.05 in the morning of October 12th, 1940, after the battle of Cape Passero. The ship's stern ammunition magazines explode after the torpedo hit.
The survivors on
Artigliere, all of whose officers but the chief engineer had been killed, managed to extinguish the fires and get a boiler going but after an hour, the lack of feed water for the boiler left
Artigliere stranded again.
Camice Nere took
Artigliere in tow and
Supermarina sent the 3rd Cruiser Division from Messina at 08:00 but they were too late to rescue
Artigliere
A
Sunderland flying-boat from Malta found the Italian ships and directed three Swordfish torpedo-bombers from
Illustrious to attack them but they achieved no result.
At first light, the cruisers
York Gloucester and
Liverpool arrived to find
Artigliere adrift,
Camicia Nera having slipped the tow and left. The survivors on
Artigliere abandoned ship and after
York sank the ship with gunfire and torpedo,
Carley floats were dropped near the survivors.
Cunningham sent a signal in clear giving the position of the survivors (to the annoyance of London) and the
hospital ship Aquileja rescued about 225 survivors. The
Regia Aeronautica made several bombing raids on the Mediterranean Fleet as it sailed eastwards and accidentally attacked Italian ships.
