Italy:
Corvette
Procellaria, slowly sinking after striking a mine in the Gulf of Tunis, on 31 January 1943; on the right, the German landing craft F 481 providing assistance.
The
Gabbiano-class corvette
Procellaria ("Petrel") was escorting a rather unusual convoy from Bizerte, Tunisia, to Italy, made up of the damaged destroyer
Maestrale, in need of repairs after losing its bow, the torpedo boat
Animoso and the fellow corvette
Persefone, plus two German
landing crafts.
As the night before the minelayer HMS
Welshman had laid a minefield along the route taken, at 0930 h the
Procellaria's sonar began registering them, and by 1030 h everybody realized they had ended up in the middle of a minefield. Believing that going full astern he could get his ship out of danger, the corvette's commander ordered so, but unfortunately a mine detonated all the same, under the
Procellaria's stern. Luckily, the two landing crafts, having such a shallow draft to be pretty much immune to mines, were able to maneuver freely and provide assistance to the crew that proceeded to abandon the stricken ship; it finally sank at 1430h. One officer, two warrant officers and eighteen seamen died in the sinking; two or three survivors likely died in the following days because of injuries. Unfortunately, hearing by midday of the events, and hoping to save the ship (as the
Maestrale itself had been brought to safety after striking a mine), Admiral
Luigi Biancheri (commander of the naval department of Bizerte) ordered the old torpedo boat
Generale Marcello Prestinari to its assistance; unfortunately, the old ship itself struck a mine and sank, with the loss of 84 men. The rest of the convoy was able to navigate through the minefield and reach Trapani without further loss.