Operation Abstention
Operation Abstention | |
---|---|
Part of the Kastelorizo, eastern Aegean Sea 36°09′00″N 29°35′24″E / 36.15000°N 29.59000°E | |
Result | Italian victory |
Australia
E. de F. Renouf
H. J. Egerton
Francesco Mimbelli
7 destroyers
1 gunboat
1 submarine
1 armed yacht
200 commandos
200 soldiers and marines
2 torpedo boats
2 MAS boats
280 soldiers
88 marines
10 wounded
20 captured or interned
7 missing[1]
1 destroyer damaged
1 gunboat damaged
12 captured[2]
Operation Abstention was a code name given to a
Background
After the
Battle
24 February
The British planned to land a force of about 200 men of
25 February
Before dawn, fifty of the commandos landed from ten
26 February
The Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) counter-attack began after sunset on 26 February, when the torpedo boats Lupo and Lince landed about 240 soldiers north of the port and used their 3.9 in (99 mm) guns to bombard British positions at the docks and the Governor's palace, killing three and wounding seven commandos. The Italian warships evacuated a number of Italian civilians who had gathered at harbour after learning of their presence in the port.[6][13]
27 February
Biancheri, with Lupo, Lince,
28 February
More British forces from Alexandria arrived in the early hours of 28 February. A platoon of the Sherwood Foresters found the landing point abandoned by the commandos; along with scattered equipment and ammunition were a dead soldier and two stragglers, who told them of the Italian counter-attack.[16] Major Cooper of the Sherwood Foresters, who had sailed back to Decoy, concluded, after talks with the other commanders, that lack of naval and air support made withdrawal inevitable. The bulk of the landing party, isolated on a small plateau in the east end of Kastelorizo, was re-embarked by 03:00.[15] Italian troops surrounded and eventually captured a number of commandos who had been left behind.[1] While covering the withdrawal, HMS Jaguar was attacked by Crispi, which had fired twenty shells on British positions at Nifti Point, steaming from the south.[17] The Italian destroyer fired two torpedoes which missed and Jaguar replied with her 4.7 in (120 mm) main armament. Jaguar received a 40 mm hit on her searchlight that made its gunfire ineffective and the British force sailed back to Alexandria.[15][17] The destroyers HMS Nubian, Hasty and Jaguar made a sweep between Rhodes and Kastelorizo after a radar contact and detecting wireless traffic in the area but failed to intercept the Italian warships as they returned to base.[18]
Aftermath
Analysis
Cunningham described the operation as "a rotten business and reflected little credit to everyone" and laid blame on Renouf.
In 2009,
Casualties
In 1998, Greene and Massignani wrote that the British suffered three men killed, eleven wounded and 27 missing for an Italian loss of eight men killed, eleven wounded and ten missing.[4]
Order of battle
Regia Marina
- Admiral Luigi Biancheri
- destroyers
- torpedo boats
- MAS motor launches
- MAS-541
- MAS-546
- Garrison:
- 30 signallers
- 10 carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza (custom agents)
- Landing force
- 240 infantry
- 88 marines
- Admiral Andrew Cunningham
- Suda Force:
- destroyers
- gunboat
- submarine
- HMS Parthian
- Commandos: 200
- Marines: 24
- Cyprus Force (3rd Cruiser Squadron)
- Armed yacht
- Garrison Force c. 150 soldiers
- Alexandria Force destroyers
See also
- Convention between Italy and Turkey, 1932
- Balkans Campaign
- Dodecanese Campaign
- Operation Mandibles
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f Castelrosso 2015.
- ^ Smith & Walker 1974, p. 22.
- ^ a b c Simpson 2004, p. 85.
- ^ a b c d Greene & Massignani 1998, p. 145.
- ^ Koburger 1993, pp. 107–108.
- ^ a b c d e Bragadin 1957, p. 80.
- ^ O'Hara 2009, p. 98.
- ^ Seymour 1985, pp. 69–70.
- ^ HMS Parthian at uboat.net; retrieved 26 August 2018
- ^ O'Hara 2009, pp. 99–101.
- ^ Titterton 2002, pp. 72–73.
- ^ a b Playfair et al. 1957, p. 326.
- ^ O'Hara 2009, p. 101.
- ^ Seymour 1985, p. 70.
- ^ a b c d Titterton 2002, pp. 73–74.
- ^ Smith & Walker 1974, pp. 4–6.
- ^ a b O'Hara 2013, p. 116.
- ^ Cunningham 1999, pp. 292–293.
- ^ a b O'Hara 2009, p. 102.
- ^ Sadkovich 1994, p. 119.
- ^ Smith & Walker 1974, p. 32.
- ^ Roskill 1960, pp. 191–205.
References
Books
- Bragadin, Marc'Antonio (1957). The Italian Navy in World War II. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 0-405-13031-7.
- Cunningham, Andrew Browne (1999). The Cunningham Papers: Selections from the Private and Official Correspondence of Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, O.M., K.T., G.C.B., D.S.O. and Two Bars, Volume 140. London: Ashgate for the Navy Records Society. ISBN 9781840146226.
- Greene, Jack; Massignani, Alessandro (1998). The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1940–1943. London: Chatham. ISBN 1-86176-057-4.
- Koburger, Charles W. Jr (1993). Naval Warfare in the Eastern Mediterranean (1940–1945). Westport, CN: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-94465-4.
- O'Hara, Vincent (2009). Struggle for the Middle Sea: The Great Navies at War in the Mediterranean Theater, 1940–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-648-3.
- O'Hara, Vincent P. (2013). In Passage Perilous: Malta and the Convoy Battles of June 1942. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-00603-5.
- ISBN 1-84574-065-3.
- OCLC 1099743425.
- Sadkovich, James (1994). The Italian Navy in World War II. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 1-86176-057-4.
- Seymour, William (1985). British Special Forces. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. ISBN 0-283-98873-8.
- Simpson, Michael (2004). A Life of Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Cunningham. A Twentieth-Century Naval Leader. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-7146-5197-4.
- Smith, Peter; Walker, Edwin (1974). War in the Aegean. London: Kimber. ISBN 0-7183-0422-5.
- Titterton, G. A. (2002). The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-7146-5205-9.
Websites
- "Fasti e declino di un'isola del Mediterraneo" [Glory and Decline of a Mediterranean Island]. Castelrosso (in Italian). 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
Further reading
- Santoni, Alberto (1981). Il Vero Traditore: Il ruolo documentato di ULTRA nella guerra [True Traitor: The Documented Role of ULTRA in the War] (in Italian). Milano: Mursia. OCLC 491163648.
- Santoro, G. (1957) [1950]. L'aeronautica italiana nella seconda guerra mondiale [The Italian Air Force in WWII] (PDF). Vol. I (2nd ed.). Milano-Roma: Edizione Esse. OCLC 900980719. Archived from the original(PDF) on 20 January 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
- Santoro, G. (1957). L'aeronautica italiana nella seconda guerra mondiale [The Italian Air Force in WWII] (PDF). Vol. II (1st ed.). Milano-Roma: Edizione Esse. OCLC 60102091. Archived from the original(PDF) on 19 January 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2016.