Action off Cape Passero 1940
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 12 October 1940 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1940 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Europe) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Battle of the Mediterranean | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 36.2500, 15.7500 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Action off Cape Passero, was a naval engagement in the Second World War between the British light cruiser HMS Ajax, three torpedo boats and seven destroyers of the Italian Regia Marina, in the central Mediterranean, to the south-east of Sicily, on the night of 11/12 October 1940.
In Operation MB 6, the Mediterranean Fleet covered Convoy MF 3 from Alexandria to Malta and Convoy MF 4 from Malta to Alexandria. Supermarina had prepared the Strait of Sicily Device (Dispositivo del Canale di Sicilia) with torpedo boats, MAS (Motoscafo armato siluranti, torpedo-armed motorboats), minefields and submarines against ships trying to pass the Sicilian Narrows at night.
The Dispositivo was implemented on the night of 11/12 October and ships were sent to the east of Malta in case the British returned to Alexandria. Three torpedo boats and four destroyers attacked the cruiser Ajax which suffered minor damage. Two torpedo boats were sunk and several torpedo boats and destroyers were damaged.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Action off Cape Passero (revision 1370426890), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Cape Passaro 1718 · 72 km
- Action of 26 June 1625 1625 · 99 km
- Battle of the Himera River (311 BC) 311 BC · 99 km
- Battle of Syracuse (1710) 1710 · 100 km
- Battle of Syracuse (868) 868 · 100 km
- Siege of Syracuse (343 BC) 343 BC · 100 km
Other battles of the Battle of the Mediterranean
- Action in the Strait of Otranto 1940
- Battle of Cape Spada 1940
- Battle of the Espero Convoy 1940
- Battle of Cape Bon (1941) 1941
- Battle of Cape Matapan 1941
- Battle of the Duisburg Convoy 1941
- Battle of the Tarigo Convoy 1941
- First Battle of Sirte 1941
- Battle of Skerki Bank 1942
- Operation Harpoon (1942) 1942
All 19 battles of the Battle of the Mediterranean →
Browse more: battles at sea · Europe · World War II era battles