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Red Sea Flotilla
The Red Sea Flotilla (Flottiglia del mar rosso) was part of the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) based at Massawa in the colony of Italian Eritrea, part of Italian East Africa. During the Second World War, the Red Sea Flotilla fought the East Indies Station of the Royal Navy from the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940 until the fall of Massawa on 8 April 1941. The flotilla was isolated from the main Italian bases in the Mediterranean by distance and British dispositions. Without an overland route (via Sudan) or of the Suez Canal, supply was virtually impossible. The submarines in the flotilla suffered from faulty air conditioning, that poisoned crews when submerged, causing several losses. Attempts to attack ships in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf had meagre results and British intelligence successes caused the loss of several ships. Rear Admiral Mario Bonetti ordered the harbour facilities to be denied to the British by the scuttling of more than thirty vessels in the harbour approaches. Bonetti directed the harbour workers to destroy their machine tools, two floating dry docks and a floating crane. The capture of Massawa and other Italian ports in the region brought the Flottiglia del mar rosso to an end in April 1941. Background Diagram of Massawa and its harbours After the Flotta d'evasione (evasion fleet) intended for the Indian Ocean, based in the ports of Italian Somaliland proved to be too expensive, Rear Admiral Carlo Balsamo di Specchia-Normandia, the commander of the East African naval squadron, based a smaller force at Massawa.[1] On 10 June 1940, the Red Sea Flotilla had seven destroyers in two squadrons, a squadron of five MAS (Motoscafo Armato Silurante motor torpedo boats) and eight submarines in two squadrons. The main base was at Massawa, with other bases at Assab (also in Eritrea) and Kismayu, in southern Italian Somaliland. The Red Sea Flotilla would have to operated cautiously because its finite stock of fuel and ammunition.[2] The base at Massawa and the smaller base at Assab on the Eritrean coast, was convenient for attacks on convoys sailing from the Gulf of Aden through the Red Sea to the Suez Canal, which became much more important after the Mediterranean was closed to Allied merchant ships, forcing them to sail around the Cape of Good Hope.[3] A strategy of a fleet-in-being and the denial of the Red Sea to British shipping was the only practical strategy open to the Italians, using submarines offensively for a war of six months' duration. Because of the Flotilla, the US government declared the Red Sea a war zone and out of bounds to American ships, depriving the British of an important source of tonnage to supply the British forces in Egypt.[4] 1940Early operations Satellite photograph of the Red Sea Italy declared war on 10 June 1940 and the Flotilla tried to attack Royal Navy ships and Allied convoys from Massawa but the British had suspended sailings to the Red Sea on 24 May 1940. On 7 June, the Italian minelayer Ostia laid 470 mines in eight barrages and the destroyer Pantera, laid two barrages with 110 mines off Assab.[5] Leakage of chloromethane refrigerants into the Italian submarines while under water caused central nervous system poisoning.[6][a] Macallé ran aground while the crew was incapacitated by the gas and was wrecked on 15 June. The next day, Galileo Galilei sank the Norwegian freighter James Stove (8,215 GRT) off Djibouti. On 19 June, when the submarine engaged the armed trawler Moonstone, all the officers except a midshipman were killed in two shell explosions and the vessel was captured, along with its operational orders and taken to Aden on the same day.[7] The British sent the sloop HMS Falmouth to find Galvani in the Persian Gulf, where it had sunk the sloop HMIS Pathan. Galvani was sunk on 24 June and Torricelli, en route to take over from Galileo Ferraris, after another chloromethane poisoning incident off Djibouti, was damaged by British ships on 21 June and forced to turn back.[6] Torricelli was spotted on 23 June near Massawa by the destroyers HMS Kandahar, Khartoum, Kingston and the sloop HMS Shoreham, aided by aircraft from Aden. Shoreham was damaged by Torricelli before it was sunk, Khartoum was sunk soon afterwards by an internal explosion.[7] Archimede, Guglielmotti and Perla sailed from 19 to 21 June, Perla on 26 June running aground and being severely damaged on a shoal, then recovered.[8] From 26 to 31 July, Guglielmotti searched and failed to find two Greek ships heading south from Suez. On an offensive sweep, the torpedo boats Cesare Battisti and Francesco Nullo also found nothing. From 21 to 25 August, Guglielmotti and Ferraris, the torpedo boats Nullo and Nazario Sauro from 24 to 25 August, Battisti and Daniele Manin from 30 to 31 August, Pantera and Tigre from 28 to 29 August searched for ships reported by spies and reconnaissance aircraft, with no result. On the night of 5/6 September, Battisti, Manin and Sauro and over the night of 6/7 September, Leone and Tigre with Battisti and Sauro tried to intercept Convoy BN 4 spotted by air reconnaissance but failed to find it; Ferraris and Guglielmotti, further to the north, also failed to make contact but Guglielmotti sank the Greek tanker Atlas (4,009 GRT) on 6 September at 15°50'N, 41°50'E.