Mediterranean
After the entrance of Italy into the war in June 1940, Ramillies served in the Mediterranean. Along with HMS Royal Sovereign she escorted a convoy from Alexandria, Egypt, to Malta between 27 June and 30 June 1940. From 16 August to 18 August she bombarded the port of Bardia and Fort Capuzzo in the Italian colony of Libya in North Africa. On the way back she was attacked by Italian aircraft, but was not hit. She was a part of Admiral Andrew Cunningham's Mediterranean fleet, Force D, based at Alexandria.
Ramillies escorted a convoy from Alexandria to Malta between 8 October and 14 October 1940. On the way back the ships were attacked by eight Italian torpedo boats. There were no British losses, but three of the Italian boats were sunk and four damaged by the light cruiser HMS Ajax.
From 25 October to 28 October 1940, Ramillies escorted a convoy bound from Alexandria to Crete. In the period 10 November to 13 November she was on convoy escort duty from Alexandria to Malta, and then went on to Crete. During this time an enemy submarine spotted Ramillies and fired torpedoes but did not hit her.
The Royal Navy's attack on the main Italian naval force at Taranto, on 11 November 1940, reduced the Italians to two serviceable battleships. Cunningham was then able to release to North Atlantic convoy duty his oldest and slowest battleships, the Ramillies and the Malaya, thus freeing up escort destroyers in the Mediterranean.
Ramillies steamed west with the Mediterranean fleet in late November 1940 forming part of the escort for four merchant ships bound for Malta with much needed supplies. When she was in the central basin of the sea, she broke off from the rest and headed west. Accompanied by the cruisers Berwick and HMS Newcastle, she steamed through the Sicilian Narrows. The Newcastle had been in Malta for several days, where she had landed 15,000 US gallons (57 m3) of aviation fuel, 40 Hawker Hurricane engines and 300 RAF technical personnel. They were to join up with Force H from Gibraltar under Admiral James Somerville which was in the area escorting three large fast merchant ships heading east, two for Malta and one headed for Alexandria. They would turn the escort duties over to Admiral Cunningham at a rendezvous point and make haste out of the danger area and return to Gibraltar. Ramillies was making her best possible speed of 20 knots (37 km/h) running the gauntlet nicknamed "Bomb Alley".
Admiral Somerville had the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal somewhat behind the rest of the force, his flag in the old battlecruiser HMS Renown, along with the cruisers HMS Sheffield, HMS Manchester and HMS Despatch and five destroyers. At 10:40 am on 27 November 1940, a scouting plane from the Italian cruiser Bolzano reported a force of one battleship, two cruisers and four destroyers north of Bône Algeria. Italian Admiral Inigo Campioni was at sea with two battleships, six heavy cruisers and fourteen destroyers. His orders were to attack only if faced by a decisively inferior enemy. With a two-to-one superiority in capital ships, he had his opportunity and altered course to intercept. His force was centred around the new and powerful battleship Vittorio Veneto and the modernised battleship Giulio Cesare. This was a dangerous situation for the British.
Somerville became aware of the danger from the Italian fleet and sent his convoy off to the southeast with a small escort. He pushed ahead to rendezvous with the Ramillies and the Berwick, so as to get between the Italians and the convoy. Odds favoured the Italians, since Ramillies was slow and her guns were outranged by the Italians. In addition Somerville's ships were within easy range of shore based enemy aircraft. But, his object was to get the convoy safely to Malta, so he charged ahead at the Italians. He sent his cruisers out front under Vice-Admiral Lancelot Holland, keeping his two slower capital ships further back screened by destroyers. The Ark Royal was well behind with two escorting destroyers. Campioni, after hearing of the presence of another British capital ship and an aircraft carrier, decided not to risk Italy's only two serviceable capital ships and after a brief exchange of gunfire at long range, in which Ramillies got off several salvoes, the Italians turned away and made for Naples. Berwick was damaged in the engagement, as was one Italian destroyer.
The engagement was called the Battle of Cape Spartivento.
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