Operation Harpoon (1942) 1942
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1942 | 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, Malta Convoys | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Kingdom of Italy, Nazi Germany, Poland, United Kingdom | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 36.2000, 11.6333 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
Operation Harpoon (Battle of Pantelleria (Battaglia di Mezzo Giugno [Battle of mid-June]) was part of Operation Julius, two simultaneous Allied convoys sent to supply Malta in the Axis-dominated central Mediterranean Sea in mid-June 1942, during the Second World War.
Operation Vigorous was a west-bound convoy from Alexandria and Operation Harpoon was an east-bound convoy from Gibraltar. Vigorous was driven back by the battle fleet of the Regia Marina after massed attacks by Axis aircraft. Two of the six ships in the Harpoon convoy completed the journey, at the cost of several Allied warships.
News of the two operations had been unwittingly revealed to the Axis by the US Military Attaché in Egypt, Colonel Bonner Fellers, who had been submitting detailed military reports on British activities to Washington. The American code was later revealed by Ultra intercepts to have been broken by Italian military intelligence (the Servizio Informazioni Militare).
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Operation Harpoon (1942) (revision 1373497433), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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All 19 battles of the Battle of the Mediterranean →
Browse more: battles at sea · Europe · World War II era battles