[9] From 19 to 21 September, Leone and Pantera, Battisti and Manin with the submarines Archimede and Guglielmotti, searched for Convoy BN 5 but failed to find it; Bhima (5,280 GRT) was bombed, ran aground and towed back to Aden.[10] Attack on Convoy BN 7 Italian destroyer Pantera The Italian destroyers sailed on 20 October, the destroyers operating in pairs, Section I the faster Sauro (Commander Moretti degli Adimari) and Francesco Nullo (Lieutenant Commander Costantino Borsini). Section II, the slower, better armed Pantera and Leone were to divert the escorts and then attack the convoy with torpedoes. The convoy was about 35 nmi (65 km; 40 mi) north-north-west of Jabal al-Tair Island at 02:19 on 21 October, when the New Zealand cruiser, Leander, sighted two patches of smoke bearing north. Pantera fired over Yarra at the convoy, inflicting some splinter damage to a lifeboat on the convoy commodore's ship. Auckland opened fire and the Italian ships separated and turned away at full speed, west-south-west, towards Massawa, firing their aft guns. Pantera fired two torpedoes at 23:31 and another pair at 23:34.[11] Observers in Yarra thought that the leading enemy vessel was hit by their fourth or fifth salvo.[12] Sauro fired a torpedo at Leander which missed and made another ineffective torpedo attack at 02:07. Nullo was not able to attack after its rudder jammed for several minutes and it went round in circles, losing contact with Sauro. Borsini ordered Nullo towards the Italian batteries on Harmil an island off Massawa. When the gunfire ceased, Leander altered course to north-west to intercept the ships at the South Massawa Channel (the Harmil Passage) and at 02:45, opened fire; the range was increasing and the ship was lost to sight after the first salvos. At 02:20 Leander damaged Nullo's gyrocompass and gunnery director then lost contact in the haze. Nullo headed toward Harmil with Leander in pursuit and at 03:00, Leander challenged a destroyer which turned out to be Kimberley, also in pursuit. After five minutes, the cruiser altered course east to rejoin the convoy, since the Italian ship was drawing away at the rate of 7 kn (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) and the convoy was still vulnerable.[13] Action off Harmil Harmil Island in the Dahlak Archipelago off Massawa At 05:40, off Harmil, lookouts on Kimberley and Nullo spotted each other at 7 nmi (13 km; 8.1 mi). When Kimberley opened fire at 05:53, Nullo was taken by surprise, having mistakenly identified the British ship as Italian. Kimberley closed to 5,000 yd (2.5 nmi; 4.6 km) and at 06:20, Nullo scraped a reef, damaging a propeller and springing a leak. As Nullo rounded Harmil at about 06:25, it was hit several times. Nullo lost all power; Borsini gave the order to abandon ship, trying to run Nullo aground on Harmil. Nullo was then hit by a torpedo at 06:35, breaking in two.[14] At 06:15 the four naval guns on Harmil engaged Kimberley and hit it in the engine-room. While adrift 10,000 yd (4.9 nmi; 9.1 km) from the shore battery, Kimberley silenced two of the guns. Kimberley managed to get under way, its speed reduced to 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) and the shore battery ceased fire when Kimberley was 19,000 yd (9.4 nmi; 17 km) distant. Leander left the convoy and at 06:54 increased speed to 26 kn (48 km/h; 30 mph). At about 10:00, Leander arrived and took Kimberley in tow.[14] December 1940From 3 to 5 December, Tigre, Leone, Manin and Sauro sortied with Ferraris in another abortive attempt to find a convoy. From 12 to 22 December, Archimede conducted two more sorties with no result and from 23 to 30 December Ferraris lay off Port Sudan.[15] 1941February 1941Attack on Convoy BN 14On the night of 2/3 February 1941, the Italian destroyers Pantera, Tigre and Sauro sailed from Massawa to intercept Convoy BN 14, consisting of 39 merchant ships, escorted by the cruiser HMS Caledon, the destroyer Kingston and the sloops HMIS Indus and Shoreham. Sauro sighted the convoy, got off a sighting report and fired three torpedoes, then fired again at a ship seen in a cloud of smoke, before turning away at high speed. The two other ships did not receive the sighting report from Sauro but ten minutes later, Pantera saw the ships and fired torpedoes, hearing explosions and claiming probables on two merchantmen; Tigre failed to find the convoy. Close to the Massawa in the South Channel, Sauro ran into Kingston but had run out of torpedoes. Fearful that the British were trying to spring ambush, the other Italian ships converged on Sauro and called by wireless for air cover at dawn, reaching port unharmed. Local Italian press reports claimed that two ships had been hit but this report was mistaken.[16] Operation CompositionOn 14 February, in Operation Composition, 14 Albacore bombers from HMS Formidable attacked Massawa, sinking Moncaliere (5,723 GRT) and damaging other ships and freighters. On 21 February another seven Albacores dive-bombed the ships.[17] Action of 27 February 1941Ramb I (Lieutenant commander Alfredo Bonezzi) [3,667 GRT] was a refrigerated merchant ship (reefer) built for the Regia Azienda Monopolio delle Banane (RAMB, the Royal Banana Monopoly Company) in 1933. The ship was adapted for naval service as an armed merchant cruiser. Ramb I had departed Suez on 10 June 1940 for Massawa, from where the ship made short cruises along the coast of Eritrea but was mainly used for anti-aircraft defence of the port. In January 1941, the colonial ship Eritrea, the auxiliary cruisers, Ramb I and Ramb II, were to operate as commerce raiders.