Background
The battle occurred when an Allied squadron entered the Adriatic Sea looking for Italian naval targets. Although they did not know it at the time the squadron's real purpose was to help draw enemy attention from a major action against the main Italian fleet base at Taranto. The Allied squadron was commanded by Vice Admiral Henry Pridham-Whippel in the light cruiser HMS Orion, and included the light cruisers HMAS Sydney and HMS Ajax and the destroyers HMS Nubian and Mohawk.
On 12 November, an Italian Navy (Regia Marina) convoy of four merchant ships—Antonio Locatelli, Premuda, Capo Vado and Catalani—were on their way back from Valona, Albania to Brindisi, Italy while escorted by the World War I-era torpedo boat Fabrizi, commanded by T.V.c. Giovanni Barbini and the auxiliary cruiser Ramb III commanded by C.F. Francesco De Angelis. The ships were travelling darkened without navigational lights.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of The Strait Of Otranto (1940)
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