[18] As British troops neared the port, Ramb I and Coburg (7,400 GRT), a German freighter, escaped from Massawa on the night of 20/21 February 1941 and passed into the Gulf of Aden. At 10:37 a.m., on 27 February, west of the Maldives, the New Zealand cruiser HMS Leander sighted a merchant resembling an Italian Ramb-class fruit carrier (Ramb I). Soon after 11:15 a.m. the ship hoisted the Italian merchant flag and trained its guns on Leander.[19]  Ramb I on fire and sinking The cruiser was broad on the beam of Ramb I and at 3,000 yd (1.5 nmi; 1.7 mi; 2.7 km) was an easy target for its guns and torpedoes. At 11:53 a.m., the Italian ship opened fire and thirty seconds later, Leander replied. The Italian fire was inaccurate and it was estimated that only about three shells were fired from each gun. Leander fired five salvos in a minute and hit the ship several times. A fire spread and an Italian officer in the water called out to a boarding party that they should not approach the ship, as it was burning and laden with ammunition. The boarding party laid off and as the fire spread, a big explosion before the bridge shot flames and smoke high into the sky, the ship settling bow first. As the fire burned, there was another explosion and five minutes later the ship sank under a cloud of black smoke. Leander recovered the boarding party and the Italian lifeboats, while edging away.[20] March 1941On 1 March five Albacores raided Massawa again but caused little damage. As the Italians depleted their fuel at Massawa, the offensive capability of the Red Sea Flotilla declined and it returned to a strategy of a fleet-in-being. On 23 March the German Oder (8,516 GRT) and the Italian India (6,366 GRT) sailed from Massawa but Oder was intercepted by Shoreham at the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and scuttled; India docked at Assab. On 29 March Bertram Rickmers (4,188 GRT) sailed and was scuttled on 1 April when intercepted by Kandahar. Piave tried to break the blockade on 30 March and got as far as Assab and Lichtenfels sailed on 1 April but was turned back. On 31 March 1941, Pantera, Tigre and Leone, attempted a night attack on Suez but Leone ran aground off Massawa and had to be scuttled by gunfire, the delay causing the operation to be cancelled. The two remaining ships joined Sauro, Battisti and Daniele Manin on a final raid against Port Sudan on 2 April. Engine trouble kept Battisti in port and it was scuttled off the coat of Arabia on 3 April. The Italian ships were spotted by aircraft about 10 nmi (19 km; 12 mi) off the port and came under attack from the Swordfish bombers of HMS Eagle flying from the Port Sudan airfield that sank Manin and Sauro. Pantera and Tigre were scuttled on the Arabian coast.[21] Massawa, April 1941 HMS Capetown was disabled by the motor torpedo boat MAS 213 The defenders of Massawa managed to resist several attacks but the main British effort began on 6 April. The light cruiser HMS Capetown was torpedoed by the motor torpedo boat MAS 213 off Massawa and had to be towed to Port Sudan by the sloop HMAS Parramatta for repairs. Attacks on land, combined with air and sea bombardments led the defences to crumble by 8 April. MAS 213, Orsini, MAS 204, 206, 210 and 216 and other ships were scuttled as the British troops entered the town. More than thirty vessels, including eleven Italian and six German, were scuttled in the harbour approaches, including large commercial ships, smaller coastal steamers, tugs and several naval vessels to a total of 89,870 GRT. The Italian harbour workers were to destroy their machine tools, two floating dry docks and a floating crane. The four remaining submarines were ordered to join the BETASOM flotilla at Bordeaux and evaded British attempts to intercept them.[7] On 8 April Massawa fell, five ships were sunk at Harmil (38,125 GRT) where two ships bombed earlier lay and three ships of 23,765 GRT were sunk at Assab.[22] British efforts to bring the harbour back to service were frustrated by the extreme heat and humidity. Commander Joseph Stenhouse was able to re-float one oil tanker before he was killed at sea. On 11 April, President Roosevelt announced that the Red Sae and the Gulf of Aden we no longer considered to be war zones, allowing US ships to sail in them.[23] A British civilian contractor was hired but he and his team failed to float any scuttled vessels. Edward Ellsberg, a commander in the U.S. Navy arrived in April 1942 and began systematically to restore the harbour facilities. His staff repaired the largest dry dock and pieced together enough machine tool parts to restore machinist operations. By August 1942, after re-floating several ships, Ellsberg opened access to the harbour sufficiently to enable British warships such as HMS Dido (19 August 1942) to be dry-docked and serviced.[24] Assab, the last Italian-held port on the Red Sea, was attacked in Operation Chronometer on 10 June and occupied.[25] Regia Marina order of battleDestroyers
MAS (Motor torpedo boats)
VIII Submarine Group
Other naval vessels
Merchant ships (Massawa)
Merchant ships (Dahlak Kebir)
See alsoNotes
Footnotes
ReferencesBooks
Further reading
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